Convention Business Dead?
Have you ever met a "strategic thinker?" We've known a few and they always seem to be a step ahead of the curve. All we can figure is they're wired a little differently and can put together disparate information to come up with something that looks off-the-wall, but turns out to make a lot of sense.
Take this press release from Warner Brothers Thursday (sorry about the NYT link):
- In a startling move that marked the biggest challenge yet to Hollywood’s traditional way of doing business, Warner Bros. announced on Thursday that 17 movies — its entire 2021 slate — would each arrive simultaneously in theaters and on its sibling streaming service, the underperforming HBO Max.
Rather than having to wait roughly 90 days, the period that studios have long given theaters to play films exclusively, HBO Max subscribers will receive instant access to big-budget extravaganzas like a “Suicide Squad” sequel, “Godzilla vs. Kong,” “Dune” and “The Matrix 4.” Other movies speeding to living rooms next year include Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “In the Heights,” Clint Eastwood’s “Cry Macho,” the next “Conjuring” horror film, “Space Jam: A New Legacy” and a “Sopranos” prequel called “The Many Saints of Newark.”
While the move amounted to 17 shots in the arm for HBO Max, which has struggled to attract subscribers since its introduction in May for $15 a month, it was also a strikingly grim comment on the future of movie theaters. Even with a widely deployed vaccine, which is expected in the coming months, WarnerMedia does not believe that moviegoing in the United States will recover until at least next fall, an assessment that stands in sharp contrast with what other major movie studios and multiplex chains have signaled.
Our friend dropped us a line a day later:
- You know what this means for convention travel and destination cities?
This is also a none-to-subtle sign that the big cineplexes are dead companies walking. There is an awful lot of prime real estate with mega-plexes downtown and in outlying suburbs that are on the verge of losing a huge anchor tenant.
Tie that into combination operations like Water Tower Place that already have major tenants looking to move out when leases expire and....get the picture?
Now add in conventions.
Labels: money questions
posted by SCC at 12:02 AM
60 Comments:
It hit me today when I heard of shooting on Ike and CFDretired killed in Beverly, we are on the verge of mad max times.
What’s the debt load at MPEA? Know they have debt but how much? We can always stiff the bank.
J Paul Getty said, if you own the bank $100k you have a problem, if you owe the bank $100M the bank has a problem.
Short the banks in the spring?
Stock market is booming but all these underlying problems and debts and doubt. All the debt at every government level, trillions on down to the billions CPS and the city have in debt.
The question is when does the bottom drop out and who gets gutted first and how do we protect ourselves?
Every major studio out their is in a rush to become
like Netflix, and fast. It's a way to garner the most
eyeballs for their films. Without revenue, the major
studios fold like a cheap Tommy Dart suit.
Everything is peaches and cream downtown, don’t believe this bullshit. Real estate is going like hot cakes. Downtown real estate is a boomin’ and investors can’t find enough to invest in.
- Real Estate Guru
++++
Laughing my ass of at this dumbass. I know he still reads the blog so enjoy eating your words, moron.
The movie theater business as we knew it is dead. The Kung Flu and the urban experience have put it to death in the face of home streaming. Gotta say, I’d rather see a movie at home than pay $20 for a couple tix, then spend at least that much for popcorn and a soda. Just switching off the theater experience once a month more than pays for the streaming service.
Then there’s the elimination of driving, parking and putting up with assholes at the theater. Last time I went to a theater with my wife we had to listen to jagoffs screen talking and smoking weed. Fuck that.
Conventions? Going away big time. Chiraq conventions? Why the fuck would anyone come here? For a walk down the plywood Forrest that was once the Mag Mile? Maybe get robbed or worse?
If you ever had to set up a booth at Mc Place you were fleeced every which way you turned. $200 for a Union electrician to literally plug in a power strip or sign. That bullshit was chasing away the convention/show business before the latest crap.
Then there’s Groot & Fat Ass doing anything they can to make it all worse...
Oh yeah, the Chicago casino? No operator in their right mind would enter that deal with those assholes.
Well let's see. Since all the manufacturing jobs are going back to China, and there won't be any Service Industry jobs, because nobody can go to a restaurant, hotel, or bar. No tax money gets generated, but we will be forced to cater to the scrap and trash that doesn't work anyway (unless you consider car jacking work), everybody that can read better study what went on in Weimar Germany. Oh yes, the far right forcibly take power, and a certain minority may be treated like another minority was in the past. As a bonus California will become a Chinese colony, traded for writing off the debt owed to them.
Enjoy your future Dumbocrat voters.
Even my dry cleaner is on the ropes. There are I believe 5 store fronts in this little plaza and just the dry cleaners and the Dunkin Donuts are still open. The other 3 stores have become vacant since this damn flu hit. The poor guy is holding on by his fingernails. This is the story of small business and we just allegedly elected that senile fool to be president. That dumb ass has never had a business type job so he has no real point of reference as to what they deal with. If you think you're gonna escape to the suburbs to get away from the criminal element, think again, Sparky, the 0bama era rules that force those nice, safe suburbs to accommodate more urban predators and their lousy families to reside where you want to escape to. Of course, Joe Bidet and his gaggle of criminals in DC are insulated from having to rub elbows with these monsters. You get them, they don't.
The property tax windfall is coming to an end.
When you have Chicago media and politicians refusing to acknowledge violence like the shooting on the train platform at McCormick Place you have to wonder why anyone would want to go to Chicago for a convention anyway.
I wouldn't watch it if it was free ~ let Hollyweird rot!
they destroyed their own golden goose. fuck them. fuck hollywood.
mccormick place / navy pier? they have a board room full of madiganistas knocking down millions in salary staffs and spokesweasels.
when mcpier wanted to refinance debt years ago. madigan blocked it so he could pack it with loyalists. sound familiar to his current troubles?
we have become a banana republic many years ago.
Even before the scamdemic, the wife and I used to enjoy catching a matinee at Rosemont for roughly 20 bucks. More than a few times, it was a private screening with us having the whole "theater" to ourselves. All that, and beer too. Used to remark, how can they continue to operate the place like this? They couldn't.
Lori...you and the previous failed decades of Dem mismanagement have destroyed Chicago.
Do you or your sycophants believe anyone is planning a vacay or a business trip here?
No one I know or read about is planning on moving here.
No taxpayers anyway.
You're so cocooned in your own BS you refuse to see it.
Here’s hoping that Hollywood hbo and all the rest of them go belly up along with the overpaid liberal actors directors and the whole bunch of em another useless industry that does shit except spew their liberal bs
Predict the price of popcorn and soft drinks will be coming down at your local showplace. They were making money back in the 60s when adult admission was $.50 and buttered popcorn(with real butter) was $.25. No reason for $12 admissions and $5-6 dollar popcorn and sodas.
As a further vision those 20 million dollar per movie stars are in for a rude awaking very quickly. Their Golden Goose has been killed. Couldn’t happen to a more deserving crowd.
Guess Warner Brothers is getting a little desperate for cash. Not alone Disney is doing the same thing. All the media companies are in a world of hurt. Think about it 70+ inch tv screens, theater seating good micro wave popcorn for $.50 pig $.50 Cokes and a clean safe room in the comfort and safety of your own home, who needs the local multiplexes. This from a person that used to go to at least two movies a week.
HBO Max isn't even available thru our cable co. Plus it is not listed in the streaming available thru Fire Stick and Visio formats.
So correct SCC. Now add it live Theatre, Ballets, etc.
how much tourism did The Nutcracker or Hamilton bring in ?
Kiss it all goodbye !
F U L L
Going, Going, Going, GONE.
I don't believe any of these dire predictions. It will take time, perhaps a few years, but movie theaters and conventions will return. People like the big screen and the big screens are money makers for Hollywood. Conventions? These are far more then social get togethers. People in the various fields/occupations do socialize, make contacts, get sales, but they also display their products. All of which is hard to do over the internet. Conventions will return, in a few years. There is a lot of money riding on that. Not only hotels, but restaurants and more important, the airlines. What is fading out is traveling for company meetings and training. That is more and more being done remotely. And, I could suggest taxpayers could save a lot of money by laying off a lot of teachers and going to remote classes.
More busibeses leaving downtown. What will we do with all the extra manpower thats down there now?
Commercial real estate is toast and not coming back.
The SJW actors who make millions will soon get a rather large pay cut, probably along with athletes and other over paid people. It is what they wanted isn’t it? When I say we’re all screwed, I mean everyone. Even those few who jumped on the bandwagon just so they weren’t boycotted.The SJW’s who threw bottles at us will be the same as before, losers.
Even with a widely deployed vaccine, which is expected in the coming months
Why get a shady and rushed vaccine for a virus that has a 99.5% recovery rate?
Hmmmmm, what could be next, 100 day mask mandate, economy crushing lockdown, complete collapse in order to Build Back Better?
The mega-big corporations in control don’t care much about anyone/anything else.....
It’s the “ME” generation in control.......
So, take THAT, you Hollywood producers, actors, writers, etc......
HBO MAX is killing your jobs, you elitist bunch!
And on that note......
NETFLIX (who hired the Obamas for $150 mil contract) is letting
the Obamas make a series......A comedy series......outlining the
Trump years.......ridiculing Trump and his family......
Maybe the 74 million deplorables who voted for Trump oughta cancel
their NETFLIX subscription.......74 million x $10 a month= that’s some big
Hope and Change I can believe in! Let’s “Cancel Culture” them!
The death spiral continues.
The smartest guy in Hollywood is named Tom Cruise. Hasn't said one thing about politics EVER. People once thought the guy was batshit nuts, but now he's the smartest. He only cares that you drop 12 bucks and put your ass in a seat to see his movie. THE REST OF HOLLYWOOD HAS BEEN CALLING EVERYONE RACIST ASSHOLES FOR THE LAST FOUR YEARS. I wouldn't spend a dime, EVER, to see any of these assholes at a movie theater or on TV. Clooney, Swarzenneger, Schumer, Handler, Costner and all the rest. FUCK THEM ALL. HOLLYWOOD JUST DOESN'T GET IT. The NFL is heading into the lowest rated Super Bowl in television history, they don't get it either. FUCK THEM AND FUCK ALL.
Why do you think the mayor forced through eternal property tax hikes, she knows she has to raise money somewhere. Can't wait to flee this place.
You have to think this trend will be balanced out by the influx of teeming swarms of teens into formerly prime areas of downtown. Those teens will inject life and vitality to the movie theaters in particular, as they always do. You will literally see fireworks.
I hate to see anyone lose there jobs and a decline of the movie industry BUT,these"hollywood" types mostly "dems" have a attitude that they are better then anyone,the hell with them,let those actors go on the "view" or late nite "talk shows" and dog President Trump,Fxxx Them....
quit going to movies any where years ago when all we saw were no name ""stars"" appearing in films depicting car chases and explosions and other non sense,,we aren't talking Masterpiece theatre here,
To Hydra:
The Weimar was NOT the far right. The right wing was the monarchy, the Kaiser. The far left is taking over this country.
Hey Hydra
The nazis were the far left. National socialist labor party. They hated the local police, wanted a national police controlled by them. They burnt books, changed the educational system. The bullied and scapegoats a group they didn't like. Sound familiar hydra?
Wait til Biden tells the world “give us your refugees”
All those movies seem like straight to video crap anyway. HBO can eat it after fleecing cable subscribers for 4 decades. Movie theaters themselves have been dying a slow death - along with malls - my entire adult life.
Conventions? I work for a company that sends (sent) me to several of these a year and I can tell you - the juice isn't worth the squeeze. They are big and expensive, and ultimately don't do much to drive new business. And the companies throwing these things spend about as much marketing to the venders as they do the attendees.
The city landscape is changing and how we shop, are entertained, and do business is changing with it. All COVID did was forced us to jump 5 to 10 years ahead.
On a bright note, stock in piratebay should be rising.
Good riddance to Hollywood.
Between all the woke crap it puts out these days and outspoken support for criminals and left wing causes, I can't spend one cent on any product.
Hope it all crashes and burns.
When many among us talk about Netflix, do they even know who it's CEO is?
Look up Reed Hastings and his wife Patricia Quillen.
While you give them your hard earned dollars they in turn use it to fund every Commie organization they can.
Hmmmmm...
Grootenstein has been fairly quiet of late.
Conspicuous in it's absence is the formerly
non-stop gleeful/giddy shit-talking of POTUS 45.
Grootenstein was given a heads-up regarding
"The Big Steal." Actually, all of the large
urban center progressive commie mayors were
given a heads up.
Now that "The Big Steal" is doing a rather
kinetic spontaneous self-disassembly despite MSM
coverage being censored/ignored and suppressed,
Grootenstein's cause has been given a hard pause
as the progressives are trying to play dumb about
the possibility of losing their collective ass
@ SCOTUS and "The Big Steal" dissipating in the
wind like a fart in the desert.
Heh...
POTUS 45 pushed to re-institute electrocution
and the firing squad for Federal Crimes.
A pity they left out Hanging because a LOT
of dirty, freedom-hating, nation-wrecking
Democrat/Progressive Alinskyite asses have
been exposed and thusly a lot of dirty necks
connected to those same dirty asses deserve
to be permanently kinked.
...After a fair trial via Military Tribunal of course.
Look.
Point & Laugh.
Leave.
Chicago is D.O.A., it will never recover, PERIOD!
I am a retired PO who works a security job on Oak St. I work for a national company and it's plan is to complete the current lease at this location and move to Oak Brook Illinois. This company also has two stores in New York City and is going to do the same thing. They are going to move from New York City and go to a high end suburb. A Vice-President came to Chicago recently and I drove him to Oak Brook scouting out various locations for the store. During the car ride we were comparing New York's Mayor DeBlasio to Chicago's Lightfoot. DeBlasio wins but not by that much. He stated that New York is dead. Between DeBlasio and Coma, NY State Governor, he thinks the only way it will survive is a massive bailout from Biden. He also said the same thing about Chicago and Illinois. It is a shame that two great cities are ruined by far left democrats.
Hollywood is in for a good trimming. The people won't be coming back into theaters anytime soon if ever. Why bother popcorn and sodas are cheaper at home. The 70-80 screens and surround sound are just as good as a crowed theater with some undesirables breathing down your necks.
Just as streaming service will kill cable this move with new releases will kill the current motion picture industry. No more 300-400 million budget movies being made. The current stars better be learning to speak Chinese because that is where all the big films will be being made. Will last until the Chinese get their big screen TVs. Then who knows.
Fuck the Emmanuel family and anything they have their dirty mitts on.
So no chance The Bijou reopens?
That Hollywood Golden Goode just might be cooked. LOL
Anonymous Anonymous said...
So no chance The Bijou reopens?
12/05/2020 03:22:00 PM
Nobody under 60 will get that. Very funny.
Wait...the matrix 4? Why god....WHY!!!!
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Guess Warner Brothers is getting a little desperate for cash. Not alone Disney is doing the same thing. All the media companies are in a world of hurt. Think about it 70+ inch tv screens, theater seating good micro wave popcorn for $.50 pig $.50 Cokes and a clean safe room in the comfort and safety of your own home, who needs the local multiplexes. This from a person that used to go to at least two movies a week.
12/05/2020 06:20:00 AM
Remember going to see "Goldfinger" at the movie theater? Can't get that feeling in your family room.
Anonymous Anonymous said...
So no chance The Bijou reopens?
12/05/2020 03:22:00 PM
"not much was happening until Bruce arrived...."
Convention Business? South Western Avenue has turned into a kill zone for anyone trying to have a pancakes on a Sunday or buy some popcorn on a weekday. Hey Lori, why don’t you bring your kid to Lume’s for breakfast?
Go woke... Get broke!
We Are All Replaceable
The empty movie theatres can be used as Field Hospitals whenever JayBee and The Groot device to spread more Panic and Fear among the easily scared.
Get a firestick, and add the app Mobdro.
I can see damn near everything for nothing. Zero.
Its not perfect but Ill stream from there and never give them a dime.
the automotive press have been talking for years about the end of auto shows which are just huge conventions. long before covid they talked about diminishing returns and rising costs and new internet ways of doing things. especially in northern u s and europe going to or setting up an auto show is an expensive pain in the ass. people today can research all products online and get questions answered in forums rather than suiting up and going to mccormick in january. i believe conventions were going the way of the horse shoers before covid and as someone said covid just sped things up 15 years. yes company employees love flying to a strange city, getting drunk on the company dime, picking up hookers out of sight of their wives, and having a good old time. but they just work there, the cfo bean counters make the decisions, and i believe the days of conventions are probably over. now what to do with those massive taxpayer funded cathedrals of commerce ? thunderdomes ? prisons ? homeless shelters ? casinos ? only time will tell but speaking for shitcago im sure the inbred democrats will pick the dumbest and most expensive options.
The thing is they're still charging theatre prices for the privilege of using your own tv to stream. They still expect their billion dollar box office which is so 2019.
remember years back when the Loop""started to change"" and the poor people stated to go to the movies with their crying infants and don't forget the ones that brought their lil tv sets with them into the theaters and watched whatever they watched and then we had the gangbangers who thought they were in the movie itself and started fights with the other gangbangers seated on the other side of the show and lets not forget the ones that talked back to the screen as in ""watch out now the bitch behind the door""oh yes it was a prime time to visit the old State and Lake Chicago Theatre and the list goes on
Tech sales guy here looking to retire I a few years. I've staffed many exhibits at McCormick Place as well as other venues in Chicago and Rosemont and for years even prior to the COVID shutdowns trade shows and conventions were a waste of time. Organizers charged exhibitors large amounts of money to be there and the quality of "leads" sucked. It was mostly people stopping by for free trinkets to stuff in their bags or to get a card stamped for a chance at a door prize. Consultants, students, older people with time to kill, really tiny businesses, etc., attending the trade shows but rarely any actual decision makers with budgets to buy anything.
Well the headline did mention convention business, so I'll leave your readers with this tidbit from someone who used to be neck-deep in Chicago's tradeshow scene. As of now, there are at least four LARGE tradeshows that will never set foot in Chicago again. This is attendance north of 115,000 and no less than 350,000 room nights. Lot's more info, but suffice it to say, it sucks to be Chicago. No reason to be here anymore.
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