TSR Newsletter | September 14, 2020
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-- The Stinger Report: Service Message --
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The Global Digital Out-Of-Home Entertainment (DOE) Sector covered in The Stinger Report .
Wishing all our subscribers, famlies, loved ones, (and those serving) stay safe and well.
Kevin Williams
Publisher, The Stinger Report (TSR)
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Reinvesting in the Entertainment Landscape
Part 3 | # 1037
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Redefining the new phase of immersive entertainment coverage in The Stinger Report; and in this latest series of features, this third part looks at the Mixed Reality Entertainment scene’s growth, the continuing and momentous changes impacting the reality of the movie theater scene and ever-expanding landscape that is eSports, and how a new betting infrastructure could turn this business (and others) on its head.
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The changing shape of the Out-of-Home Entertainment landscape has been difficult to chart alongside the restructuring of the entertainment industry sector in general. It feels as if six years has been condensed into the same number of months – with changes that many of us felt would take generations, happening overnight. Be it the adoption of remote working, frictionless payment, audience registration systems, or a new mindset towards what is achievable with a true entertainment model.
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- Emerging Immersive Entertainment
Regarding “Mixed Reality” sites previously visited when launched, that reopened at the beginning of July, one example is the newly re-branded ‘Electric Playbox’. The company, originally called ‘Electronic Theatre’, changed its name to become Electric Playbox in April. The operation announced, in August, that they had also partnered with Vicon, a specialist in motion capture systems for engineering and entertainment. With this partnership the company also opened its second location at new facility in Manchester’s Arndale Centre. This new venue comprises 10 Playboxes running their multi-player 60-minute motion-tracked, interactive team, projection experiences. The company is now operating three games: ‘Alien Aptitude Test: London 1984’, ‘Rescue the Royals’ and ‘Ticket to Mars’. This is the latest deployment of a Location-Based Virtual Experience system in a retail venue based on MR.
The inclusion of gamification into all-new and existing entertainment models is another aspect that seems to have been accelerated by the global crisis. Topgolf Entertainment announced a partnership with Rovio Entertainment, that would see the creation of a first-of-its-kind interactive golf experience. This incorporates the Angry Birds license into a golfing game, with players on the shooting range, and through their ball-tracking technology, blending the physical act of hitting a golf ball with the digital, physics-based game destruction and scoring through this MR-based experience. Based on the popular franchise, Angry Birds, mobile games having been downloaded over 4.5 billion times. The Topgolf franchised concept has been added to the hospitality and driving ranges venue. The first sites to operate this new interactive element will be going on stream in the fall.
While new investment in additions to the existing Topgolf facility operation is underway, the impacts of the global health crisis have hurt previously-established agreements for the operation. Announced in 2017, Canada-based Cineplex and Topgolf Entertainment had established an exclusive partnership to export the entertainment experience to Canada. At the time, the agreement had been heralded as a major joint venture that would see the opening of multiple Topgolf venues across the country. Information had gone cold regarding the rollout of these sports entertainment venues in the territory and, following the impact on business that has hit Cineplex through its cinema and shuttered entertainment facility business (reporting a loss of $98m in its second quarter), it was revealed in August that Cineplex had decided to mutually call off the partnership with Topgolf.
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- The Reality of the Cinema Scene
Following on from the Cineplex situation, and the issue of the “Cinema” business future post-pandemic has been on the tongues of many. Be it the situation with AMC and their precarious finances, liquidity and involvement with Chinese investment, to the possible destruction of the very cinema business, as a possible latest victim to Internet progression, as the streaming sector looms to close the windowing of movie releases, spurred on by the impact of the shuttering of thousands of cinema venues under COVID-19 measures. Recently, each of these hanging swords saw another notch taken out of the hairs that holds them, over the last few weeks.
Looking at the cinema sector’s poster boy, and AMC commenced the opening of over 100 venues in its 600-cinema chain, in North America, following over five months of lockdown. The corporation offered tickets at a 15-percent discount and, marking its 100th anniversary, the cinema chain will also be offering a deal at selected locations, with fifteen cent tickets, in commemoration of movie ticket prices when they first opened in 1920. AMC revealed that, with the reopening, they would be undertaking COVID measures that included physical distancing of patrons. These 100-locations opening will see 70-percent of their seats left empty. The company is employing seat blocking technology to ensure guests do not sit next to strangers. While the questions of the US cinema reopening for the chain were still in the balance, news was revealed that AMC was expanding its operation in the UAE – with the opening of a new multiplex cinema, opening at the Al Makan Mall, Hafr Albatin, Saudi Arabia. The AMC branded multiplex accommodates some 850 seats and is being managed by local operation REIT.
The Cinemark facility operation has been testing the water with 15 “test-and-learn” theater opening during July, and announced the gradual reopening of some 525 venues, employing lessons learned from these tests. Outlining the operational plan for their COVID-19 preparedness, the operation is looking at mandatory face mask wearing (unless with concessions), increased air circulation within the auditorium and screen rooms, pulled from outside, high-touch-point sanitization, wiping down seats, and the vacuuming of public areas regularly, using HEPA filter units. All this is supported by contactless payment infrastructure. The operation will open with classic movie re-screenings, and discounted tickets. To unite to address the crisis, members of the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) joined forces to launch the “CinemaSafe” protocol. This was a uniform set of health and safety guidelines that would be adopted by 315 cinema operators in North America.
The movie theater audience is not very dissimilar to the attractions theater audience, and many “Movie Attractions” have been looking to employ similar measures to those which will be seen from movie distributors. One such example is from cinema and attraction 4D effects seat and dome developer, MediaMation. The company revealed they have developed ‘SafeTSeat’ – plexiglass barriers (wings) that enforce physical distancing on their 4D seat systems, but which still allow access to cup-holders. This is not the first attractions developer to attempt to apply a physical barrier approach to separation under COVID-19 measures, and the company hopes to make this available to operators of 4D cinemas and attractions.
Returning the cinema business, the tentative reopening that the Western market is experiencing was in sharp relief to the Asian sector. The Chinese cinema business saw, during August, its strongest weekend at the global box office in six months for IMAX. This was generated with the debut of the Chinese motion picture ‘The Eight Hundred’ – generating some $6.7 million across the 637 IMAX screens that reopened in China from July (this is a gradual process, with IMAX estimated to operate some 985 screens in China). The film in general generated an estimated $107 million – and is the first Chinese production filmed entirely on IMAX cameras. The film has proven a phenomenal success after the dark times of lockdown of cinema business, even seeing sold out theaters during the weekend’s initial screening. This is an example of the value and influence that the Chinese theater business has on production.
In the West, while many had hoped that the ‘Trolls 2’ and ‘Scoob!’ debacles, regarding missing theatrical release for Video on Demand (VOD), was just a speed bump. The next shoe to drop in this ongoing situation for the survival of the theater business was dropped by Walt Disney, announcing that they would be forgoing theatrical release for their blockbuster reinterpretation of their popular animated picture, with the live action ‘Mulan’. Now being released in September, it is being streamed exclusively on Disney+ for a unique $30 premium price point. This was met with complaint across the whole of the cinema chain business. This Disney production had been one of the major tentpole movie releases for 2020. This new VOD Premium Price point will be watched very carefully by the rest of the studios, to see if this can be a lifeboat for movies unable to be screened as most cinemas in key territories remain closed.
When speaking of the corporations that run the theater business, we deal with the ticklish subject of “Ownership” – as reported before, due to the 1949 legislation it was made impossible for movie studios to own their own cinema distribution operations. The separation from content creation and film presentation was set in legal stone to address concerns of monopolies, existing from the corrupt state engendered in the 1920s when monopolies pressured the sector to the point that it was needed to be broken up, and remove direct studio control. Jump forward to 2020 and, again under a post-pandemic Armageddon situation for cinema businesses, the possibility for the lessening of these controls has emerged. It was announced that Federal Judges ruled to allow studios to own theaters once again. Though the full implications of this move have yet to be determined, this is seen to be the ringing of the dinner bell regarding cinema acquisition and development, that could see Disney, Amazon and even Universal own and operate their own theaters, and could also see a brand new approach to the presentation of movies in a post-COVID-19 world.
The possibility of a new landscape for cinema operation is being combined with a concept being considered to save the cinema sector, that has been in experimentation long before the pandemic decimated operations. Under the term “Cinema Entertainment Center” (CEC), several venues comprising amusement, bowling and dining combined into a single site had started to be developed. As reported by Box Office news, the Cinergy Entertainment Group opened their first CEC in 2009, with the Texas operator re-developing an existing multiplex site. While in Canada, Cineplex has been experimenting with two of their own approaches, with both their ‘Xscape Entertainment Centre’ (launched the same year), and with their newer ‘Junxion’ concept.
Other Western theater chains have also thrown their hats into the ring, such as ShowBiz Cinema and their ‘Circus’ concept, FatCats Entertainment and their CEC own secretive concept, or the ‘Luxury Entertainment Center’ brand from B&B Theaters. In the same feature it was revealed that the Asian cinema chains have also been experimenting with CEC concepts – with CJ linked to their first interpretation (defined as a “cultureplex”) back in 2011. As the cinema scene extracts itself from the calamitous situation, the need to offer a new and engaging entertainment offering could be their only lifeline, and other secret concepts are eagerly being developed even during lockdown.
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- Competition is still King!
It was revealed that a major move was taking place in the “eSports” scene, with Tencent Holding making an offer for an all-stock merger with fellow Chinese live-streaming platforms DouYu and Huya. The merger would lead to the creation of a vast streaming conglomerate that would rival Amazon-owned, live-streaming platform, Twitch. Tencent, a vast investor in consumer game businesses across the globe, has already achieved serious control stakes of the leading eSports property developers, ranging from Riot Games, Epic Games and Ubisoft to Activision Blizzard. This move will make an eSports streaming powerhouse that will support Tencent’s previous investments into Bilibili, that has secured exclusive Chinese broadcasting rights.
Speaking of Ubisoft, the development of partnerships to build on competitive play platforms was seen with the announcement that Ubisoft had signed a partnership agreement, planned to leverage the use of D-BOX's motion technology for future enhanced experiences for players. D-BOX high-definition haptics and motion technology is employed in amusement, attraction, cinema, and consumer gaming – and this partnership will see Ubisoft enabling their game content to fully support this hardware. Ubisoft content in the commercial entertainment sphere has already been married with D-BOX hardware, though platforms with LAI Games, Secret Locations and TRIOTECH. Adding a partnership with Ubisoft will also open the door for more eSports-based promotion employing this hardware.
Speaking of the growth of eSports, racing has fathered a new generation of “SimRacing” rigs. And D-BOX was involved with the brand new system from Cranfield Simulation – a UK-based operation that has supplied F1, NASCAR and other professional race teams with simulators for driver training and testing. Now the company has released their next generation with their new ‘F1 Simulator’ – incorporating sustained motion g-Cueing that adds new levels of immersion to the racing experience. The need for a hyper-realistic SimRacing rig is driving the corporation to create the new system, able to be deployed with large screens, or VR headsets. No word on the operation’s plans in the Commercial entertainment and eSports arena, but the drive for the best race platform will play a part in their thinking.
The major developments reshaping the eSports landscape seem to come thick and fast, accelerated by the global crisis. One of the biggest developments that seemed to be missed by many of the punch-drunk media, was the announcement that poster boy of the Skill-Gaming scene, GameCo, had launched a new venture into the wagering for eSports. The new brand, called iGameCo, is focused on supporting the three key aspects of GameCo’s business, which include Skill-Gaming, eSports and regulated video game gambling (mobile casinos). The new brand has created betting platforms to support each of these areas, with skill-based iGaming, eSports betting, and Freeplay Gambling (supplying the platforms and tools for this deployment). This has been developed to support regulated mobile casinos and sportsbooks across the United States and Europe. This marks the first dedicated move towards creating betting infrastructure that will support eSports and Skill-Gaming; marking a total sea change in the way the business is monetized.
The ability for eSports to be supported with a mobile app-based betting infrastructure, like that seen with Sportsbook betting, is the first step along a path that some organizations and investors perceive to be incredibly lucrative. With the announcement by GameCo, it was suggested that eSports wagering was currently estimated to generate $17 billion a year, and with the creation of frictionless means to participate in this activity, greater investment is bound to follow (and possibly be applied to other areas of immersive entertainment).
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Continuing the developments during this turbulent period in the industry, the next comprehensive coverage of this landscape will follow soon.
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September 18-21
POSTPONED
September 2021
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Septemer 22-24
POSTPONED
September 2021
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September 22-23
Presenting
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October 28-30
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September 2021
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October 21-22
POSTPONED
October 2021
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November 16-20
POSTPONED
November 2021
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