Movie theaters in the U.S. may have recently ended a period of crisis but this paper argues that major problems are not over for the industry. Most movie theaters in the multiplex era have adopted a remarkably similar strategy which is also very vulnerable to recent trends such as the explosion of home cinema, pay TV, VOD, discounting by mass merchandisers of DVDs, computer games and the collapse of video windows. Just as technological convergence has created a challenge for movie theatres, as it has in the past, so can new technologies and creative use of assets combined with multiple target marketing offer a counter measure for at least some movie theatres – until the next challenge. What is unlikely to succeed is more of the same, especially when so many multiplex chains offer the same format as others, appear to adopt a narrow definition of what business they are in and manifest a one size should fit all approach to customers. The industry has employed differentiation and niche marketing much less than other industries. The very diversity of strategies needed means that all cannot be explored in this paper which will focus on two new technologies from the IMAX corporation, DMX and MPX, as an example of how a theatre operator might counter audience declines.
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