Amid pink flamingos, strobe lights and go-go girls, a rosy picture was painted at ShowCanada 2006 of a surging box office after a dismal 2005.

The flamingos were part of a lunchtime promotion for Universal Pictures’ upcoming Miami Vice – which is among the releases that will drive a strong box office in the third and fourth quarter, according to keynote speaker John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) in the U.S.

The four-day ShowCanada conference opened on April 29 in Victoria, put on by the Motion Picture Theatre Associations of Canada.

Fithian noted that box office in North America was up 5.7% and admissions had risen 3.5% so far this year over 2005. He also predicted the industry would see ‘the best May we’ve ever had’ with the release this month of Poseidon, Mission: Impossible III, The Da Vinci Code and Over the Hedge.

Fithian urged theater owners to use the box-office upturn to counter the impression that moviegoing is expensive, and to police theaters more thoroughly for annoying acts such as cell phone use.

A NATO survey conducted last year during the box-office slump revealed that the main complaint from moviegoers was rude behavior from other patrons, Fithian noted.

‘Our ticket prices are good value, but we have a problem with perception,’ he added. ‘We have to use the high times to educate people about the cost value of going to a movie.’

During his annual state-of-the-industry address, industry veteran Howard Lichtman also argued that moviegoing is one of the cheapest out-of-home experiences – comparing the average movie ticket price (about $6.50) to that of an NFL game ($54.75) or a Broadway-style show ($66.40).

Lichtman offered other suggestions for sustaining the box-office upswing, including better marketing, releasing potential hits throughout the year rather than in summer and Christmas, and introducing customer reward programs. He also advised theater owners to use digital technology to offer in-theater content beyond movies, including interactive game-playing opportunities.

Canada also needs to recognize its market differences with the U.S., and use that knowledge in releasing films, Lichtman added. He noted that the slump of 2005 was more pronounced in Canada than in the States because of demographic differences.

The box office fell 5.7% in the U.S. in 2005, compared to between 7.3% and 10% in Canada, depending on the source of the figures. (MPTAC figures peg box office in Canada at $854.8 million in 2005, down 10% from a year earlier. Lichtman calculates the box office here last year at $885 million, down 7.3% from 2005.)

‘Diary of a Mad Black Woman, Hitch and Coach Carter did not perform well in Canada, given that we have a significantly smaller [African-American] population,’ he stated.

In particular, the industry has to win back under-25 males, the demographic that saw one of the biggest drops in attendance last year, without ignoring the 50-plus crowd, who boosted Brokeback Mountain, Crash and Memoirs of a Geisha.

But that’s easier said than done, said Tony Lea of Environics Analytics Research during a panel on demographics.

‘Theaters are loud and aren’t geared toward older people who would prefer to watch their films with a fine Chardonnay and some nice cheese,’ he said. ‘Until the theater experience is changed to cater more to this kind of taste, there isn’t much point in trying to attract the baby boomer, because they will likely only go away dissatisfied, even if the movie is good.’

During a panel session about the boffo box office in Quebec, independent theater owner Tom Fermanian noted that last year’s French-Canadian hits shielded exhibitors in the province from the box-office plunge. The market share of Quebec films at the box office rose from 6.5% in 1999 to 18.2% in 2005, according to Telefilm Canada.

Panel members attributed the success of homegrown movies at the Quebec box office to Hollywood-style collaboration between distributors and producers, and better marketing.

www.showcanada.ca