BURBANK, Calif. (AP) — As the house lights dim and the maestro lifts
his arms, a hush comes over the crowd. It's opening night at The
Metropolitan Opera — only we're 2,800 miles away.
Retiree Ellen
Gifford sits with popcorn and a soda inside the AMC Burbank 16 theater.
For $22 a ticket, she doesn't need to wear an evening gown, pay
hundreds for a seat "in the boonies" or fly to New York to take part.
"Don't get me wrong, I love the atmosphere of the real opera," she says. "(But) it's out of reach financially."
Like
Gifford, growing numbers of showgoers are forgoing the stage for local
movie screens that are outfitted to present video transmitted by
satellite. Producers are gaining new audiences at very low cost, and
theater owners are filling seats at off hours.
"It's the next
best thing to the live performance," said Rory Bruer, president of Sony
Pictures Releasing, which screened Cirque du Soleil's "Delirium"
traveling show nationwide in August and the Broadway musical "Rent" in
September.
"You're able to feel you're a part of the show in a way."
Sony
markets its new "Hot Ticket" business as a second-best alternative to
attending live events with the tagline: "If you can't be there, be
here."
Sales for the offbeat entertainment option are growing.
National
CineMedia Inc., a joint venture that handles pre-roll ads for several
movie theater companies, boosted the number of special-event screenings
from 15 in 2005 to 39 this year. The Met's live showings went from
eight in about 350 U.S. theaters last year to 11 shows in 466 theaters
this season.
Its 15,000-screen network has shown such fare as a
live panel on the national debt and deficits with billionaire Warren
Buffett, concerts by Celine Dion and Garth Brooks and even marching
band competitions.
Dedham, Mass.-based National Amusements Inc.
has presented live transmissions since 2003, including Boston Red Sox,
Boston Celtics and college football games and other events. It signed
on for the entire Met season this year.
Access Integrated
Technologies Inc., of Morristown, N.J., also plans to host 25 special
event screenings this year, among them four shows by the San Francisco
Opera this past spring.
The screenings help theater owners sell
seats, popcorn and candy at slow times like midweek nights and during
the day on Saturdays and Sundays.
"Over the course of a year,
it's substantial," said Dick Westerling, spokesman for Regal
Entertainment Group, co-founder of National CineMedia. "We're very
pleased with the success."
National CineMedia saw its revenue
from special-event screenings double to $7 million for the quarter from
April to June compared with a year ago.
The events remain
low-profile. There was no opera poster outside the AMC, and the listing
at the ticket booth said, inscrutably, "Open Night." But loyal fans
still showed up an hour ahead of time and nearly filled the 294-seat
house.
Only a dozen or so screenings of live shows and events are
set nationwide through December, but Sony's entry into the arena
vindicates the business model and raises awareness, said Kurt Hall,
National CineMedia's chief executive.
"The attention that the studios will get is good for everybody," he said. "All boats rise, if you will."
The low cost of satellite transmissions means a wide variety of content creators can reach new audiences across the country.
Director
Jon Dunham said he likely saved thousands of dollars on film printing
costs when his "Spirit of the Marathon" documentary aired on National
CineMedia's digital network twice this year.
The screenings — to
which one Maine group jogged 130 miles by relay on a cold January night
— grossed just $1 million, but it was enough.
"There's no
question that it will be profitable ... once we're into the DVDs,"
Dunham said. "That's really something for a truly independent
documentary."
And about 1.2 million people are expected to see
The Met on movie screens this season, up from 935,000 last year, while
revenue is expected to surpass last season's $18 million gross.
Some people seem to prefer viewing events in a crowded venue, rather than at home in front of the TV.
Fans
at the opera screening react as if they're in Lincoln Center. They
stand to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" before the show and applaud
every aria.
"Magnificent," says Matt Sharp, a 34-year-old
community organizer, during an intermission after Renee Fleming belts
out Act 2 of "La Traviata." "It's opera for the 21st century."
From : http://ap.google.com
