4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days a film by Cristian Mungiu

Movie tour in Romania

or «432 caravan»

12th Europa Cinemas ConferenceWorkshop: « How to renew audiences »

Bucharest, 17th of NovemberNicoleta Talpes

TOPICS

• Our reality...

• Why a movie tour?

• Results...

• Conclusion: Is movie tour - unconventional distribution - a tool to attract new audience?

Our reality...

• With less than 70 cinemas and 44.000 seats, Romania has the lowest rate of cinemas and spectators in Europe (Source: Studies and Research on Culture Institute);

• Romanians go to the cinema less than once a year;

• Entries: – 880.000 - Multiplex leader in Romania last year; – 2,5mil – Multiplex leader in Greece last year;

• Tickets sold in 2006:– 2,7 mil – Romania ( 4,6% less than in 2005, the 5th

consecutive year)– 926 mil. – Europe ( 3.6% more than in 2005)

Medium price - 5-7 euro – Romania- 7 euro – Europe

Why a movie tour?

“The movie tour is precisely the reason behind the decision to postpone the Romanian premiere.

Initially, we wanted to have « 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days » on the big screen as early as June, but when we realised how few cinema halls are left in Romania, we felt it was our responsibility to take the film directly to the people themselves”.

Cristian Mungiu

Our REALITY Why a movie tour?

When did it start?

• Just after the local premieres in the main cities: Bucharest, Iasi, Timisoara, Brasov – premiere in presence of Cristian Mungiu and the team;

• on 17 of September in the same time with national cinema distribution;

What was it all about?

• Cristian Mungiu wanted to bring the film to the public offering real cinema conditions to cities without cinemas;

• 15 cities all over the country with a population of 40.000 –100.000 for 31 days;

• 2 days in each city presenting 3 or 4 screenings;

• Ticket price: 1.5 euro up to 4 euro;

• Professional equipment rented from Germany - 35mm filmprojector, Dolby SR stereo sound for indoor, screen from 6m x 4m to 12m x 5m;

• 100 up to 700 seats in « Popular Theaters » – halls used for cultural events like concerts or shows;

• Symbolic end in Constanta, 2nd largest city with a population of 300.000 - having only one screen cinema (10 spectators/show);

How we did it?

- Our team of 4 people;

- Research – before drowing the final route we visited over 25 cities;

- Local partnership with the « Popular Theatre » from 15 cities;

• National strategic media partnerships;

• Out of the box idea: film newspaper in 80.000 copies in partnership with national lider newspaper quality;

How we did it?

• Capitalizing the media attention and converting the information into utilitary/useful information through strategical partnership with national and local radio stations and TVs;

• Partnership with local authorities;

• One of the sponsors offered free entry for students via SMS;

Results...

Results

• Over 18.000 people have seen the film in « 432 caravan »;

• Tickets soldout – suplimentary shows need it;

• People in the audience asking us when are we coming back:

• The overall success converted the initial reticence of Popular Theater managers into the interest in bringing other films in their cities

• After « 432 caravan » one of the Popular Theater wants to buy profesional equipment for film projection;

« 432 Caravan » audience distribution

18.000 spectators in 15 cities

vs Cinema audience

Note: numbers for only one screen cinemas and no multiplex

“There was a high degree of uncertainty…were we going to receive any kind of reaction from audiences or not?

Since nobody had done a similar thing before, there was the risk and the danger to jump to the wrong conclusion about the effect of

this caravan…if one goes to a small town, where the habit of going to the cinema has been lost years ago, and organises a public

screening, nobody comes to see the movie, no matter how many Palme d’Or distinctions it has.

And this is the way it was… a sort of assumed risk, because I felt that someone should find out the answer to this question: do people no longer go to the cinema in Romania because they do not feel like

watching the movie there but rather on TV, or do they not go simply because they have no cinema halls to go to?

And for me there is only one answer: it is because people do not have any cinema halls anymore. »

Cristian Mungiu

In the end...

....is movie tour - unconventional distribution - a tool to attract new audience?

Thank you!

For further details on this project here are my contact details:

Nicoleta Talpesnicoleta.talpes@imagefactory.ro