The show must go on

As Eduardo Tardin, IT manager for e-commerce with Cinemark Brasil, part of the leading chain of picture houses in Latin America, and the third-biggest chain in the States, says: “After lockdown, in which all the movie theatres closed, we had to change our priorities and think about solutions to make the experience of going to the cinema more secure. “It accelerated our desire to create a more digital experience, focussing on maintaining a journey with less friction and more social distancing.” Cinemark had made strides in the direction of e-commerce long before coronavirus was on the radar. Way back in The show must go on 1999, it became the first in the industry to offer customers the chance to buy tickets Cinemas face a challenge in real time, online, via a link to an affiliate of epic proportions as they website, enowshowing.com, which it had exit from the pandemic. developed with Dallas tech firm Vectrix. The tickets were immediately printed at the Eduardo Tardin, IT box office for collection. Manager for E-commerce It was clunky, compared to today’s with Cinemark mobile-first e-commerce experience, but it Brasil, says APIs are emerging as the was a start. In 2011, Cinemark Chile started working with technology company Modyo to provide an end-to-end digital experience, heroes of the hour including integrated payments, for customers. Every Cinemark in Latin America Can you recall the last time you went migrated to the platform, based on a hybrid out to see a movie… being shut in a on-premise/Amazon Web Services-hosted room full of eerily-lit strangers in the model, in 2018. Then, in 2019, Cinemark dark, fumbling to turn off the phone signed up to the first-of-its-kind social that inevitably starts vibrating in movie-ticketing platform Atom Tickets, the pocket of the coat you stuffed which allows filmgoers to search for films, under the seat, and trying not invite friends via their contacts, reserve to elbow the cinema-goer next seats, order concessions and check in on to you as you wrestle with your their way past the box office via the app. oversized pouch of popcorn? Leaning in to new technologies in this

Like many pre-pandemic experiences way, to improve the movie-going journey, now denied to us, going out to watch a was part of an ongoing, industry-wide film is probably imbued with a certain attempt to counter the cannibalisation of amount of nostalgia. And it’s unlikely it will box office sales by streaming services that ever be the same again. But, much like the offered the ultimate in convenience. And late Tony Stark’s tear-jerking observation it was working. Then Contagion-for-real at the close of the Avengers blockbuster happened and theatres across the world trilogy: “Part of the journey is the end.” were shuttered.

And for die-hard fans in North and Cinemark wasn’t alone in haemorrhaging South America, now slowly returning cash. In the third quarter of 2020, it saw to movie theatres, that journey is revenues across the United States and being enabled by digital technology Latin America drop by nearly 96 per cent. that redefines the relationship between At one point, it was burning through cinema and customer. reserves at the rate of around $50million a month, forcing it to raise new debt and revolver borrowing.

But the good news is that the appetite for big screen movies hasn’t been as seriously diminished by the pandemic as many feared. Sixty per cent of consumers polled by one US survey in February said they were keen to return to movie theatres within the following three months.

The restrictions imposed by the pandemic, and customers’ expectations, though, including social distancing, contactless service and the need to control and predict demand more accurately, especially given seating capacity has been dramatically reduced, have challenged Cinemark and others to come up with innovative digital solutions.

Movie fans booking for its roster of Oscar-nominated films in April 2021, for instance, found features including ‘seat buffering technology’, which automatically blocks seats adjacent to a party as soon as they purchase a ticket. While mobile and online booking is encouraged, some Cinemark locations have also replaced box offices with digital kiosks to reduce contact between customers and staff. And a new grab-and-go-food ordering tool has been introduced, accessed via the Cinemark app and WhatsApp using QR code, to reduce contact with staff and avoid people hanging around in the lobby.

The net result of all this has been to create more customer channels to monitor and integrate, and more tasks to manage – ever-conscious that a prevailing pandemic might force a rethink at any moment. Having an API-first strategy already in place was crucial to handling that, says Tardin.

“APIs can bring a fast way to customise customer experience. They make it easy to create new products and features. Combined with an agile approach, and the right software architecture, this helps to accelerate digital transformation, bringing the possibility to work with new forms of business, like selling in marketplaces.

“The strategy depends on your business context and the problem you want to solve, of course, but one of the main benefits is the possibility of enabling the development team to rapidly put things to work, and put

the business at a greater advantage. To learn fast and change the strategy, according to customer behaviour.”

For instance, through the Atom platform, movie fans who prefer to watch a film with their ‘quaranteam’ of family and friends, can book Cinemark private watch parties for up to 20 guests, selecting from new releases or classic movies, starting at $99 per screening – that’s around a fifth of what it cost for a private viewing, pre-pandemic.

Managing that type of customised demand would be impossible without APIs, says Tardin, especially in an industry which has historically often been wrong-footed by movies over- or under-delivering on expectations when it comes to box office takings.

“APIs and digital technology have an important function in helping us to monitor customer behaviour at the peak sales events, and this data makes it easy for us to know what applications we need to scale and where to focus our performance. and Android and movie-goers can sign up to showtime emails with discount concessions coupons and other incentives.

Every channel is being squeezed to get film fans to turn out in greater numbers and all eyes are now on this year’s releases, including long-anticipated big-screen spectacles Dune, Black Widow, Godzilla vs. Kong and, of course, the much-delayed final outing for Daniel Craig’s 007 – only some of them ring-fenced for theatrical

Extreme digital:

That applies to screen, sound and the booking experience be able to adapt from a traditional economy to the new economy.

“The technology already exists to be able to do that and, at Cinemark, we will continue working to integrate our channels and create customer experiences with less friction.

“The pandemic has taught our business a great lesson. We need to learn and adapt, and the technology is a great enabler to help us put that to work fast.”

Quaranteams:

The booking app automatically blocks off seats for safe viewing

The pandemic has taught our business a great lesson

We learned from events in the last two years, which helped us to prepare for the next one – so we are ready to receive three or four times our expectations and not impact the experience.”

Undeterred by the previous 12 months, in March 2021 the chain opened a new extreme digital (XD) viewing cinema in Kirkland, Texas, which boasts ‘print at home’ online ticketing. There is also the option to purchase and download tickets via iPhone release in advance of streaming. The question is, given the choice between the sofa at home or a seat in the stalls, will audiences save themselves for the full, movie-going experience?

“Many things have changed due to the pandemic,” says Tardin. “All retailers need to stay closer to their customers and understand their needs better. And they need to