Sony Pictures Entertainment chairman and CEO Tony Vinciquerra and Eagle Pictures president Tarak Ben Ammar, two film industry veterans whose companies share distribution links, swapped ideas at a lively encounter at the second Audio-Visual Producers (AVP) Summit in Trieste, Italy, last Friday.
Moderated by The Film Verdict’s president and publisher Eric Mika, the conversation unfolded as an amicable “Fireside Chat” between long-time friends who are also industry insiders and provided one of the highlights of the three-day summit.
Though the summit was primarily focused on television and attended by top production executives from RAI, Mediaset and other Italian broadcasters, this second edition included an ample French and American film presence that presaged an enlarged international focus at future meets. Under the aegis of Ministry of Culture undersecretary Lucia Borgonzoni, it was a highly professional event that still retained an intimate feeling, organized under the direction of Roberto Stabile, the head of Special Projects at the ministry’s Direzione Generale at Cinecittà.
Although the participants’ own informal rules of engagement precluded Vinciquerra discussing the hot topic of the moment, the Hollywood actors’ and screenwriters’ strikes, it was an elephant in the crowded conference room that couldn’t be ignored.
“We are very dismayed by the strikes,” he said, strongly refuting media reports to the contrary. “We need and we want to do a deal. We value our actors and writers and we want to find ways to get back to the negotiation tables.” He continued, saying that “the SAG-Aftra offer was the best offer we ever made.”
Broaching the subject of theatrical release vs. streaming, Vinciquerra noted it was hard to turn a profit on films like Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny which cost a reported $300 million, a price tag largely elevated by VFX costs. On the less expensive side of production, there are the specialty markets covered by Sony Classics. But films whose production costs range around $8 to $12 million “we can’t afford to put in theaters” and are earmarked for streamers.
Vinciquerra noted, however, that Sony has no interest in creating a video service which would compete for subscribers with others of its kind; the company concentrates instead on being a strategic supplier, a so-called “arms dealer”. Ben Ammar called Sony “the most stable of all the studios”, a claim backed up by its exceptional grosses this year led by Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which is expected to gross $2 billion “without getting to China.” The film made over $7 million in Italy, a market that was hit especially hard for three years by the pandemic. Vinciquerra and Ben Ammar see this dark period as being over beginning this year, with year-end box office estimated to come close to 2019 figures.
In fact, despite the long shadow of the strike in Hollywood and its effect on production, the overall gist of their chat was surprisingly positive and optimistic.
“I think Italy is back,” said Ben Ammar, who called the quality of its fiction “unbelievable”. He recently announced he will invest between €40 and €50 million euros building a new production hub to solve the perennial problem of the shortage of sound stages in the country that is blocking investment in new production. Saying the new studios could be called Cinecittà 2, he foresees them becoming operational by summer 2024.
Among the titles Eagle Pictures is releasing in Italy as part of its new distribution deal with Sony are Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile and The Equalizer 3.
Asked by Eric Mika about how he sees the Saudi market these days, the Tunisian-born producer and distributer noted that 70% of the country’s population of 36 million is under 25 and has a “hunger” for fresh entertainment product. “They watch five, six, seven pictures a week.” Depending on political stability and censorship, he believes Saudi Arabia will lead the region in film and TV.
A recurrent topic was the globalization of IP (intellectual property), like Sony’s oft-remade My Best Friend’s Wedding in a new Italian remake. Ben Ammar also plans to make English language versions of classic Italian comedies like Marriage Italian Style and Perfect Strangers.
Then there is Sony’s new India merger, in which Sony Pictures Networks India and Zeel have agreed to merge to create a broadcast giant. Vinciquerra highlighted how Sony Music Entertainment Japan and Sony Pictures are two of the parent organizations of the wildly successful Crunchyroll series of Japanese anime, some of which will cross over to live action versions. And there is the example of The Crown TV series, which Sony Pictures Television coproduced with Left Bank Pictures for Netflix. “Production,” Vinciquerra noted, “is ramping up around the world.”
This year’s AVP Summit was held July 19 to 21 in Trieste and organized by Cinecittà for the Direzione Generale Cinema e Audiovisivo of the Ministry of Culture, in association with APA and with the support of MiC, MAECI|Ice, the Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region, Promo Turismo FVG and the FVG Film Commission.