MPA President and CEO Charlie Rivkin applauded theatrical exhibition for strong ties to U.S. communities and trust built up over the years, including with families, due in part, he said, to a movie ratings system that Instagram recently borrowed to slap on its teen accounts.
In his annual address at CinemaCon, the big annual exhibitor conference in Las Vegas, the head of Motion Picture Association said digital spaces are flooded with tens of millions of videos each day that are impossible to rate – certainly not the kind of curated film you’d find in your theaters.”
That’s why “we went to the mat with Instagram” when it tried to swipe he PG-13 rating The Facebook app agreed to limits after pressure from the group.
“It’s not very often that the MPA takes on a 1.6 trillion-dollar company [but] let there be no doubt: on my watch, no one will confuse movies shown in your theaters with user-generated content people watch on their phones.”
Rivkin’s wide-ranging remarks also addressed runaway production. He’s encouraged by enhanced state incentives popping up across the country but said the U.S. really needs a federal plan.
“Our campaign is making progress, with growing incentives in New Jersey and California and beyond helping states attract creators to their communities. It’s happening in Washington too, and we’re at the center of it all – together with studios, unions, guilds, producers, President Trump’s Hollywood Ambassadors, and more – engaging the White House and Republicans and Democrats in Congress on what would be a true game-changer: a federal film tax incentive.
“We are fighting daily to reach that goal. And we will keep fighting to make America a more competitive place to make movies,” he said.
The other big fight is copyright protection as AI marches on with the potential to “threaten the livelihoods of the entire creative workforce and keep fans from catching the real thing at your theaters.”
“When the White House prepared to roll out their national framework on AI last month, we worked hard to ensure it reaffirmed what’s always been true: Copyright protections and innovation are twin pillars of our nation’s strength – and that must continue to be the case today.” Big AI companies have been pushing to dispense with copyright, warning that it slows them down and could give the edge to China.
As America celebrates its 250th anniversary this year, Rivkin celebrated the role of cinema and cinemas in American life — recalling the Vitascope, the first storefront theater, in New Orleans, and the Edisonia, the world’s first permanent theater in Buffalo, and the Washington Iowa State Theater, the longest-continually running cinema in the U.S.
“This is not a subplot in our country’s narrative. This is a featured theme in our national story.”
The MPA represents major Hollywood studios and, more recently, Netflix and Amazon. Two of its members, Paramount and Warner Bros., are moving toward a merger to the distress of many in exhibition and the broader industry, who fear it will reduce the number of films.
