For exhibitors this integration means that CinemaBridge will be the single point of access where they can order back-catalogued content from all connected distributors, specify delivery preferences, upload or enter box office returns and download, view, print or email electronic invoices. Currently this is mainly focused on theatrical exhibitors but in due time these features will also become available for non-theatrical exhibitors.

Right from the start, CinemaBridge has an impressive list of territories where services are running. The data collection service formerly known as MaccsBox is already running in the US, UK, Australia, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Malaysia and Switzerland. The digital delivery services known as DCinemaHub are currently available in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland while the online ordering service known as Filmbank is active in the UK.

In the UK, the first exhibitors to deliver their box office returns to CinemaBridge are Odeon, Vue and Cineworld, together accounting for more than 60% of the market. In Australia, the service will kick-off with Greater Union, Hoyts, Reading, Village and Palace covering an even bigger percentage of the market.

Next to Paramount, other studios and independents are already committed to CinemaBridge’s data collection service and they will be going live in the coming months. Also on the exhibitor side CinemaBridge expects to connect a dozen new contributors in the next six months. 

For MACCS International, the go-live of the data collection service in the UK marks a major milestone. After running successfully for six years in the Netherlands, Belgium, Malaysia and the US, Australia and the UK were the next major territories where the data collection service has been implemented. The following territory will be Spain which is scheduled for go-live by the middle of 2013.

According to Mathieu van As, CTO at MACCS International, the direction at hand is a direct result of the digitalization process: “After a slow start in the beginning, we’ve seen digital cinema make its definitive breakthrough in the past two years and distributors see themselves confronted with an avalanche of new developments that’s hurtling towards them. As this is not their core business, you see distributors pull back from the technical execution of digital distribution and outsource those activities to several different technology partners. However, although outsourced, the distributors still expect the services from their technology partners to be managed as if they were their own.”

This is where CinemaBridge comes in. CinemaBridge is basically an interface on MACCS allowing other business partners in the digital distribution process to provide services to the exhibitors which are managed and monitored from MACCS. By using web services for exchanging service instructions and execution statuses between MACCS and the service provider, these services are integrated in real-time in the distribution process making them act as if they were provided by the distributors themselves.

Additionally, the possibility for real-time integration of external services provides some extra opportunities to participating third parties. MACCS International CEO Bert Huls: “MACCS has a rapidly increasing international user base which includes major studios like Paramount and Warner in the 36 biggest territories in the world, but also more than 100 independents in those territories. By connecting to CinemaBridge, these connected third parties can make their services available to all these MACCS users.”

With MACCS already processing 35% of the international ticket sales outside of the US, MACCS International has a substantial market to offer to those third parties. Does that mean that MACCS International will assert influence on these third parties if they want to access that market? Not according to Huls: “CinemaBridge is focused on being an indiscriminate enabler of all distribution processes in the film industry and therefore we want to offer the distributors the freedom to choose between as many service providers as possible. Consequently, CinemaBridge is set-up as an open service that is accessible for everyone that provides any service in the film distribution process and this is a strategy that we intend to keep in the future.”

With the input of Umbrella, the Rights Management Module was suited to the regional market, and indeed any market. On top of the work to increase the range of terms that MACCS can cope with, new smart reporting has enabled Umbrella to focus on market gaps within their title portfolio, easily identifying areas where revenue can be boosted.

“When Umbrella Entertainment went live with MACCS royalties, we automated 50% of all of our royalty reports.” said Kim Pham, head of the Umbrella finance team. “A year on, MACCS is able to produce 90% of our royalty reports for a large variety of contracts, due to the excellent support team through training and system upgrades. In addition, MACCS provides reliable and prompt reporting to help us make informed decisions.” 

Now you can let MACCS do the work by clicking on the Update Depot button in the Shipment Product window. In the popup window you can select the date when the depot move takes place. Then a title, a whole product group or just one product item, can be scheduled to move to a new depot.