12 attendance; a fact anticipated by VideoAge on its L.A. Screenings website one month earlier, which indicated Tuesday as the set-up day. The market’s indie portion ended with another bash, this time hosted by Caracol on May 14, the day before Fox started the studio portion of the market with its LATAM screenings for 172 Latin buyers. Some studios, including Disney, screen for the Latin pan-regionals separately from the general LATAM screenings. By Saturday, May 16, only 10 indie exhibitors’ suites at the Century Plaza were still open, while the studios’ suites began to fill up with people. The relatively large number of indies still holding meetings was attributed to the fact that HBO had canceled its screenings. In terms of new product, at these Screenings, cable saved the day for the studios since broadcasters ordered fewer new series compared to last year: 48 this year versus 58 last year. However, cable and digital orders added 28 shows to the studios’ international distribution pipes with a good portion of them part of the supernatural-superhero genre now prevalent in movie theaters. There were also four South Korean companies that appeared for one day on the 18th floor of the Century Plaza, organized a luncheon screening (apparently without telling anyone, except for a poster by the escalator leading to the dining room) and disappeared. The official studio screenings were kicked off with the traditional Disney party (called the International Upfront) on the studio lot on Sunday, May 17, even though Fox started screening on Friday, May 15, followed by the other studios. Similarly, the Screenings came to a close with the Fox party on Thursday, May 21, even though a few studios were still screening the following day. On Wednesday, CBSSI toasted — with some 100 invited guests — Joe Lucas’s retirement after a 43-year career with Paramount first and, later, CBS. For next year, Fox has already announced that its screenings will start a day earlier — instead of its traditional Friday — on a Thursday, further eroding the indies’ exhibition time and possibly forcing them to open their suites at the Century Plaza Hotel a day earlier, thus increasing the length of the L.A. Screenings for some Latin and other buyers. June/July 2015 L.A. Screenings Review (Continued from Page 10) Lunch on the lot at NBCUniversal Italy’s RAI contingent on the lot at Warner Bros. International TV The afternoon action in the lobby-bar at the Century Plaza Hotel The stars of Empire performed at the Fox party on the studio lot Cisneros’ executives and star at the company’s opening indie party The Azteca-Endemol Shine press conference announcing the production of Master Chef Former MCA (Universal) International TV Distribution president Colin Davis attended the 10th annual L.A. Screenings Veterans Luncheon It is estimated that, for the 69 indie exhibitors alone, the L.A. Screenings represent a total expenditure of $600,000 at the Century Plaza Hotel.
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