Rock concerts moving to big screens

updated 11:11 a.m. ET June 7, 2006

CHAMBLEE, Ga. - After attending more than 100 Widespread Panic concerts, Julie Stevens knew what she was talking about when she said a show this month at Atlanta’s Fox Theater was different.

“You can see a lot better and you can hear the music and there’s no smoke,” said Stevens, 27, of Atlanta, during a break between sets. “That’s cool because it’s been a long time since I’ve seen them up close.”

The difference? Stevens was watching this concert live on a big screen 12 miles away from the Fox at a movie theater in this Atlanta suburb.

Widespread Panic, the jam band from Athens, Ga., that has built a massive following based on the strength and carnival atmosphere of its live shows, joins acts like the Rolling Stones, Bon Jovi and Green Day who in the past year-and-a-half have rolled out concerts simulcast on big screens offsite. Sometimes way, way offsite.

Combining rock shows and movie theaters is an idea at least as old as 1970’s “Woodstock,” the movie version of the previous year’s legendary three-day festival. But advances in technology are making it easier to pull off events like the May 9 Widespread Panic show — when the concert was beamed live to 114 theaters around the country, from California to Florida.

National yet personal?
And an increasingly competitive marketplace is making the special events attractive for bands looking to reach new audiences and offer something special for their existing fans.

“The artists, the managers, the promoters ... have all come to see there is a terrific value in bringing their music to movie-theater screens so fans can gather together to see them nationally — but in a very local and personal way,” said Dan Diamond, vice president of digital programming for Big Screen Concerts.

The Denver-based company is jointly owned by three of the world’s biggest movie theater chains — AMC, Cinemark and Regal — and has the capacity to broadcast concerts and other special events in as many as 850 theaters nationwide. Other companies have occasionally simulcasted concerts, but not as frequently and to as many theaters as Big Screen Concerts.

The company kicked off by offering recorded performances by bands like KISS, Rush and the Grateful Dead in 2003. But with changes in technology, the number of live simulcasts has steadily increased in the past two years.

Big Screen broadcast 21 concerts in 2004, including Phish, Jimmy Buffett and Prince, and 10 last year. They’ve done six already this year — most recently a May 16 show by Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour.

Tickets range from $10 to $20, depending on the group and whether the event is live or, as in still a few cases, recorded. And most concerts are scheduled for weeknights — when the vast majority of movie theater seats are typically empty.

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