What If AI Picked the Movies You See?

Editor’s Note: AI is everywhere and unavoidable. What if it chose the movies that show up in your local multiplex?  This was an interesting idea pitched to us, so read on.  And let us know your thoughts in the comments.

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Remember going to a movie theater and having a smorgasbord of films to choose from? When the blockbuster tentpole played next to an indie thriller? When a romcom featuring a budding young star played alongside a ridiculous romp with the latest up-and-coming comedian?

The Fithian Group does. And if their bid to revitalize film distribution is successful, a bevy of films might once again find their way into theaters.

Made up of industry veterans John Fithian, Jackie Brennan, and Patrick Corcoran, all former executives of the National Association of Theater Owners, The Fithian Group has spent the better part of the past three years developing Attend, a data-driven, AI-infused online marketplace that will connect filmmakers and film distributors directly with exhibitors (movie theaters). The goal is to provide theaters and markets with films that audiences in those places want to see, both increasing the number of films that get shown, as well as the number of patrons that go to theaters.

“We want to grow the industry, and we believe the industry can grow,” said Brennan, a founding partner at The Fithian Group. “The problems themselves are structural, and what are we doing if not trying to solve the structural problems?”

The structure of film distribution is one that hasn’t changed since the birth of film roughly a century ago. Traditionally, a film is produced and then acquired by a distribution company. The distributor then negotiates a licensing agreement with theaters for a specific fee, a specific run time, and a percentage of ticket sales.

Since the collapse of the DVD market, the rise of streaming platforms, and the lasting effects of the pandemic, it’s become harder for distributors to turn a profit on smaller and mid-budget films. As a result, fewer small and mid-budget films are being made. In addition, the window of time films stay in theaters has shrunk for various reasons.

While some see this as the slow death of movie theaters, The Fithian Group sees it as an opportunity. Not only to provide audiences in different markets with films they want to see, but to provide films with small and mid-sized budgets a new path to the big screen.

“Theaters are asking us for more,” Brennan explained, “So do they just want random movies that their audiences don’t care about? No. Movie theaters should show movies that are good enough to bring people out of their homes.”

Originally conceived by John Fithian over a decade ago as ‘direct distribution’, Attend has gained steam in recent years as an online marketplace thanks to partnerships with other companies. Together with a cloud services provider, Metal Toad, The Fithian Group was able to secure a grant from Amazon Web Services (AWS) to help fund the development of Attend. And thanks to a partnership with a film studio, The Fithian Group is gearing up to release two films, one during the fourth quarter of 2025, and another sometime in the first quarter of 2026.

Brennan said the goal is to test the two films in select theaters to explore business models, pricing strategies, and other insights in order to potentially have a beta version of Attend ready next year.

“If you have real transparency and a shift to a partnership model with theaters, there are all kinds of ways to make independent film really viable,” Brennan said. “But it takes more than just a small movie. It takes a bunch of movies. It takes time, it takes data, it takes all that.”

It also takes money and market adoption. And like disruptive technologies before it, Attend has run into skepticism on both fronts.

“What we are feeling a little bit is industry fear and then on the other side non-industry assumptions,” Brennan said. “People who are not in the industry think that theatrical is dying – let’s put all of our money into AI, and streaming is the future – so that’s where everyone is paying attention. What they don’t realize is that the theatrical business model itself is so outdated that it can easily be disrupted from within and that the problem is not the theatrical audience, but the business model catering to theatrical audiences.”

-Jason Karpf

Photo: Steve Johnson via Unsplash