MPAA CHIEF CHRIS DODD URGES THEATERS TO “ADAPT”

MPAA chief Christopher Dodd has called on movie theater owners to “adapt” to the new digital age of smartphones and tablet computers. “This new age of the connected consumer is here, and so we must adapt,” he told the CinemaCon convention in Las Vegas. He noted that although revenue is up 17 percent from last year at this time, it would be far higher if the one-third of Americans who no longer visit theaters were enticed back. “We need to bring them back,” Dodd said. Addressing the issue of video piracy, Dodd said that the number of illegal camcorder tapings of movies in theaters “is down 50 percent since 2007.”