Shelby Schultz
Member Profile
How has Cinema United membership been impactful to you and/or your business?Cinema United’s Young Members Community has been very impactful in connecting me with other young people in the industry. I always enjoy engaging in their meetings which give us access to amazing insights from industry leaders and grant us face time we might not otherwise have.
CinemaCon is one of the greatest events of the year. Even in the most difficult of times in the industry, CinemaCon provides hope and sparks our excitement for this business. I love speaking to vendors, distributors, and other exhibitors about opportunities, challenges, and how we can unite as an industry to continue to grow and innovate our business.
I grew up in exhibition under the mentorship of my father Brian. From a young age, I was helping to do everything from hand-tiling bathrooms to advising on film selection. During an amazing experience interning in distribution at Warner Brothers before my senior year of high school, I garnered amazing knowledge about the distributor side of our industry. In college, I studied film and realized that very few people, including prominent filmmakers, knew how the exhibitor side of the industry works. As my family started LOOK, I joined the company to help with film selection and ticketing.
My favorite part of my job is going to a screening at our theater and getting to see the joyful audiences bonding over the experience. After Thanksgiving, I travelled to New York, Virginia, and Georgia to visit our theaters. I really enjoyed interfacing with guests, sitting in on screenings of Wicked where people were singing, and talking to our teams about the movies they loved.
One of my favorite industry moments was at the CinemaCon screening of Top Gun: Maverick. The energy in the air was palpable. As everyone hooted and hollered with the movie, I could finally sense that the industry was going to recover because the magic of this experience is irreplaceable.
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In 2022, I went to the Music Box for a 35mm screening of Face/Off. The movie is so campy and over-the-top that seeing it on film felt a little absurd in the best way. An organist played before the film to set the mood. The auditorium was full, surrounding me with hundreds of passionate moviegoers. Overall, the showmanship of the theater really eventized the movie in a way that made it an unforgettable experience.
While most people are scared of streaming, I think it has allowed new categories of films and alternative content to grow and build audiences. As companies begin to move their films that were originally slated for streaming onto the big screen, we have more opportunities than ever to personalize the films we play for our audiences because there is such a wide variety available. It appears that after many years of living and dying by blockbusters, we have seen the rebirth of mid-budget films that enable more consistency and opportunity for upside in our business.
There are so many different roles in this industry that can fit a wide-range of skillsets. The most successful people in our industry bring their unique knowledge and individual taste to their role, while always being open-minded and excited to grow and learn from people in other segments of the industry.
