Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming MAY 2015 46 Insights Bringing Hollywood One of the less successful installments of the James Bond Franchise, 1974’s The Man With the Golden Gun , sees Roger Moore’s Bond coming to Macau in search of the gunsmith who makes Scaramanga’s bullets. The Macau scenes were actually shot on location, including one at the now defunct Macau Palace floating casino. There’s also a floating casino in the Macau depicted in the recent Daniel Craig Bond outing, Skyfall , but it’s a hyper-stylized one filled with impossibly elegant patrons and exists only on a studio lot. As Sands entertainment that makes Macau a true destination for leisure and business travel. Sands China has helped put Macau on the global entertainment map. The 15,000-seat Cotai Arena has been graced by international headliners like Katy Perry, Rihanna, Justin Bieber, and The Rolling Stones, as well as Asia’s biggest stars, including “Eason Chan, Hacken Lee, Alan Tam, and all my favorites in the K-pop world like Girls Generation, 2NE1, Super Junior, Big Bang,” adds Mr Messinger. Pollstar , a trade publication devoted to the worldwide concert industry, publishes an annual ranking of the world’s top 100 arenas based on ticket sales. “Every year for the past four years, our Cotai Arena has appeared on the rankings, reaching 68th place last year. It’s a very rigorous standard so it only includes actual cash ticket sales. So it’s not comps, it’s not giveaways, it’s actually literally tickets sold for cash. We’re the only venue in Asia that is ranked in the Pollstar 100. And we’re literally only 1,000 attendees below a major arena in Las Vegas. So it’s kind of proof positive of the kind of programming we’ve put into that venue.” Of course, Macau still has a way to go before it can lay claim to the title of Asia’s entertainment capital. The effort will be aided by greater critical mass as Macau’s other casino operators get in on the act. The coming expansion in the supply of high-quality hotel rooms will also help greatly. “We’re the only property, frankly, with our 9,000 rooms that actually has a significant number of rooms available for sale to casual customers,” says Mr Messinger. “Heretofore, most of the rooms at other properties had been reserved for gamblers. Now you’re going to see more and more rooms on the Cotai Strip, which will make it more viable for people to stay over.” The upcoming Cotai resorts will also elevate the city’s ambience, creating the appropriate setting for an international entertainment hub. Sands China’s new contribution to the landscape, The Parisian Macao, is scheduled to open next year with a half-sized replica to the exact bolt of the Eifel Tower. Despite the uncertain prognosis for Macau’s gaming sector, for its entertainment scene, as Frank Sinatra crooned in his last ever song in public, it’s safe to say “The Best is Yet to Come.” On the eve of Katy Perry taking the stage at the Cotai Arena, Inside Asian Gaming spoke with Mr Messinger about Sands China’s expansive entertainment program, and what goes into making it possible. China Senior Vice President of Marketing Scott Messinger notes, it does, at least, “portray a very intriguing kind of Macau that’s by turns sexy, mysterious, and makes people want to know more.” Las Vegas has long served as a popular backdrop for Hollywood productions, with depictions of the Vegas experience ranging from the classic sophistication of both the original 1960 Oceans 11 starring Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack and the star-studded 2001 remake headed by George Clooney, to the bungling debauchery of The Hangover . Varied depictions of the Macau experience are soon to hit the big screen, with The Venetian Macao in particular providing the setting for several productions. Shooting recently wrapped up on the Hong Kong movie Return of the Cuckoo and Hollywood’s Now You See Me: The Second Act . Mr Messinger had a personal role to play in bringing the latter production to Macau. “On hearing that Now You See Me , which was a global hit and performed very, very well in China, was going to do a sequel, I went to Los Angeles and pitched to Lions Gate and Summit Pictures the idea of coming to Macau. And it didn’t take a lot of pushing because more and more the Hollywood studios are looking to do things Macau is increasingly featured in major film, thanks in part to the efforts of Sands China “One of the things we’re always conscious about with anything that we put on in our arena or our theater is that we want to make the ticket pricing or scaling affordable. It doesn’t do us any good to bring the world’s best entertainment and for it not to be affordable for people to attend it, particularly people within our community.” Sands China Senior Vice President of Marketing Scott Messinger