New Delhi, Jun 3 (PTI) RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Friday watched Bollywood movie ‘Samrat Prithviraj’ and said, “We are now looking at history from India’s perspective”.

He also described the movie, starring Akshay Kumar and Manushi Chhillar in lead roles, as “world class”.

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“It is a fact-based movie and rightly sends out the message the country needs today. We used to read our history written by others. Now, we are looking at history from India’s perspective,” Bhagwat, who watched the movie along with other top Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leaders, said.

Chandraprakash Dwivedi, the movie’s director, works closely with the Sangh-affiliate Sanskar Bharti.

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BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand have already made the movie tax-free.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)

Spoilers ahead…

There is something outlandish yet gorgeous about the K.G.F franchise that they no longer make such films. That they no longer imagine scenes propelled by absolute madness. After all, K.G.F films are written on steroids. 

There is a moment in K.G.F: Chapter 2, where Rocky Bhai (a rocking Yash, bathed and cleansed in masculine orgy) takes a machine gun out to blow up a police station, in the garb of a “field test”. With a cigarette hanging from his lip, he fires aimlessly to show his prowess as bullets zoom past the station and everything in between. Bullet casings drop to the ground and Bhai walks in slow-motion to light up his cigarette from the gun’s nozzle with an equally electrifying background score by Ravi Basrur. 

There, in that one single shot, Prashanth Neel highlights what the K.G.F films are for: to create a delirious cinematic experience, where there is barely any time for us to contemplate logic and sense. There is only one way to look at K.G.F for it to work for you and that is to partake in the madness it offers — from scene to scene; one set piece to another; one giddy stunt choreography to the next.

The most amazing achievement of Prashanth Neel has got to be the marrying of the Hollywood motifs from influential figures — Coppola, Scorsese, Mel Gibson to Peter Jackson and George Miller — with masala flourishes from Indian filmmakers. This meeting of the two worlds is powerful and visceral, even if it remains just a possibility throughout. Let me illustrate this marriage with the most terrific scene of K.G.F Chapter 2 which concerns Bhai but isn’t about him. 

Reena (played by Srinidhi Shetty) attempts to convey to Bhai that she is pregnant with his child. She doesn’t straight away tell him but drops hints that Bhai, who is preoccupied with business, doesn’t catch. Now, the usual way is to make Reena say she’s going to become a mother or Bhai is going to become a father. Instead, she says, “ amma vara poranga,” a callback to Bhai’s emotional struggle with memories of his mother. Not to mention the lullaby score in the background. I choked. This is masala and it is pure. 

Come to think of it, the only emotional stake that is anchoring both the K.G.F films is the sufferings of Bhai’s mom, which again is a throwback to a popular trope from the masala universe of a previous era — but. There is something singularly distinct about Prashanth Neel’s idea of masala in comparison to SS Rajamouli’s, who, we must acknowledge, brought about a much-needed renaissance to the masala tradition of Indian cinema. Neel’s films are more focused on the extremes, while Rajamouli’s are a work of visionary.

Speaking of tradition, it is truly a remarkable decision to cast Sanjay Dutt as Adheera. There could possibly be no other actor to have done justice to a film universe teething with masculine rage than Dutt, who used to be the poster boy of hyper-masculinity at one point. Remember Vaastav? Khal Nayak? But the reason to induct Dutt appears as if Prashanth Neel wanted the actor to repeat his menacing looks as Kancha from Agneepath. Although when Yash and Dutt face-off, it does feel like the latter has passed on the hyper-masculine muscle man that he is known for, to the former. Which in itself could have been a befitting conclusion to celebrating the Angry Young Man heroes of a bygone era.

K.G.F: Chapter 2 begins right where the first part ended with Rocky Bhai announcing himself as the messiah, breaking the shackles of 20,000 men, women and children in KGF. There is nothing new to the way things are dealt with in the second instalment, except the addition of three new villains in Adheera, Ramika Sen and Inayat Khalil. All those things that were flat and derivative in K.G.F: Chapter 1 continue to be, in the sequel.

This film too suffers from the leanness in writing, though the dialogues in Tamil (written by Ashok Kumar) are terrific. There is a line about a hard rock and a hammer that hits you like a bullet. Early on, we get a scene about a boy, born and nurtured in KGF who joins Bhai’s camp to train as an armed guard. When his mother (played by Eswari Rao) advises him against this, he reminds him that the reason they were able to do namaz in the first place was because of Bhai. The irony of the scene screams at you. They all remain loyal to Bhai as long as they maintain the social order of that place. In that sense, the freedom which they think they have is controlled in nature. But K.G.F: Chapter 2 isn’t about this contemplation. It is about high-accelerated stunts and oh boy, are they wild (stunt directors are Anbarivu).

There are hardly any effective women in this festival of male toxicity. Of course, this is not a film for women. That is explicitly outlined in Rocky Bhai’s introduction scene, where Reena is brought into KGF without her consent. That is not the troubling part. When she asks the reason, Bhai says she is her “entertainment”. Reena’s character comes across as so silly and dumb that she is an insult to all the one-note women characters in our masala cinema. Raveena Tandon as the Prime Minister Ramika Sen looks deadly; her character not so much.

The familiar problems of the first part — the accelerated manner in which scenes are edited, near-deafening background score and the tiring back-and-forth narration (this time by Prakash Raj) worshipping the hero — resurface in part two. You notice the weight of the narrative in the middle section as Prashanth Neel’s struggles with the political chapter of Rocky Bhai. All these make you feel if K.G.F: Chapter 1 felt more complete and wholesome. Another chapter? I’m out. 

K.G.F: Chapter 2 is currently running in theatres.

IMDb TV is dead. Long live Amazon Freevee.

Yes, Amazon has quietly changed the name of its free, ad-supported alternative to Prime Video, and with the moniker switch comes a raft of fairly impressive content – including the channel’s first big exclusive new series in Bosch: Legacy.

Here’s everything you need to know about Amazon Freevee – and what we think of it after these first few days.

What is Amazon Freevee and how is it different to Prime Video?

Amazon Freevee is essentially a rebrand of IMDb TV (previously IMDb Freedive, the service Amazon launched in January 2019) – a channel for Prime Video where content is available to watch for free to non-Prime subscribers. While it is technically a different service to Prime Video, it’s watched through the Prime Video app.

If there’s one thing the movie world has been missing in recent years, it’s a good rom-com. Despite many failed attempts at modernising the genre, its golden era of the ‘90s and early aughts, with films such as Love Actually, Bridget Jones, Pretty Woman and Notting Hill, still reign supreme. But if anyone knows their way around a good rom-com, it’s Julia Roberts, the pretty woman in Pretty Woman and the A-list actress that woos Hugh Grant in Notting Hill, who’s signed on for her first role in one in over two decades. 

Not only does the upcoming film Ticket to Paradise star Roberts, but she’s joined by her friend and fellow acting veteran George Clooney, as well as a younger cast made up of Emily in Paris hottie star Lucas Bravo and Booksmart’s Kaitlyn Dever and Billie Lourd.

According to Deadline, the focus of the movie is divorced couple Clooney and Roberts, who “team up and travel to Bali to stop their daughter making the same mistake they made 25 years ago”. That mistake? Getting married.

Bravo’s role on the project hasn’t been announced, but it looks likely he’s the hopeful groom-to-be to Dever, who plays Roberts and Clooney’s young daughter. 

Though the film is set in Bali, it was actually filmed in the Whitsundays in Queensland, meaning, yes, Bravo’s been Down Under recently.

As for Roberts’ much-awaited return to rom-coms, the actress says she hadn’t said yes to a script in 20 years simply because there weren’t any good ones. “People sometimes misconstrue the amount of time that’s gone by that I haven’t done a romantic comedy as my not wanting to do one,” she told the New York Times.

“If I had read something that I thought was that Notting Hill level of writing or My Best Friend’s Wedding level of madcap fun, I would do it. They didn’t exist until this movie that I just did that Ol Parker wrote and directed,” she added. “Lo and behold, George felt it only worked with me,” Roberts said. “Somehow we were both able to do it, and off we went.”

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Redevelopment firm Orchestra Partners Thursday morning announced nationally renowned Alamo Drafthouse Cinema as the first major tenant slated to occupy Powell Steam Plant, an 85,000-plus-square-foot historic structure in the heart of Birmingham’s Parkside District.

Alamo Drafthouse represents a major piece of Orchestra Partners’ redevelopment plans to transform Powell Steam Plant and the surrounding Parkside District into an entertainment destination and connectivity hub.

Orchestra Partners joined Alamo Drafthouse, Alabama Power, Birmingham City Council President Wardine Alexander (District 7), Birmingham City Councilor Hunter Williams (District 2, chair of the Economic Development committee) and other community partners at Powell Steam Plant to make the announcement.

Orchestra Partners announces Alamo Drafthouse Cinema to be anchor tenant of Powell Avenue redevelopment from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.

“Since announcing redevelopment plans for Powell Steam Plant in November 2019, our goal from day one was to be intentional about finding the right tenant that aligns with the shared vision for this historic property,” said Hunter Renfroe, Orchestra Partners co-founder and principal. “By partnering with a reputable national brand like Alamo Drafthouse, we will pay homage to the steam plant and create a vibrant entertainment destination that attracts more people downtown.”

Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Alamo Drafthouse Cinema offers a unique movie experience featuring quality films, food, drinks and retail. Named the “#1 theater in America” by Entertainment Weekly and “Coolest Movie Theater in the World” by Wired, Alamo Drafthouse operates 37 locations from California to New York, providing a combination of theater and restaurant, showing first-run movies, independent films and hosting special events with an extensive menu made from scratch.

Birmingham moviegoers can expect an authentic localized experience with an innovative theater design, superior dining experience, local craft beers and specialty cocktails, custom pre-show content, events and amenities. Birmingham joins Raleigh, North Carolina, and Charlottesville, Virginia, as Alamo Drafthouse’s newest Southeastern market location.

“We have a tremendous opportunity in Birmingham, as this marks Alamo Drafthouse’s first true venture into the Deep South,” said John Martin, partner at Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. “Every theater brings a customized approach to appropriately fit the building space and surrounding neighborhood. Powell Steam Plant’s historical value is unlike any theater Alamo has previously converted, which will allow us to emulate this theme throughout every aspect of the cinema experience.”

Alamo Drafthouse will be the anchor tenant and occupy approximately 40,000 square feet (60% of the leasable square footage) inside Powell Steam Plant. Redevelopment plans for the entire project call for a mixed-use entertainment venue designed for movies, music, events, retail stores and restaurants. Orchestra Partners plans to redevelop the adjacent lot, which could include an upscale hotel and apartments, while the street between the steam plant and adjacent lot will be a pedestrian center for outdoor gatherings.

“Powell Steam Plant has been an integral part of Birmingham’s history for more than 125 years,” said Williams, Birmingham city councilor since 2017. “Through public-private partnerships, redeveloping the steam plant will help bring more Birmingham residents downtown while also supporting tourism and economic development efforts to propel our city into the future. Adding yet another major neighborhood anchor in the heart of downtown will be a game changer for Birmingham.”

Powell Steam Plant, built in 1895, provided steam and electricity for downtown businesses in Birmingham. It connected the city by powering the streetcar system, which was essential to the city’s growth. Alabama Power acquired the steam plant in the 1950s and continued operations until 2013.

“We are proud to welcome Alamo Drafthouse and witness the vital role it will play in breathing new life into Powell Steam Plant,” said Kimberly Jackson, Alabama Power government and community relations manager of the Birmingham Division. “Now this historic structure will serve as a catalyst for intentional, inclusive growth, promoting economic development and improving the quality of life for all of Birmingham’s residents.”

Alamo Drafthouse will join existing Parkside neighborhood anchors, including Good People Brewing, Regions Field and Railroad Park, further cementing Parkside as an entertainment district that will continue to connect communities in the region. In addition to Powell Steam Plant, Orchestra Partners is redeveloping Urban Supply, a mixed-use destination adjacent to Good People on the west end of the Parkside District.

“Our long-term vision for Parkside is to not only create entertainment but enhance walkability and reconnect Birmingham’s surrounding neighborhoods back to its urban core,” Renfroe said. “Bringing Alamo Drafthouse to Birmingham moves us one step closer to achieving this goal.”

Construction on Alamo Drafthouse will begin in summer 2022 with an anticipated opening slated for fall 2023. For more information and leasing opportunities, visit www.parksidebham.com.

Filmmaker David Cronenberg is the godfather of body horror, a subgenre he pioneered in the 1970s with such boundary-pushing indies as Shivers, Rabid and The Brood, and then introduced to the mainstream in the ’80s and ’90s with the likes of Scanners, The Fly, Dead Ringers and the Cannes Film Festival-hailed Crash.

In those and other works, the 79-year-old Canadian auteur explored the twisted ramifications of infection and invasion, and mined the uneasy and constantly mutating relationship between man and machine—a concept described, in 1983’s unforgettable Videodrome, as “the new flesh.” Transgressively challenging and creepy, these are works that aim to get under the figurative and literal skin, where they can fester and pervert, forcing viewers to reckon with the strange and sinister symbiotic bond between sex and violence, contamination and corruption.

Since 1999’s eXistenZ, however, Cronenberg has largely moved away from such concerns, or at least segued out of the nominal horror arena for more diverse projects. Thus, there’s been no shortage of excitement regarding his return to his old stomping ground with Crimes of the Future. In theaters now, the director’s latest is situated in a world in which climate change has caused humans to begin growing mysterious new organs, which have been outlawed and are policed by the New Vice Unit and are cultivated, tattooed and then excised for display by Saul Tenser (Viggo Mortensen, Cronenberg’s A History of Violence, Eastern Promises and A Dangerous Method leading man), a performance artist engaged in intimate collaboration with his partner Caprice (Léa Seydoux). Tenser nurtures his organic creations via a variety of biotech devices that seem to have been designed by Satan’s decorator, and he and Caprice display their art for adoring audiences, who soon come to include Timlin (Kristen Stewart) and Whippet (Don McKellar), two National Organ Registry officials who are awestruck by the bizarre byproducts of Tenser’s body.

As that synopsis likely suggests, Crimes of the Future is not for everyone, and that’s without even getting into a shocking opening act having to do with a young boy capable of eating inorganic material and the child’s mysterious father Lang (Scott Speedman). Those with a healthy appetite for the outlandish and grotesque, though, will quickly take to Cronenberg’s hallucinatory nightmare, not only because of its visions of surgery and mutilation, but due to its jet-black sense of humor. Lurking beneath the film’s exterior is a droll satire of art-world pretensions and absurdities—an element which shows that Cronenberg has far more than mere provocation on his mind. Following its celebrated premiere at this May’s Cannes Film Festival, we sat down with the legendary director to discuss body horror, carnal comedy, and his renewed passion for filmmaking.

You’ve now worked with both Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, which begs the question: How big a fan are you of Twilight?

Before I cast Rob in Cosmopolis, I definitely watched a couple of Twilights. But then I watched quite a few other movies that he’d done by that time, just to gauge whether he could work in Cosmopolis, and of course I thought he could. I think both of them have evolved into really, really wonderful actors. There’s no guarantee that would happen, but they definitely have.

You’ve recently discussed pairing them together. Anything you can tell me about that?

No, no, I haven’t talked about that. What it was, was some journalist asked, would you ever work with the two of them again? I said, well, of course! But I said, on the other hand, I have no idea what their relationship is, whether they would do that, whether that would be good for a particular project. It was not something I brought up.

Given that there’s so little adult sex in contemporary mainstream North American cinema, has it become more difficult to make an intensely eroticized film like Crimes of the Future (whose tagline, after all, is: “Surgery is the new sex”)?

No, I ignore all that stuff. I don’t self-censor at all. That can be a bad thing, depending on the context. But I wrote this 20-plus years ago, and I didn’t change a word; what went into production is the same script that I wrote then. Of course, I’m aware of how things have cycled, because I feel like I’ve been here before with political correctness, and now it’s something else. But it really is the same thing, which amounts to people trying to censor what other people say and think and do. It seems to be a common thing with us human beings that we do that periodically. I have to ignore it.

In the movie, you have an artist who is cutting himself open and offering up his most intimate deep insides to an audience, knowing that this makes him incredibly vulnerable to backlash of all kinds. It could be just misunderstanding, or rejection, or anger. That’s the nature of art, as far as I’m concerned. He is the avatar of an artist, basically—the Tenser character.

Crimes of the Future is being called “body horror,” and I understand why. But do you agree with that label? I ask because, beneath its fantastical exterior, the film struck me as an art-world satire.

First of all, you understand, “body horror” is not a phrase I’ve ever used. Somebody came up with it, I don’t know who, and it stuck. And okay, it stuck. But I don’t think of it as body horror, or horror at all—this movie in particular. So yes, there are definitely satirical elements, but there are also romantic elements and emotional elements and intellectual elements and God knows what. I’m hoping that I’ve offered a real universe of things in the movie, which is always the game for me. I just think about the bubble of the movie and what’s inside that, and what am I offering to my audience.

Do you think people sometimes miss the sense of humor in your work?

It eventually comes around, you know? Eventually, people accept it. But I can tell you, for example, the first screening that we had at Cannes—everybody’s in tuxedos and ball gowns and heels and is like, are we allowed to laugh? That’s what they think: Are we allowed to laugh? Then at a certain point, they cannot resist laughing. When Viggo says his particular line, “I’m not very good at the old sex,” you get a big laugh. Later, I talked to people, and they said, we were laughing inside at all the other jokes, but we weren’t sure we were allowed to laugh, or were we supposed to laugh. Eventually, people let go of that and they just react, and yes, there are many funny lines in the movie. For me, a life without humor is not worth living—or even possible, to live without humor. It’s a survival mechanism that we’ve developed. So in as much as I’m trying to create a real life in the movies, it’s the same. To me, a movie without humor is not really alive.

As you said, the film originates from your unproduced Painkillers script. Why did you want to revisit it now, especially after years of making films that were not in this particular vein?

Really, I almost don’t remember what happened in the past. There were attempts to make the movie. [Robert] Lantos, in particular, was the producer who was involved at a certain point. I think when it stalled, I was then offered A History of Violence, and I had just made Spider, I was broke, and suddenly there was a movie that was fully financed and I wouldn’t have to suffer through the agony of financing. I mean, that’s mainly producers suffering it, but directors suffer along with it. So, it wasn’t really a specific, “I don’t want to make this movie” kind of thing. It just organically drifted away.

Then it was the same producer, Robert Lantos, who phoned me one day and said, you know you haven’t been making movies. I said, yeah, I think I’m tired of that. I think I’m going to just write novels. It’s simpler to deal with. It’s not easier creatively, but it’s simpler pragmatically. And he said, I think you should look at your old script because I would really like to make this movie with you and I think you would enjoy it. I said, well, I’m sure it’s completely irrelevant now because time has moved on, technology has moved on, and it was kind of a sci-fi thing. And he said what I consider to be a classic line: “No, no, it’s more relevant than ever.” I thought, okay, I have to appreciate that good dialogue-writing. I will read the script. I read it, and to my surprise, I thought—first of all—he’s right, it is totally relevant. And secondly, I really liked the characters and the ambiance and the whole context of it. I thought it would be a challenge, but a fun one to bring to life. So, it wasn’t really a monumental thing; it was kind of random and accidental. I guess I was somehow subconsciously ready to make another movie, finally.

You’ve worked with Viggo Mortensen more than once. How did he—and the rest of the cast—come aboard?

It’s a long story. Casting is, as I’ve said many times, a black art, because the passport of your actors is a factor—it’s a Canada/EU production, so you can’t actually have an American in it and still get financing. There’s a lot of complex stuff that movie fans don’t normally know about or care about, but it’s a big factor for you as a director and as a producer. For example, Viggo originally wanted to play the cop role, Cope. He thought that would be more interesting for him to play, because he’d played undercover guys before and thought maybe playing sort of a villain—the representative of a repressive society—would be more interesting for him. But I convinced him that, really, playing Tenser would be unusual for him, because we’ve done three movies together before this, but none of them had been a script that I had written, so this was more innately me. It was also a more unusual role for him, because it’s very reactive, very passive, very vulnerable—not his usual kind of thing. Eventually, he saw reason [laughs] and agreed to play that role.

Likewise, with Léa, I had originally cast her as Timlin, which became the Kristen Stewart role. But then I started to have trouble pairing Viggo with an actress who could play Caprice; I was not finding the right actress. Léa heard about this and said, David, I really think I should play Caprice. As soon as she said that, I said, yes, you are the actress I’ve been looking for, I just didn’t know it. At that point, it opens up a character, Timlin, who I needed a very different kind of actress for. That was Kristen, and I was very excited to get her to play that role. You’re kind of an alchemist when you’re casting. Casting is an important part of directing, and also one that people don’t really consider as part of directing, but it really is. We were being like an alchemist—you’re trying to anticipate what the chemistry will be amongst these actors when you have never seen them together before. If you’re good at it, and you’re lucky, it works out—which I think it definitely did for this movie.

Was there any pushback from producers or distributors about the project’s more graphic elements? Or did they know what they had gotten into with you?

Basically, Robert—it still took him three years to get the financing together. We got 19 entities involved, and no studios; you’re just dealing with some government agencies that invest in film, like Telefilm Canada, and you’re dealing with distributors like Neon here and Metropolitan in France, and they will advance you some money and so on. So, there are no studios, there’s just us. That’s normally the way I make films. There’s no Big Brother that you have to worry about. We’re just making the movie together. Robert absolutely understood the movie from top to bottom. There was never a question of censoring, or self-censoring, or anything like that. I wouldn’t make a movie like that.

There was a lot of talk before Crimes of the Future’s Cannes premiere about the potentially divisive reaction it would receive. Yet in the end, festivalgoers seemed to respond quite rapturously. Were you surprised it didn’t ruffle more feathers?

Yes, Cannes can be brutal. It’s also a very odd audience, because some people are coming to see the movie, but some people are just coming to be on the red carpet, and some are there to see Sharon Stone or Léa or whomever, so sometimes they’re not knowing what they’re walking into. That certainly happened with Crash all those years ago—I lost about a third of an audience there! So, I guess I was just being a little self-defensive there, self-preservation, by saying it could happen again. I don’t know, it’s not the same movie. But no, it was rapturous, and nobody walked out of that big screening.

Now that you’ve returned to directing, do you feel a newfound drive to continue making more movies?

Sure, yes, I have a couple of projects. One of them was announced at Cannes—it’s called The Shrouds, and it would star Vincent Cassel. We only announced it because he read it and immediately agreed to do it. Of course, we’ve worked two times before, in Eastern Promises and A Dangerous Method, so we know each other well. And I really thought he would be perfect casting for the lead role in The Shrouds. If everything else goes well, and the financing and all that, I would be shooting that next spring in Toronto.

By Frank Pallotta, CNN Business

Updated 10:45 AM ET, Thu May 26, 2022

The long-running Air Miles rewards system could be facing turbulence after the withdrawal of one of its only remaining national grocery chains from the program, say experts in the Canadian loyalty points industry.

In early June, Canadian grocer Empire Company Ltd. announced it would be switching loyalty programs to Scene+, best known for its acceptance at Canadian movie chain Cineplex. Empire owns Sobeys, in addition to Safeway, Foodland, some IGA stores in Canada, FreshCo, Needs, Thrifty Foods, Les Marches Tradition, Rachelle Bery and Lawtons Drugs.

The shift will occur between August 2022 and the first few months of 2023, with the Sobeys company taking one-third co-ownership of Scene+ alongside Cineplex and the Bank of Nova Scotia.

It’s a change to Canadian habits that could be difficult for Air Miles to recover from, according to industry watchers, after years of shoppers pulling out the familiar blue Air Miles cards at stores such as Safeway and Sobeys.

“To call it even the final nail in the coffin could be a little dramatic, but it wouldn’t be too far off,” said Ricky Zhang, founder of Prince of Travel, a website that tracks and compares travel reward systems in Canada.

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“Losing the Sobeys and Safeway partnership is very much a major blow, and it’s only the latest in a series of major blows that they’ve suffered in recent years,” said Zhang. Those blows include losing the Liquor Control Board of Ontario and Lowe’s hardware stores from the Air Miles network in 2021. As well, Staples Canada will no longer offer Air Miles as of July 2022.

According to Zhang, Air Miles have been one of the weaker options on the Canadian loyalty market in recent months, and these developments are not going to help things.

“Air Miles, last year, had tried to kind of rebrand itself and come out with a bit of a refreshed flight reward redemption system for people to use their Air Miles,” he said in an interview with CBC Radio’s The Cost of Living.

“It hasn’t seemed to deliver extra value compared to before. And so I do find the program is very much, unfortunately, in a bit of a stagnant state.”

Air Miles parent stock sinks by nearly half

It’s not just points watchers saying that Air Miles is in trouble without Sobeys. Markets reacted badly to the announcement.

After news broke that Sobeys and its other brands would be leaving Air Miles, the company stock price plummeted by more than 40 per cent.

While there have been significant fluctuations in many stock markets in the days following the Sobeys announcement, the Air Miles parent company stock, which is traded as LYLT on NASDAQ, has not risen and fallen with general trends in the days since. The stock fell after Sobeys and Safeway pulled out, and stayed where it was.

If you’re already an Air Miles collector, I think the future looks more dim than it looks bright.– Ricky Zhang, princeoftravel.com

According to stock filings and media releases from Air Miles parent company Loyalty Ventures, Sobeys represented about 10 per cent of the parent company’s earnings in 2021 (before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization are taken into account).

Sobeys stores, along with Safeway and its other brands in Canada, accounted for more than $21 million Canadian in earnings for Air Miles’ parent company last year, according to calculations derived from annual financial statements.

Business isn’t just to sell data, but points themselves

Rewards systems such as Air Miles operate by selling points to retailers, which they hand out to customers as an incentive to shop. The reward company uses the money that comes in from selling those points to buy the rewards.

While Sobeys would not agree to an interview with The Cost of Living, it told The Canadian Press the grocery chain did not have to pay for its co-owner status in the Scene+ program because of “the opportunity” it brought to the table.

“They stand to take a greater share of the overall profit,” said Erin Murray, vice-president of marketing with Points, a technology company that works with dozens of reward companies around the world, including Air Miles, Aeroplan, IHG and Hilton Honors.

LISTEN | Hear from the rewards company first hand on Cost of Living. 

According to Murray, when a company owns its own rewards program (or at least a significant portion of it), it can make sure that everything the program is doing matches the goals of the retailer instead of having to co-operate and negotiate with an external business.

“They’re moving over with an ownership stake…. They’re making sure that however [loyalty program] members are being rewarded is completely aligned with what their overall objectives are,” said Murray.

Air Miles says the skies are clear

For its part, Air Miles has said its confident it can turn this into a “growth opportunity” and has pointed out in public statements that Metro grocery stores in Ontario will still accept the rewards card.

The company has said that customers can earn Air Miles from hundreds of stores that may not accept the card in person through an online shopping portal. It also said new deals are under development, but would not provide details to CBC Radio.

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In an interview, the company told Cost of Living that Sobeys departure could leave room for another grocery store or chain to join the program. However, with other major grocers such as Loblaw or Save-on-Foods offering their own, in-house point systems, it’s unclear what retailers would remain unhitched, so to speak.

“We’re having lots of great conversations with many brands that haven’t been able to engage with our models in the past,” said Rachel MacQueen, senior vice-president of marketing with Air Miles.

Air Miles still remain available on major credit cards, such as those from BMO and American Express.

“Our credit card partners enable you to earn miles everywhere you shop. So no matter what grocery store you shop with, when you pay with an Air Miles credit card, you’re going to get miles,” said MacQueen.

The Air Miles executive also pointed out that the company offers a significant benefit to its member retailers — cross-promotion to new customers.

For example, someone who needs fuel for their car but also shops at an unrelated business that offers Air Miles may see a rewards offer for the Shell gas station without having gone to Shell.

“So collectors that aren’t currently shopping at Shell … Shell can now put offers out to customers that they don’t currently have with them. An incentive or a motivation to say, hey, come fuel up at Shell and get miles,” said MacQueen.

With ten million collectors, according to MacQueen, that potential is nothing to be sneezed at.

Should you switch to Scene+?

Regardless, Sobeys and its affiliated banners have indeed sneezed at said potential. Air Miles will not be awarded at Sobeys stores in Atlantic Canada by August 2022, with the rest of the country following suit by the end of March 2023.

Canadians who love their Air Miles won’t need to fear losing them at this point, as the reward system is not going anywhere.

As an alternative, the Scene+ program through Sobeys promises more rewards than just the movies, such as travel. In an emailed statement, Scene+ co-owner Scotiabank said that free groceries will eventually become an option as well.

But reward maximizers like Zhang point out that if you relied on grocery shopping to save points for a free dream vacation, you’ll need to rethink how you get your free stuff as it could take you much longer to get enough points without weekly supermarket trips.

“If you’re already an Air Miles collector, I think the future looks more dim than it looks bright,” said Zhang.

Those who chase the biggest bang for the reward buck say if you are a few thousand short miles of that trip to Hawaii, but you always got your miles at Sobeys, you may not be able to hit your goal on your original timeline.

If you want to leave on a jet plane, you’ll need to earn a lot more and quickly — by August if you are in Atlantic Canada.

Or you can always settle for a blender instead.

The Cost of Living airs every week on CBC Radio One, Sundays at 12:00 p.m. (12:30 NT).
Click here to listen to this segment or download the Cost of Living podcast.

By Lisa Respers France, CNN

Updated 10:55 AM ET, Mon June 6, 2022