Latest in Exhibition

Sarah Lewthwaite and Matthew Liebmann, two veteran senior executives at film analytics firm Movio will co-lead the company upon the departure next month of co-founder and CEO Will Palmer. After his departure, Palmer plans to launch a new venture studio, whose first product will be a relationship app called Cupla…

Top movie theater operator AMC Entertainment has retired $35 million in high-interest debt, the latest step in its effort to stage a financial comeback from Covid-19 and keep pace with a fast-evolving movie business model. The repurchase of the secured notes, which carried an interest rate of 15% for cash and 17% for…

John Turner, a veteran of the nonfiction world and creator of Netflix crime series Dirty Money, has been appointed head of documentaries for Imax. Reporting to Imax Entertainment president Megan Colligan, Turner will lead a business line that can be traced back to the inception of the company in 1970. Turner will also…

EXCLUSIVE: Sony Pictures and cinema tech firm CJ 4DPlex have set a deal spanning 15 films over three years to play in the immersive 270-degree ScreenX format. The agreement will begin with Venom: Let There Be Carnage in September and continue with nine releases over the next year, including Spider-Man: No Way…

Cinemark, the No. 3 U.S. exhibitor, said CEO Mark Zoradi will retire at the end of 2021, staying on the board and handing top-exec reins to CFO and COO Sean Gamble. Zoradi, who had a lengthy run as a Disney distribution exec before crossing over to the theater side, will stay on the company’s board until 2024. At that…

Imax’s first-quarter results met Wall Street analysts’ expectations and showed signs of the movie industry’s rebound from the depths of Covid-19 a year ago. Net losses per share narrowed to 25 cents in the quarter, from 82 cents a year ago, better than analysts’ consensus for 26 cents. Total revenue rose 11% to $38.8…

Marcus Corp., which runs the fourth-largest movie theater circuit in the U.S., posted fourth-quarter results below Wall Street forecasts, but execs point to brighter days in the next few months. “If the film schedule holds,” CFO Doug Neis said during a conference call with analysts, “we have much higher hopes that…

Mark Zoradi, CEO of major exhibitor Cinemark and a former longtime Disney executive, sees some familiar elements on the summer release calendar, which he sees as a potential Covid-19 recovery turning point. “The last weekend in May, in that traditional beginning of summer, you have Cruella from Disney and you have F9…

On Monday, California Governor Gavin Newsom shocked the state by lifting his restrictive Regional Stay-at-Home Order. He justified the decision with some very positive four-week projections about Covid-19 in the state. If those numbers hold true, they may usher in not just the reopening of outdoor dining, but possibly…

Shares in major exhibitor Cinemark, along with most movie theater stocks, are rising today as Wall Street salutes another milestone release window agreement. Universal and Cinemark announced a windows deal late Monday that shares a lot of traits with AMC’s breakthrough pact with the same studio earlier this year. It…

Cinemark CEO Mark Zoradi said Thursday that the major exhibitor has started taking a “dynamic” approach to theatrical windows, negotiating release terms on a film-by-film basis in a concession to COVID-19. Upcoming Universal releases like The Croods 2, Let Him Go and Freaky, for example, will play in Cinemark…

AMC Entertainment plans to sell 20 million of its Class A shares, netting $47.7 million, as it contends with ongoing shutdowns of many of its movie theaters and a withdrawal of studio films from the 2020 release calendar. COVID-19 hampered the release of Tenet in August and aside from less-expensive, targeted titles…