Latest in National Association Of Theatre Owners

After more than a two decades run as the Boss of trade org the National Association of Theatre Owners, John Fithian is retiring, effective May 1, 2023. Technically, Fithian counts 30 years working for NATO, having begun working with the org as a former attorney at Washington DC’s Patton Boggs…

The closure of Pacific Theatres and ArcLight may have sounded alarm bells over the dire state of exhibition due to the coronavirus pandemic, but theater owners are especially frustrated, anxious and unnerved that a signature government lifeline so far has struggled to get up and running. The Shuttered Venues Operators…

There is new hope that Congress will come to an agreement on a COVID-19 relief package that can pass in the lame duck session, albeit the latest proposals are vastly scaled back from those advanced by Democrats earlier this year. The two options — a framework from a bipartisan group of lawmakers and another advanced…

With Disney already having erased two big movies from the holiday schedule, Free Guy and Death on the Nile, and Warner Bros. expected to punt its Christmas Day release of Wonder Woman 1984, movie theaters really don’t know how they’re going to be able to weather the next few months of the pandemic. The National Associa…

CinemaCon has set its dates for next year and is being extra cautious due to the pandemic. Originally scheduled for April 26-29, the exhibition-film distribution confab at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas will now happen between Aug. 23-26, 2021. This year’s CinemaCon was cancelled as COVID-19 took its grip on the nation…

Donald Trump’s decision to end negotiations over another round of COVID-19 relief until after the election came as a surprise to many lawmakers on Capitol Hill, and is only adding to the worries among theater owners hoping for a lifeline. “This is not a matter that can get kicked down the road,” John Fithian, the…

With movie theaters finally lighting back up across much of the U.S., the National Association of Theatre Owners and its members are making a rare show of unity in support of CinemaSafe, a new set of health and safety protocols. The COVID-19 response codifies several measures undertaken by theaters and other…

2nd Update, 8:05PM: Following the National Association of Theatre Owners’ earlier statement today deflating NBCUniversal’s $95M PVOD victory with Trolls World Tour in the Wall Street Journal, the exhibition organization has issued another public statement tonight after Uni accused them of being in cahoots with AMC…

Today Scott Cooper issued an open letter, applauding the Senate’s passage of the $2.2 trillion relief bill as a “much-need positive news to an industry I cherish”, particularly in regards to how it’s primed to help movie theaters during this time when they have fixed costs to maintain over several months, and zero…

Despite the Senate being unable to pass the near $2 trillion stimulus package intended to rescue the U.S. economy during the coronavirus crisis, the National Association of Theatre Owners chief John Fithian is “hopeful” that a bipartisan compromise will be reached in the near future. “They’re not at an impasse,&#8221…

Movie theater owners are seeking relief for the shutdown of thousands of screens during the coronavirus crisis. The National Association of Theatre Owners unveiled a set of measures that they want lawmakers to take up as part of a stimulus package, now being discussed by Congress. The theaters are seeking  loan…

The National Association of Theatre Owners said tonight that it has canceled CinemaCon 2020, which had been set for March 30-April 2 in Las Vegas. The news comes two weeks after NATO said it was holding firm on its confab despite some cancellations from China over coronavirus concerns. The news comes as a great relief…