Bad news for theater owners: High ticket prices were the biggest culprit in the 21% year-over-year decline in domestic box office revenues last summer, research and consulting firm PwC reports today based on a survey of 1,044 consumers in October and November. Some 53% of the respondents cited the rising admission…

EXCLUSIVE: Rory Bruer, Sony Pictures President of Worldwide Distribution, disputed a Deadline report that exhibitors are upset over Sony's handling of The Interview. Days after cancelling the December 25 release of the film, Sony today decided to open the film after all. Several exhib sources expressed emotions…

NYC exhibitors escaped Mayor Bloomberg’s attempted soda ban last month. But potential future government regulation of revenue-boosting concessions still has theater owners and operators concerned. And frustrated. “[These] taxations are truly money grabs by the government”, Cinemark Food & Beverage VP Bob Shimmin said…

UPDATE, 3:18 PM: The National Association of Theater Owners says it’s “elated” by the decision. “This issue was never about obesity, nor about soda,” the group says. “This was all about power.” Indeed, the group refers to Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s anti-obesity initiative as “an arbitrary and porous Mayoral fiat.” NATO…

It may be time for studios and theaters to worry a little less about attracting young people to the movies, and a little more about appealing to people with some gray in their hair. Among those who saw at least one movie over the course of the year, overall attendance to new releases fell slightly to 6.8 movies per…

Theater owners and investors won’t find much encouraging news in the latest overview of the exhibition industry by Moody’s Investors Service. “Despite an increase of about 6% in US and Canadian movie theater admissions in 2012, the overall trend is negative,” the debt-rating firm’s Assistant VP Karen Berckmann says…

Looks like movie theater owners are the biggest beneficiaries on Wall Street today from the excitement over the early box office results for The Hunger Games. Carmike was +2.7%,  Marcus Corp was +2.6%, Cinemark was +1.6%,  and Regal was +0.6%. Although exhibition companies have done well over the last few months as…

Last year at ShoWest, Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton appealed to theater owners to introduce healthy foods at concession stands to combat obesity in kid moviegoers. This morning, Lynton lauded AMC for listening. Other chains are helping out by making fattening snacks, popcorn and soda so expensive it’s…

Doughty Hanson, the private equity firm, has bought Vue Entertainment from investor Cavendish Square Partners and the existing management team. Now the UK's 3rd-largest cinema chain wants to take over rival Cineworld or even market leader Odeon/UCI. Such a takeover would be referred to the Competition Commission…

The company’s solid third quarter was driven mainly by aggressive expansion as the large-screen format chain signed up 100 new theaters. Revenue jumped to $51.1 million from $43.5 million in the same quarter last year, and earnings rose to $6.7 million from $1.1 million. With no Avatar, Inception was the big draw; the…

New York, NY– September 20, 2010 – IMAX Corporation  today announced that CJ CGV HOLDINGS, LTD, a subsidiary of CJ CGV Co. Ltd., the leading theatre exhibitor in Korea, and the number one exhibitor in Asia, has signed an agreement to install 15 digital IMAX theatre systems in new locations planned for The People's…

So says Rupert Gavin, CEO of Odeon & UCI Cinemas, speaking on BBC radio. Odeon is spending £70 million ($107 million) converting screens to digital. Odeon expects to have 500 digital projects installed by the end of summer, with Cats & Dogs and Step Up 3 still to come on 3D. Odeon's also holding a 3D live fashion show…