Regal to buy Consolidated

posted by Michael Zoldessy on January 18, 2008 at 10:45 am

The biggest just got bigger. Regal Entertainment Group is purchasing Charlotte-based Consolidated Theatres.

Regal Entertainment Group, the largest movie exhibitor in the United States, on Tuesday announced plans to acquire Charlotte-based Consolidated Theatres for about $210 million in cash, its biggest purchase in three years.

Consolidated operates 400 screens at 28 locations, including Charlotte’s Phillips Place Cinemas, Arboretum Cinemas and Park Terrace Cinema. Outside North Carolina, it has theaters in Georgia, Maryland, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

Knoxville-based Regal has a presence in all of those states. It has 6,355 screens in 526 locations in 39 states, operating as Regal Cinemas, United Artists Theatres and Edwards Theaters.

Read more in the Charlotte Observer.

Comments (4)

Michael Furlinger
Michael Furlinger on January 18, 2008 at 10:49 am

400 more screens not good!

JodarMovieFan
JodarMovieFan on January 18, 2008 at 1:35 pm

How depressing. When they first came into our area, I received a nice Email from someone who touted how much of the family is involved in the business and how dedicated they are to showmanship in motion picture exhibition. While their newest plex opening in Hyattsville MD is a nice place, it doesn’t displace my favorite and closer theaters that have state-of-the-art DP and THX cert. Its just not worth the drive. Now, they’ve been gobbled up by Regal.

The Regal nearest to me, which I’ve frequented for years has gone downhill in quality since their people took over. At least comments were acknowledged and complaints were addressed by a corporate Customer Relations person…a Lisa Beeler? But I think she’s been long gone as my latest comments and complaints have gone unanswered. Saturday nights are a hit or miss affair if they have enough staffing at the concession stand, or if they know how to make coffee and if the restrooms are going to be flooded with waste matter. Security seems to be top notch as there are plain clothes policemen everywhere eyeing everyone as if we’re all people of ‘interest.’ To be fair, at least one of the auditoriums in the plexes around here is DP outfitted. I suppose that is some progress.

Patsy
Patsy on January 18, 2008 at 5:13 pm

After visiting downtown Knoxville over the holiday season I noticed the “regal” Regal next to Tennessee Theatre.

ceasar
ceasar on January 23, 2008 at 1:03 pm

Back in ‘03 or '04 Regel Entertainment sold the now closed Pemberton Cinema 4 to Village Entertainment. They didn’t even considering building a box cinema for this market at all. But they made a real big mistake at the time selling to Village E. For Village didn’t take care of the property. At the sametime they got into a feud with CBL Associates with high rent and CBL closed the Cinema at Christmas time of '06. And to this date Vicksburg hasn’t gotten a new cinema yet for Cinema operators are turning them down right and left for lack of population.

You must login before making a comment.

New Comment