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AMC and Cinemark might merge
posted by
moviebuff82
on
April 22, 2009 at 7:42 am
According to an article on Variety’s website, there are rumors that the two of the three largest theater chains in America, privately held AMC Entertainment, Inc., and publicly owned Cinemark Holdings, might join forces and compete against Regal Entertainment Group.
Both circuits have hired new head film buyers — and both used to work together at Loews Theaters. Their boss at Loews was Travis Reid … who now sits on the board of AMC.
Bob Lenihan, most recently at Century Theaters, will head up film buying at AMC under the circuit’s new chief, former Starbucks exec Gerry Lopez.
Read the full story in Variety.
Comments (12)
In other news…AMC just hired someone to head the company’s new LA office…
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AMC and Cinemark? oh please no…
My local theatre that formerly said AMC Muvico now says Cinemark…
Just gonna be more theatres that AMC will screw up.
The Variety article is just an amateur opinion. Companies routinely shuffle employees into different positions.
Companies merge in order to make money or save money. When Cinemark bought Century Theatres, Cinemark gained the profits of high quality and very popular Century Theatres.
If AMC were to merge with Cinemark, the combined company would have a monopoly in many cities. Due to anti-trust issues, the company would have to sell off many theaters to competitors. This will cause the combined company to lose money from selling off profitable theaters..
Oh Good God, I sure hope not. Cinemark must be one of the worst circuits ever. Their theaters may be grand, but their presentation is lousy,theaters dirty and often in bad repair, rude staff…the list just goes on endlessly! I personally will never set foot in a Cinemark owned theater again. AMC on the other hand has always been fairly good from what I’ve seen.
It is hard to say that all theaters owned by one company are bad or good. I have visited many Cinemark and AMC theaters. It really depends on the manager of the individual theaters. If the manager is good, he or she will keep the theater cleaned and the staff well trained. I have visited many Cinemark theaters and generally they have strict cleanliness standards and a very good customer service training program. I have visited AMC theaters with very rude employees and dirty auditoriums. A pleasant visit depends on the individual employees working that particular day. In any case, if you ever have a bad experience, complain to the corporate office.
A couple of years back, my electric scootered wife and I were at the AMC on Pacific Coast Highway in Long Beach, Ca., when a long power failure shut down the whole shopping center area.
The way-to-young staff were clueless as to how to assist us in leaving the building and no manager(s) came to explain the situation. Further, I didn’t see anyone with flashlights and no one knew of an alternative exit route.
Guess where we never went back again for entertainment!
Hmmm.
What exactly is an “electric scootered wife” and what further explanation does a power failure require?
Is “the wife” disabled or just really lazy? Did her scooter derive its power from AMC Theatres?
Both AMC and Carmike have some bad operations and young staff and both have really good operations with young staff, but really…aren’t the customers the real idiots?
I meant Cinemark…
Not always Al – for a while there was a problem at the new AMC Garden State with fire alarms going off elsewhere in the mall, forcing the cinema to be evacuated. To put things in perspective, I go to the movies about 4-5 times a week and have been doing so for the past 9 or so years, I’ve been evacuated from a theater exsactly three times, two of which were at AMC at GSP.
The staff was alright at it, but management and older screw members let the 16 year olds working the snack bars lead the evacuation, security also stood by and did nothing, it was a bit bizarre seeing that.
As for the AMC and Cinemark merger I think it’s a very very bad thing. We will soon be left with two major players – AMC and Regal and a handful or regional chains that are slowly either becoming larger (such as Kerasotes) or selling off theaters to others (National Amusements). I don’t have anything against AMC or Cinemark, I don’t know Cinemark all that well and have only been to a handful of their theaters (some with very tacky lobbies that were dizzying). AMC is alright, aside from dirty bathrooms at some theaters. I just don’t like all the consolidation and control, I’m not anti-free market, I just like having choice and quality run theaters. AMC and Regal are just okay, where as National Amusements and (here in NJ, and only in the last year or so) Clearview Cinemas are the best in terms of cleanliness, customer service and quality of snacks.
Certain things that make me avoid AMC, Cinemark, etc., and other big-chain multiplex cinemas when and if at all possible:
A) The (mostly) schlocky quality of the movies (today’s) that’re played in those particular theatres.
B) Prices are outrageous, for both general admission and concession food.
C) Rude, obnoxious cell-phone/texting patrons, and unruly kids out of control
D) Very antiseptic-looking design, both inside and outside.