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Industry
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February 10, 2010
Movie theater popcorn named as one of America’s biggest ripoffs
Right up there with “free” credit reports and the ever tempting hotel minibar sitsmovie theater popcorn as one of the nation’s biggest ripoffs.
A medium bag of popcorn costs just 60 cents to make but retails for $6, a whopping 900% markup. That’s enough to make “Avatar” fans turn blue.
Richard McKenzie, an economics professor at University of California-Irvine, says theater owners mark up the snack so much because they don’t make a profit elsewhere.34 comments -
February 9, 2010
Wisconsin Opera Houses book wins award
The latest winner of the THS Outstanding Theater Book of the Year award is Brian Leahy Doyle for his book “Encore: The Renaissance of Wisconsin Opera Houses.”
Read more about it Boswell and Books.
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January 29, 2010
Leader in Boyd effort passes on
We were deeply saddened to learn about the sudden death Monday, January 23 of Philadelphia developer Hal Wheeler. The Philadelphia Inquirer obituary today is linked here.
Since he stepped forth in 2008 with his plan to acquire, fully restore, and reopen the Boyd for entertainment, Friends of the Boyd and colleagues worked very closely with Hal.
Many of you attended various community meetings about the Boyd and experienced, first-hand, Hal’s gung ho enthusiasm for the project. Many articles are linked on our website. This 2008 feature from the Philadelphia Inquirer is a profile of Hal.
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January 26, 2010
RAVE theater chain is no longer a bit player
An article in the L.A. Times describes the ascension of the growing Rave theater chain. Their recent acquisition of several National Amusements theaters brought them up in the rankings of theater operators.
For Stephenson, the deal catapults him from a second-tier operator into the big leagues of national theater chains. Rave is now the No. 5 circuit in the country, operating 65 theaters and about 1,000 screens in 20 states, more than doubling its size.
At a time when movie theaters are no longer considered a high-growth business, Stephenson is making a contrarian bet — at least in the midterm — that people will continue to trek to theaters for a movie rather than nesting at home and watching it on their big-screen, high-definition TVs.
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New company promotes improved 3D system for existing 35mm projectors
SAN JOSE, CA — Oculus3D has announced a new lens and film printing system that it claims will substantially reduce the cost of presenting 3D films. The company claims the system will benefit those theater operators unable or unwilling to make the investment in digital 3D projection systems.
The Oculus3D system consists of the OculR lens for the theater’s 35mm projector, a new movie screen and plastic frame linear polarizer glasses. The lens provides a minimum brightness of six foot lamberts, which equals or exceeds the brightness of most digital and single-projector film systems.
In addition, the startup’s approach does not use the over/under technique of packing left and right frames—one on top of the other—into a single movie frame. At the Consumer Electronics Show, cable TV and satellite broadcasters said they will adopt the over/under or a side-by-side format to reduce the bandwidth needed to send stereo 3-D content.
Further information about the system is in the EE Times.
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January 20, 2010
Kerasotes sells theaters to Kansas City’s AMC
CHICAGO, IL — Kerasotes Showplace Theatres LLC, have announced that they (with the exception of three theatres) will be bought by AMC Entertainment.
Providence Equity Partners, which became a majority owner of Kerasotes Showplace Theatres in 2003, wanted to cash out of its investment, said Jim DeBruzzi, Kerasotes Showplace’s chief financial officer.
“We put a line in the water,” he said, and AMC appeared as a suitor.
AMC will take over 93 of Kerasotes' 96 movie theaters. Tony and Dean Kerasotes will continue to own and operate the ShowPlace Icon theater that opened in December on Roosevelt Road near Clark Street. The brothers will also retain an Icon theater in Minneapolis and a ShowPlace theater in Secaucus, N.J.
Read more in the Chicago Business Journal.
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Box office up, dvd sales down in 2009
According to engadget, more people spent money at the movies than buying movies on dvd in 2009 vs 2008.
During one of the worst economies our parents have ever seen, according to Adams research, people spent $9.97 billion to get out of the house to see a movie last year — up 10 percent from 2008. At the same time, Disc sales (DVD and Blu-ray included) were down 13 percent to $8.73 billion — which wasn’t down nearly as much as most consumer goods.
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January 13, 2010
New book on Portland theaters joins illustrated series
On January 1st, there was an article about a new book on Portland, Oregon theaters. The book is part of the “Images of America” series from Arcadia Publishing. This familiar, sepia-toned, soft cover series celebrates the history of America’s neighborhoods, cities and towns —– both large and small.
Portland’s history was marked by vigorous growth. This was due in part, according to the authors, to the Pacific Northwest’s often rainy weather. Individuals, seeking refuge, turned indoors and found entertainment. Portland eventually grew to have more theater seats per capita than other similar-sized cities in the United States.
As shown in this new book, Portland movie theaters came into their own in the early decades of the last century when short filmed segments were included in vaudeville programs at various downtown venues. By 1915, there were over 70 theaters showing films both downtown and in the neighborhood theaters found throughout the city.
The full article can be found in the Examiner.
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January 12, 2010
National Amusements sells Russian operations to Shari Redstone and equity firm
LOS ANGELES, CA — National Amusements, which recently sold off several dozen theaters to Rave Cinemas, is selling the five theaters it operated in Moscow and one in St. Petersburg to Shari Redstone and UFG Private Equity.
The Russian circuit, which Shari Redstone co-founded with Paul Heth in 2002 and has been her passion project, is made up of six theaters in Moscow and St. Petersburg, five of which are the top-grossing cinemas in Russia.
Redstone said she planned to aggressively expand the theater chain under its established Russian brand name Kinostar. Redstone, who bought the chain with Charles Ryan of UFG Private Equity of Russia, will be chairman of the new entity, and Heth will serve as president.
There is more in the LA Times.
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January 11, 2010
2010 America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places Nominations
Nominations are due by this Friday, January 15th, for the annual most endangered historic places list. Go to the National Trust site for more info.
America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places has identified more than 200 threatened one-of-a-kind historic treasures since 1988. Whether these sites are urban districts or rural landscapes, Native American landmarks or 20th-century sports arenas, entire communities or single buildings, the list spotlights historic places across America that are threatened by neglect, insufficient funds, inappropriate development or insensitive public policy. The designation has been a powerful tool for raising awareness and rallying resources to save endangered sites from every region of the country. At times, that attention has garnered public support to quickly rescue a treasured landmark; while in other instances, it has been the impetus of a long battle to save an important piece of our history.