One of the auditoriums is being renovated into a Dolby Cinema auditorium (auditorium 23?) as of September 2018. Will likely be open for Thanksgiving/Christmas movie season.
Why do I have this feeling AMC won’t be around for long? Perhaps it’s the history of the theater at this point, but AMC is the kind of company that will run a gold mine into the ground. Going back to the Posel days, the theater occupied a certain niche and succeeded. However, the theater exists in this strange place in the market where it’s not a huge theater near a mall or central corridor like route 73, but it’s not really a small theater either. I suspect the place will fail because AMC will assume that it can charge really high prices because of its location in an affluent area, like the Marlton 8 post conversion, and that will repel both the loyal “annual popcorn bucket” crowd and the folks like me who do see the specialty films that will likely be eliminated from the programming mix.
The theater’s location and context on the market make it difficult for a chain like AMC to run it well, which Carmike did to their credit by being hands off. If you go through this comments section, I have made my position clear that this theater works best if it caters to niche and builds a devoted following like… perhaps… an Alamo Drafthouse. (Tim League, if you’re reading this, please try to acquire this theater if the opportunity arises) There are just too many multiplexes in the market that are like what the AMC Voorhees 16 will surely become. You could do a lot better with that location, and charge the kind of prices AMC thinks it can get out of an affluent bedroom community, if you try to be unique. “Quality will out” as they say.
AMC-Carmike has receive conditional approval from the Justice Department.
Per Reuters
The Justice Department expressed two concerns over the merger. The first had to do with loss of competition between movie theaters in 15 markets in nine states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. One condition for the acquisition was that AMC or Carmike be required to sell a theater in each of those markets.
http://reuters.com/article/idUSKBN1491ZN
Now that the Carmike holdouts got the price they wanted, the merger is on.
To be completed by the end of 2016.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/amc-carmike-agree-to-sweetened-takeover-deal-1469447541
One wonders when federal regulators will decide if AMC-Carmike need to sell the Ritz 16. The case for them to sell is even stronger than when DoJ forced Cinemark to unload the theater to Carmike because AMC-Carmike would possess a much larger share of the market.
AMC has acquired Carmike. It seems likely that the government will have the combined AMC/Carmike sell off theaters to recieve regulatory approval. Given AMC’s current position in the South Jersey market, the Ritz 16 might end up with a new owner… again.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/amc-buys-carmike-theater-chain-872653
Here we go again…
http://deadline.com/2014/03/could-carmikes-strong-q4-earnings-help-to-put-it-in-play/
The exhibition chain’s stock is up about 7.7% so far today, and hit a 52-week high of $32.60, as its stronger-than-expected Q4 earnings delighted investors — and revived speculation that it might soon be ripe for a takeover. Some analysts say that the stars will align if the leading theater ad sales company, National CineMedia, buys its rival Screenvision. That “could happen this year,” B. Riley’s Eric Wold says. And since Carmike owns about 19% of Screenvision, that “would also put Carmike in play to be acquired by one of the top three domestic exhibitors.” Benchmark Co’s Mike Hickey says that a deal would “create a +$300 million asset within Carmike” potentially enticing bidders to offer about $40 per share. Even without a deal, investors like Carmike’s report that its attendance per screen increased about 3% in Q4. That’s a contrast with AMC, Regal, and Cinemark which were down — one analyst attributed that to the holiday season launches of Sony’s PS4 and Microsoft’s XBox One gaming consoles. What accounted for the difference? Wold says that Carmike benefited from its small market theaters which operate “within somewhat competitor-free film zones.” Maxim Group’s John Tinker pointed to “the success of family-oriented films such as Frozen and The Hunger Games, which align well [with Carmike’s] concentration in suburban markets.” And Wedbush Securities’ Michael Pachter noted that the chain bought 52 screens from Cinemark and 147 from Muvico Theaters that “added three IMAX screens, two other premium format screens, and two Bogart’s Bar & Grill restaurants to Carmike’s portfolio.”
Ugh!! Bummer Alamo didn’t pick this up as part of their national expansion. Don’t know about you guys, but I don’t know if I want to patronize this theater anymore.
Chuck1231, Cinemark will be operating the theater for now. From the ruling date, May 20th, Cinemark has 90 days to sell the theater or face government penalties.
Some thoughts on the chains that could buy the theater:
AMC: They bought a fair number of Rave theaters last year. If they passed then, they’ll likely pass again. In this market, they’re planning on pouring lots of money into the existing theaters (Marlton 8 & Loews Cherry Hill 24). They just finished an extensive renovation of the Marlton 8 with 4K projectors, reclinging leather seats, a new lobby/concessions, etc.
Regal: They are building a new theater in Moorestown that was supposed to be opened by the summer. I think they would rather foues their time and public attention to their new state of the art theater over this theater they just bought.
The court ruling noted that the Ritz sold one million tickets last year. This is a theater that does well financially in a very nice area. I think chains like Landmark, after realizing their mistake, or Alamo Drafthouse, which has no current presence in the greater Philadelphia area and is making moves into the suburbs of Denver and DC, or an eccentric millionaire film geek like Ray Posel would be a good fit. In other words, someone who loves movies.
That being said, the Ritz, while by no means dilapidated, needs a lot of TLC. Since National Amusements installed 2K projectors, which was a bad decision in the long term IMHO, they’ll need to get 4Ks. I’m not so sure about the sound systems, but Dolby Atmos for the two large theaters would be nice.Then there are the little details that made the Ritz, the Ritz. Things like those cool color changing wavy light bars, the deliberate absence of cheap promotion material (Why would you cover up those beautiful classic movie posters with a crappy Hangover 3 cutout?!?!?), basic maintenance of the exterior like power washing the stucco and replacing lightbulbs. I almost forgot the menagerie of goodies they used to serve at the concessions stand!! Always see what I’m missing when I go to the Ritzes in Philly!
More Art House/Foreign films are a given! :–)
I could go on, but let’s just hope for the best!
Fingers Crossed
@hdtv267, anything is possible so who knows.
For posterity, here’s a link to the DoJ ruling.
http://www.ofr.gov/(S(00exjxvzd0ot3r0gdyhed3ty))/OFRUpload/OFRData/2013-12762_PI.pdf
If I had to guess, I think a higher end chain would be more interested in buying the theater. Think Mark Cuban’s Landmark Theaters or the Alamo Drafthouse. Alamo seems a tad unlikely given the lack of space to build out a full service kitchen.
Another likely reason why said chains would want to buy the theater is the local demographics. Lots of upper middle/upper class folks with $$$ to spend.
http://www.poselmanagement.com/images/Ritz_Center_Demographics.pdf
One of the auditoriums is being renovated into a Dolby Cinema auditorium (auditorium 23?) as of September 2018. Will likely be open for Thanksgiving/Christmas movie season.
Why do I have this feeling AMC won’t be around for long? Perhaps it’s the history of the theater at this point, but AMC is the kind of company that will run a gold mine into the ground. Going back to the Posel days, the theater occupied a certain niche and succeeded. However, the theater exists in this strange place in the market where it’s not a huge theater near a mall or central corridor like route 73, but it’s not really a small theater either. I suspect the place will fail because AMC will assume that it can charge really high prices because of its location in an affluent area, like the Marlton 8 post conversion, and that will repel both the loyal “annual popcorn bucket” crowd and the folks like me who do see the specialty films that will likely be eliminated from the programming mix.
The theater’s location and context on the market make it difficult for a chain like AMC to run it well, which Carmike did to their credit by being hands off. If you go through this comments section, I have made my position clear that this theater works best if it caters to niche and builds a devoted following like… perhaps… an Alamo Drafthouse. (Tim League, if you’re reading this, please try to acquire this theater if the opportunity arises) There are just too many multiplexes in the market that are like what the AMC Voorhees 16 will surely become. You could do a lot better with that location, and charge the kind of prices AMC thinks it can get out of an affluent bedroom community, if you try to be unique. “Quality will out” as they say.
Kind of amazing that DOJ approved this. AMC will now handily control the South Jersey Market, especially in the Philadelphia suburbs.
Alps-Personally, I would prefer Dolby Cinema over lieMAX at the Ritz 16, provided they will actually invest in the theater.
AMC-Carmike has receive conditional approval from the Justice Department. Per Reuters The Justice Department expressed two concerns over the merger. The first had to do with loss of competition between movie theaters in 15 markets in nine states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. One condition for the acquisition was that AMC or Carmike be required to sell a theater in each of those markets. http://reuters.com/article/idUSKBN1491ZN
Now that the Carmike holdouts got the price they wanted, the merger is on. To be completed by the end of 2016. http://www.wsj.com/articles/amc-carmike-agree-to-sweetened-takeover-deal-1469447541
One wonders when federal regulators will decide if AMC-Carmike need to sell the Ritz 16. The case for them to sell is even stronger than when DoJ forced Cinemark to unload the theater to Carmike because AMC-Carmike would possess a much larger share of the market.
AMC has acquired Carmike. It seems likely that the government will have the combined AMC/Carmike sell off theaters to recieve regulatory approval. Given AMC’s current position in the South Jersey market, the Ritz 16 might end up with a new owner… again. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/amc-buys-carmike-theater-chain-872653
Here we go again… http://deadline.com/2014/03/could-carmikes-strong-q4-earnings-help-to-put-it-in-play/
The exhibition chain’s stock is up about 7.7% so far today, and hit a 52-week high of $32.60, as its stronger-than-expected Q4 earnings delighted investors — and revived speculation that it might soon be ripe for a takeover. Some analysts say that the stars will align if the leading theater ad sales company, National CineMedia, buys its rival Screenvision. That “could happen this year,” B. Riley’s Eric Wold says. And since Carmike owns about 19% of Screenvision, that “would also put Carmike in play to be acquired by one of the top three domestic exhibitors.” Benchmark Co’s Mike Hickey says that a deal would “create a +$300 million asset within Carmike” potentially enticing bidders to offer about $40 per share. Even without a deal, investors like Carmike’s report that its attendance per screen increased about 3% in Q4. That’s a contrast with AMC, Regal, and Cinemark which were down — one analyst attributed that to the holiday season launches of Sony’s PS4 and Microsoft’s XBox One gaming consoles. What accounted for the difference? Wold says that Carmike benefited from its small market theaters which operate “within somewhat competitor-free film zones.” Maxim Group’s John Tinker pointed to “the success of family-oriented films such as Frozen and The Hunger Games, which align well [with Carmike’s] concentration in suburban markets.” And Wedbush Securities’ Michael Pachter noted that the chain bought 52 screens from Cinemark and 147 from Muvico Theaters that “added three IMAX screens, two other premium format screens, and two Bogart’s Bar & Grill restaurants to Carmike’s portfolio.”
Ugh!! Bummer Alamo didn’t pick this up as part of their national expansion. Don’t know about you guys, but I don’t know if I want to patronize this theater anymore.
Fingers Crossed!!
Chuck1231, Cinemark will be operating the theater for now. From the ruling date, May 20th, Cinemark has 90 days to sell the theater or face government penalties.
Some thoughts on the chains that could buy the theater: AMC: They bought a fair number of Rave theaters last year. If they passed then, they’ll likely pass again. In this market, they’re planning on pouring lots of money into the existing theaters (Marlton 8 & Loews Cherry Hill 24). They just finished an extensive renovation of the Marlton 8 with 4K projectors, reclinging leather seats, a new lobby/concessions, etc.
Regal: They are building a new theater in Moorestown that was supposed to be opened by the summer. I think they would rather foues their time and public attention to their new state of the art theater over this theater they just bought.
The court ruling noted that the Ritz sold one million tickets last year. This is a theater that does well financially in a very nice area. I think chains like Landmark, after realizing their mistake, or Alamo Drafthouse, which has no current presence in the greater Philadelphia area and is making moves into the suburbs of Denver and DC, or an eccentric millionaire film geek like Ray Posel would be a good fit. In other words, someone who loves movies.
That being said, the Ritz, while by no means dilapidated, needs a lot of TLC. Since National Amusements installed 2K projectors, which was a bad decision in the long term IMHO, they’ll need to get 4Ks. I’m not so sure about the sound systems, but Dolby Atmos for the two large theaters would be nice.Then there are the little details that made the Ritz, the Ritz. Things like those cool color changing wavy light bars, the deliberate absence of cheap promotion material (Why would you cover up those beautiful classic movie posters with a crappy Hangover 3 cutout?!?!?), basic maintenance of the exterior like power washing the stucco and replacing lightbulbs. I almost forgot the menagerie of goodies they used to serve at the concessions stand!! Always see what I’m missing when I go to the Ritzes in Philly! More Art House/Foreign films are a given! :–) I could go on, but let’s just hope for the best!
Fingers Crossed@hdtv267, anything is possible so who knows. For posterity, here’s a link to the DoJ ruling. http://www.ofr.gov/(S(00exjxvzd0ot3r0gdyhed3ty))/OFRUpload/OFRData/2013-12762_PI.pdf
If I had to guess, I think a higher end chain would be more interested in buying the theater. Think Mark Cuban’s Landmark Theaters or the Alamo Drafthouse. Alamo seems a tad unlikely given the lack of space to build out a full service kitchen.
Another likely reason why said chains would want to buy the theater is the local demographics. Lots of upper middle/upper class folks with $$$ to spend. http://www.poselmanagement.com/images/Ritz_Center_Demographics.pdf