The movie theater lives!
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MARK AUSTIN THOMAS: AMC operates almost 400 theatres around the world. It’s the second-largest movie chain in the U.S. Yesterday it cancelled its initial public offering of shares in the chain. Rival Cinemark went public last week. Hey, isn’t the move theater supposed to have gone the way of the dodo? We asked Marketplace’s Lisa Napoli to look behind the curtain.
LISA NAPOLI: Turns out reports of the death of the movie theater have been greatly exaggerated.
JOHN FITHIAN: So even discounting the growth and revenues from ticket price increases, we are selling more tickets every decade than we sold the decade before.
That’s John Fithian of the National Association of Theater Owners. He says the industry always roller coasters based on the quality of the movies that are out.
So why this moment in time for IPOs? George Szalai of Hollywood Reporter knows.
GEORGE SZALAI: The investors that were basically controlling the companies as privately-held companies are trying to cash out, make some money by selling some of their stock as well.
But so far Cinemark hasn’t proven to be the blockbuster some hoped.
The big hit of the year has been the IPO of a company that sells theater advertising. National Cinemedia went public to the tune of $880 million earlier this year.
In Los Angeles, I’m Lisa Napoli for Marketplace.
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