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Industry
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January 23, 2009
Film on Theatre Pioneer, former Warner Brothers Zone Manager, James E. Coston
Web site has been uploaded with trailer and photographs. Principle filming to be complete by July 2009.
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January 13, 2009
Irwin Seating closed down its Chinese factory
Irwin Seating closed down its Chinese factory recently after two years operation in China.
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January 12, 2009
Houston photographer gathers theater photos book
HOUSTON, TX — With photos dating back a generation, Story Sloane is compiling the best for a book.
Like his father before him, Sloane is a photographer who is using images to help keep Houston’s history alive.
“We tear down the buildings, but how bad would that be if we didn’t photograph the building we tore down,” said Sloane.
Read more at KHOU.
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January 9, 2009
Another record year for the movies
Not quite as many tickets were sold in ‘08 but a strong finish helped the final tally be the highest ever.
It was a photo finish, but North American movie-ticket sales hit the wire in a furious gallop to post an annual gain of almost 2%, with a record haul of $9.78 billion in estimated grosses.
Avid holiday moviegoing helped the industry rewrite the history books in the home stretch, though substantial ticket-price boosts helped pad the tally. Industry estimates put average U.S. ticket prices at about $7.20, or almost 4.7% higher than in 2007.
Read the full story at Yahoo Movies.
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December 31, 2008
Cuban picks up shares of Carmike
Already owning part of the Landmark Theatres chain, Mark Cuban is broadening his portfolio by buying shares of Carmike Cinems.
Mark Cuban, the billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team and co-owner of the Landmark Theaters cinema chain, has acquired a 9.4% stake in Carmike Cinemas (CKEC), according to a regularly filing on Monday.
In the Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Cuban reported buying 1.2 million Carmike shares on the open market for roughly $2.8 million of his own funds. According to the filing, Cuban has been acquiring the shares through his personal investment account since mid-October.
Read more in USA Today.
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December 23, 2008
BCS Championship in 3D
Another high-profile sporting event is coming to screens around the U.S., this time in 3D.
Until now, only the Florida Gators have known what it’s like to have Tim Tebow screaming in your face during a football game.
But fans will finally get that experience, too, for the BCS Championship Game betwen UF and Oklahoma on Jan. 8. The game will be broadcast in high-definition 3D in about 80 movie theaters across the country, the company 3ality Digital announced Tuesday.
Read more in the Palm Beach Post.
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Marcus down quite a bit
MILWAUKEE, WI — Marcus Corp. is reporting a 69% drop for the second quarter, but not because of their theaters, they say.
Marcus Corp. said Thursday that investment losses, along with a write-down on a Las Vegas condominium hotel development, were the major reasons behind a 69.1% drop in its second-quarter net income.
But the Milwaukee company’s theaters continue to pack in moviegoers, even as its hotels are hit by declines in business and leisure travelers.
Read more in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
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National Amusements tied up in family disagreement
The Redstones are clashing over a debt renegotiation plan that could hold up future plans for National Amusements.
During a recent meeting of a special committee at National Amusements, the Redstones' movie theater company, which also controls Viacom and CBS, Ms. Redstone’s vote was the only one against the plan, according to people familiar with National Amusements' board deliberations. These people spoke anonymously because such proceedings are meant to be kept secret.
The continuing discord between the two represents another obstacle to an orderly debt renegotiation that would allow Mr. Redstone to maintain his grip on Viacom and CBS. The latest episode has made him a public example of what many industry titans are facing these days: declining personal wealth. Mr. Redstone’s net worth was once estimated by Forbes at more than $8 billion, but today it is questionable as to whether he is worth even $1 billion.
Read more in the New York Times.
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December 19, 2008
IMAX on track to grow throughout 2009
Shares of IMAX Corp. have been rising from its year-to-date low as the company has been adding screens and is locked in to run the biggest blockbuster films of 2009.
Over the weekend, 12% of the grosses of “The Day the Earth Stood Still” came from IMAX theaters, for a per screen average of over $30,000 compared to the national average of only $8700. Nineteen of the top 20 grossing theaters were IMAX theaters with ticket prices 25% to 40% higher than the average.
Box office results similar to this one throughout the year has consistently demonstrated the strength of the IMAX brand and the fact that the public is willing to pay a premium to see movies in IMAX theaters.
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December 16, 2008
E-Cinema expanding in India
As most of the world is converting to digital cinema projection, in India more than 2,000 screens will be converted to e-cinema by the end of 2009. This compares with only an estimated 300-400 digital cinema installations completed by 2009.
The e-cinema projectors are typically industrial DLPs with a resolution of 1.3k (1280x768) or 1.92k (1920x1080), short of the pure 2K (2048x1080) of digital cinema
The prices start at about $2,000-$10,000 for the projectors versus the $50,000 or more for digital cinema projectors.