Comments about AMC - Loews Merger to Close Soon

Showing 1 - 25 of 60 comments

Ron Newman
Ron Newman on January 27, 2006 at 7:44 pm

Yep — if you try go to Loew’s web site ([url]www.enjoytheshow.com[/url]), that’s where you end up. Both sites have the same IP address, 66.111.104.27 .

Michael R. Rambo Jr.
Michael R. Rambo Jr. on January 27, 2006 at 5:29 pm

Here is the website for the merged AMC-Loews Cineplex Theatres.

Ron Newman
Ron Newman on January 27, 2006 at 9:33 am

They are allowed several months to complete the required divestitures. At least one of the agreements says that the government can step in with a receiver to accomplish the sale if AMC fails to do so.

John Fink
John Fink on January 27, 2006 at 9:09 am

Will they rebrand? AMC’s website still sites as “Loews Plainville 20” – the phone message thanks me for calling Loews Cineplex Plainville 20. And how could they have closed the merger when Fenway and E-Walk are still operating as Loews/AMC sites? It also apears the State has closed as well and that the Magic Johnson theater in Harlem has been changed to the AMC Harlem 9.

dave-bronx™
dave-bronx™ on January 27, 2006 at 8:09 am

There is a transition schedule set up to convert over to AMCs systems and procedures over a period of 3 weeks so everyone (Loews people) can gradually get accustomed with the new ‘culture’. As far as signage on the marquee, I haven’t heard that part yet. The Loews website, www.enjoytheshow.com is now a AMC site, and states that “Loews Has Joined the AMC Family”.

Ron Newman
Ron Newman on January 27, 2006 at 3:04 am

I thought today was supposed to be the big Rebranding Day … but in today’s Boston Globe, all five of our remaining Loews Cineplex theatres are still advertised with Loews logos and names (for instance, “Loews Theatres At The Loop” in Methuen, MA)

jmarellano
jmarellano on January 26, 2006 at 10:22 am

Full press release:

News Releases
AMC Entertainment Inc. and Loews Cineplex Entertainment Corporation Complete Merger

Kansas City, Missouri â€" January 26, 2006 â€" AMC Entertainment Inc. today announced that it has completed its merger with Loews Cineplex Entertainment Corporation, creating a worldwide leader in the theatrical exhibition industry. In accordance with the terms of the merger agreement governing the transaction, Loews Cineplex Entertainment Corporation has been merged into AMC Entertainment Inc., with AMC Entertainment Inc. continuing as the surviving corporation. Loews Cineplex Entertainment Corporation’s holding company, LCE Holdings, Inc., has similarly been merged into Marquee Holdings Inc., the holding company of AMC Entertainment Inc., with Marquee Holdings Inc. continuing as the holding company of the merged businesses.

The merged company will be called AMC Entertainment Inc. and will continue to be headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri. The company will have interests in approximately 415 theatres with 5,672 screens in 29 states and the District of Columbia and 11 countries outside of the United States. Peter C. Brown will remain chairman and chief executive officer, and the combined company will have approximately 24,000 associates serving more than 250 million guests annually.

As a result of the merger, approximately 60 percent of the outstanding capital stock of Marquee Holdings Inc. will be held by the existing shareholders and approximately 40 percent will be held by the former shareholders of Loews Cineplex Entertainment Corporation. Our significant shareholders include: affiliates of Apollo Management, L.P. (approximately 21 percent); affiliates of J.P. Morgan Partners, LLC (approximately 21 percent); affiliates of Bain Capital, LLC (approximately 15 percent); affiliates of The Carlyle Group (approximately 15 percent); affiliates of Spectrum Equity Investors (approximately 10 percent); and other co-investors and members of management (approximately 18 percent).

“This is a momentous day in the history of the theatrical exhibition industry,” Brown said. “AMC and Loews bring together more than 185 years of combined operating history with a shared commitment to providing guests with the best possible out-of-home entertainment experience. We look forward to many years of continued growth, innovation and the opportunity to serve our guests.”

Travis Reid, former Loews Cineplex Entertainment Corporation president and chief executive officer will serve as a member of the board of Marquee Holdings Inc., and will be available on a consulting basis to assist with the transition and integration process.

“This merger creates one of the biggest and best movie theatre companies in the world,” Reid said. “Associates of both Loews and AMC should take pride in contributing to the birth of this great new company. The Loews team has been working alongside AMC for the past several months to help position the new company for a seamless integration, and I applaud Peter and his leadership team for their dedication to the successful completion of the merger.”

While the full integration process will take a few months, the new entity will immediately honor all gift cards, gift certificates and group tickets previously issued or purchased from AMC or Loews.

In connection with the completion of the merger, AMC Entertainment Inc. repurchased $315 million in aggregate principal amount, or 100 percent, of Loews Cineplex Entertainment Corporation’s outstanding 9 percent Senior Subordinated Notes due 2014 that were tendered in the tender offer and consent solicitation launched December 21, 2005; issued $325 million in aggregate principal amount of 11 percent Senior Subordinated Notes due 2016; and refinanced $850 million in aggregate principal amount of the senior credit facilities of AMC Entertainment Inc. and Loews Cineplex Entertainment Corporation.

About Marquee Holdings Inc. and AMC Entertainment Inc.

Marquee Holdings Inc. is a holding company that conducts its business through its subsidiary AMC Entertainment Inc. AMC Entertainment Inc. is a worldwide leader in the theatrical exhibition industry. With a history of industry leadership and innovation dating back to the early 1900s, the company today serves more than 250 million guests annually through interests in 415 theatres and 5,672 screens in 12 countries including the United States. The company is headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri. Additional information is available online at www.amctheatres.com

About Apollo Management, L.P.

Apollo Management, L.P., founded in 1990, is among the most active and successful private investments firms in the United States in terms of both number of investment transactions completed and aggregate dollars invested. Since its inception, Apollo has managed the investment of an aggregate of approximately $13 billion in equity capital in a wide variety of industries, both domestically and internationally, and is currently managing Apollo Investment Fund VI, L.P., its most recent fund with committed capital of $10.1 billion.

About J.P. Morgan Partners, LLC

J.P. Morgan Partners, LLC (JPMP) is a leading private equity firm with approximately $10 billion in capital under management as of December 31, 2005. Since its inception in 1984, JPMP has invested over $15 billion worldwide in consumer, media, energy, industrial, financial services, healthcare, hardware and software companies. With more than 75 investment professionals in five principal offices throughout the world, JPMP is an experienced investor in companies with worldwide operations. JPMP is a private equity division of JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM), one of the largest financial institutions in the United States, and is a registered investment adviser with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

About Bain Capital

Bain Capital (www.baincapital.com) is a leading global private investment firm that manages several pools of capital including private equity, venture capital, public equity and leveraged debt assets with more than $27 billion in assets under management. Since its inception in 1984, Bain Capital’s private equity team has made investments and add-on acquisitions in over 230 companies around the world, including such leading media, entertainment and publishing companies as Warner Music Group, ProSieben SAT1 Media AG, Houghton Mifflin, Advertising Directory Solutions, and Artisan Entertainment. Headquartered in Boston, Bain Capital has offices in New York, London, Munich, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo.

About The Carlyle Group

The Carlyle Group is a global private equity firm with $35 billion under management. Carlyle invests in buyouts, venture capital, real estate and leveraged finance in Asia, Europe and North America, focusing on aerospace & defense, automotive & transportation, consumer & retail, energy & power, healthcare, industrial, technology & business services and telecommunications & media. Since 1987, the firm has invested $14.9 billion of equity in 439 transactions for a total purchase price of $51.9 billion. The Carlyle Group employs more than 630 people in 14 countries. In the aggregate, Carlyle portfolio companies have more than $30 billion in revenue and employ more than 131,000 people around the world. Visit www.carlyle.com for additional information.

About Spectrum Equity Investors

Spectrum Equity Investors (www.spectrumequity.com) is a private equity firm specializing in investments in established companies in the media, communications, entertainment, and information and business services industries. Spectrum manages private equity funds representing $4 billion in committed capital. Representative investments include CBD Media, Classic Media, Eutelsat, Loews Cineplex Entertainment, MyFamily, and Risk Metrics.

Melanie Bell, AMC Theatres
(816) 480-2560

Index of Press Releases

CinemarkFan
CinemarkFan on January 26, 2006 at 6:09 am

RIP River Oaks 9-10. 1969-2006
RIP River Oaks 1-6. 1989/1990-2006

nwtimes.com reports that River Oaks theatres are closing. 9-10 will be torn down for retail. They don’t know what will happen with the mall theatres, but 9-10’s fate has been sealed. Please join me at the River Oaks page and share memories with me.

jimpiscitelli
jimpiscitelli on January 26, 2006 at 4:54 am

Per Ron Newman: Village Theaters is taking over the North Riverside and is still currently showing movies. The theater will remain open during the transistion.

As for the River Oaks, 7-8 had closed last fall at the same time as the Lincoln Village 1-6. The Lincoln Village 1-6 is currently under the Village Theaters chain. Don’t know what will happen to the River Oaks 1-6 or 9-10. Note: River Oaks 9-10 were the original theaters that opened in 1969 under the Plitt Theaters chain.

John Fink
John Fink on January 26, 2006 at 3:16 am

Route 17 – a 60’s style tri-plex has been closed for a few weeks now I think. There was talk of opening a multiplex at Garden State Plaza (which is in the same parking lot as the Route 17 triplex) – theres a chance AMC will try again with that.

Ron Newman
Ron Newman on January 26, 2006 at 1:56 am

Also, here’s a list of AMC theatres, in convenient XML form. The AMC website’s Flash apparently uses this to generate part of its display:

View link

(On some browsers such as Safari and Opera, you’ll need to do a View Source to actually see this file’s contents.)

It would be interesting to download this XML file again tomorrow, and compare it with today’s file.

Ron Newman
Ron Newman on January 26, 2006 at 1:23 am

And it looks like the Metreon and Universal IMAXen are alive and well too. Their showtimes are just listed along with all the others in those two megaplexes, rather than on their own separate pages.

(I was getting the list of all theatres by entering nothing in the “Theatre Search” field in the left bar, and then hitting the second red “SEARCH” button. The entries for “Loews IMAX” and “Universal IMAX” probably just shouldn’t be in the search results.)

Ron Newman
Ron Newman on January 26, 2006 at 1:17 am

OK, I guess I jumped the gun a bit. But besides the ones dave-bronx listed, these also still have no Friday showtimes:

North Riverside 6, IL
River Oaks 1-6 and 9-10, Calumuet City, IL

The Lincoln IMAX is not closing. It has both Harry Potter and “Roving Mars: Exclusively in IMAX Theatres” scheduled starting Friday.

dave-bronx™
dave-bronx™ on January 25, 2006 at 10:40 pm

Of the theatres Ron listed earlier, as of 4:10am eastern, the ones that still have early or no showtimes are:
Beverly
Fresh Pond
Rockville
Imax @ Metreon
State
Rt. 17
Imax @ Universal
The State, Rockville, Rt. 17 and I think the Beverly are duds. The Fresh Pond has the concession operation issue that AMC probably doesn’t want to get involved with. There may be licensing issues with the Imax units that haven’t been worked out yet – in NY the Lincoln Imax is only running 2 shows of H.Potter.

Ron Newman
Ron Newman on January 25, 2006 at 6:42 pm

Well, I know for a fact that Fresh Pond is closing, and other people have told me that Beverly Center and Loews State are closing. So I suspect that some others on the list are closing as well.

Michael R. Rambo Jr.
Michael R. Rambo Jr. on January 25, 2006 at 6:35 pm

None of the ones you listed are closing. All of the Loews Cineplex Theatres will be getting an ambassador from AMC Theatres. These “ambassadors” are either Senior Operations Managers or General Managers of existing AMC Theatres.

Ron Newman
Ron Newman on January 25, 2006 at 6:18 pm

I just now clicked through the showtimes for every theatre listed at EnjoyTheShow.com . The following have no showtimes listed after Thursday, January 26:

Beverly Center 13, Los Angeles CA (no shows after 4:40 pm Thursday)
Catalina Cinemas 6, Tucson, AZ
Cherry Hill, NJ
Fresh Pond 10, Cambridge MA (no shows after 7:45 pm Thursday)
Loews 34th Street, NYC
Loews Cineplex Rockville Center 2, NY (no showtimes listed even for today)
Loews Danbury 10, CT
Loews IMAX, San Francisco, CA (no showtimes listed even for today)
Loews State 4, NYC
Menlo Park 12, Edison, NJ
North Riverside 6, IL
River Oaks 1-6, Calumet City, IL (no shows after 8:45 pm Thursday)
River Oaks 9-10, Calumet City, IL (say, what happened to theatres 7 and 8?)
Roosevelt Field 8, Garden City, NY
Route Seventeen 3, Paramus, NJ (no showtimes listed even for today)
Star Great Lakes Crossing, Auburn Hills, MI
Star Holland, MI
Universal IMAX (no showtimes listed even for today)

I’m curious which of these are closing, and which are being sold off to other operators.

Ron Newman
Ron Newman on January 25, 2006 at 11:16 am

I don’t see what AMC can do to improve Assembly Square’s quality, other than close it and replace it with a modern stadium-seating megaplex. (I think Loew’s wanted to do exactly that several years ago, but went bankrupt before they could do so.)

John Fink
John Fink on January 25, 2006 at 10:46 am

What about the Star Theaters brand?

Secondly AMC gained several strong locations from GCC including Clifton Commons in NJ, GCC had a few new stadium seating theaters that were new, they took the good with the bad. GCC’s problem is they were locked into leases and expanded in the late 80’s/early 90’s before the stadium seating boom, leaving them with out of date 6-10 plexes and Regal and AMC were going crazy building new style megaplexes.

AMC has a lot of work to do on Loews to bring them up to their quality, just from a customer service point of view. I remember when the topic was brought up in an earlier post someone had complained that AMC brings in their management – the answer, Loews Theaters are dirty and poorly managed (it’s not just true of one theater – I have been to LCE theaters in five states). AMC is pretty good. General Cinema was always quality, and they really are missed.

Michael R. Rambo Jr.
Michael R. Rambo Jr. on January 24, 2006 at 5:59 pm

In 2 days, the Loews Cineplex chain will be no more. You will have AMC Entertainment operationg the theatres under the AMC and Magic Johnson names.

jimpiscitelli
jimpiscitelli on January 24, 2006 at 4:00 pm

To CinemarkFan: The Oakbrook 1-4 is still standing. They are stores that are behind the 1-4 including a LensCrafters and Mario Tricoci salon.

rivest266
rivest266 on January 24, 2006 at 2:02 pm

The mall is
have a look at this USGS aerial.

View link

(Maps.google.com just had upgraded for closer zoom)

CinemarkFan
CinemarkFan on January 24, 2006 at 9:09 am

I’ll look into Oakbrook 1-4. Is 1-4 still standing?

jimpiscitelli
jimpiscitelli on January 24, 2006 at 4:56 am

To CinemarkFan: You probably want to add the North Riverside and Oakbrook 1-4 to your list. I would like to see the Oakbrook 1-4 play art movies.