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AMC - Loews Merger to Close Soon
posted by
dave-bronx™
on
January 16, 2006 at 12:07 pm
Loews Cineplex theatres will close at the end of the business day on Thurs. 1/26 and on Friday 1/27 will re-open as AMC Theatres. This will effectively relegate the Loews name, probably the oldest name in exibition, to the trash heap.
Marcus Loew, a furrier, opened a nickelodeon on the second floor of a commercial building in Cincinnati in 1905, and the rest, as they say, is history. He went on to establish Loew’s, Inc., building some of the most opulent and ornate vaudville-movie theatres ever seen. “We sell tickets to THEATRES, not movies”, he was quoted as saying. Loew also formed the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios through a series of aquisitions and mergers, to supply product to his theatre empire.
Loew died in 1927, but the company went on. Eventually the federal government forced the seperation of the MGM Studios from the Loew’s theatre operations.
The theatre operations were later purchased by the Tisch family, who diversified The Loew’s Corporation into hotels, real estate, insurance and tobacco. The number of grand old theatres was greatly reduced to exploit the land beneath them while a few new, sterile suburban theatres were opened in shopping centers.
In the 1980s, the Loews Corporation sold off the theatre operations to a partnership of Jerry Perenchio and TV producer Norman Lear. They, in turn, sold the theares to Tri-Star Pictures in less than 2 years.
Tri-Star Pictures was merged into Columbia Pictures, then a subsidiary of Coca-Cola. Coke then sold their film interests to Sony Corp. of America, and the theatres, for a brief time, were known as Sony Theatres. The company expanded with several circuit aquisitions and new-builds.
In 1997 Sony spun off the theatres as an independent company, re-christening the new operation as Loews Theatres.
An ill-advised and disasterous merger of Loews Theatres and the debt-ridden Cineplex Odeon Corporation soon followed and resulted in the combined entity filing for bankruptcy in 2001. It was revived by a debt-for-equity transaction by a partnership including Onex Corp.
Sold again to another partnership, this one including the Carlyle Group, it is now being merged into AMC Entertainment and the Loews name will be removed from all the theatres.
Comments (60)
I assume the five Loews theatres they are required to divest, such as NYC’s E-Walk, will continue to be called ‘Loews’ until they are in fact sold. Anyone know for sure?
Here’s a link to Loews annual reports from 1965 through 1984.
Although the Loews circuit of today is far from its glory days, it will still be sad to see the name disappear, especially in favor of something as non-descript as ‘AMC’.
They said they expect the sale of the divested theatres to take about 3 months – I can’t see them changing signs, etc., just for that short time – but then stranger things have happened….
Anyone know who might take over the Meridian 16 in Seattle that Loews must divest?
I notice that Loew’s web site no longer contains promotions for LavaLife “Click at a Flick” (special showings for singles) or the free Thursday night (not-very-)classic film series.
In the area where I live, AMC picks up the Loews Cineplex Cherry Hill 24 Theatre, soon to be called AMC Cherry Hill 24 Theatre.
With all of AMC’s M&A action over the past few years, one byproduct has certainly been a motley assortment of architectural and design styles in what are now all branded as AMC venues. I wonder what percentage of AMC-owned theatres are actually AMC builds and thus have a house “look,” given all the regional and national chains they’ve swallowed up over the years. I can’t imagine that AMC has an extensive, ongoing remodeling program to make its acquisitions look more like AMC theatres. The rebranding of Loews theatres will just continue this mishmash.
Very interesting. Anyone know the complete different assotment of brand builds that will now be under AMC? Here are the ones I know from living on the west coast:
AMC
General Cinema
SRO (Sterling Recreation Organization)
Cineplex Odeon
Magic Johnson
Loews Cineplex
feel free to keep adding…
Sack Theatres, renamed USACinemas for a few years before Loews gobbled it up
And Loews Cineplex of course is the combination of Loews with Cineplex Odeon, which itself is a combination of (at least) two chains.
To add a couple more, there are a few AMC sites in the Philly area that started out in life as Budco theatres in the ‘70s or '80s. AMC has a pretty good presence in the New Orleans area thanks to the acquisition of a local chain there a couple years ago, although some of the theatres have not yet reopened in the aftermath of Katrina.
Cineplex Odeon, pre Loews Cineplex, would have included Cineplex builds (e.g., the Universal Citywalk in L.A. and Wisconsin Avenue in DC) along with some older RKO and Century (no relation to the West Coast Century chain, AFAIK) sites. Some of those have closed or been sold off.
Speaking of GCC, anybody know if they made any acquisitions that were later absorbed as part of the AMC takeover?
The only Sack Theatre to survive into the current Loews-AMC merger is the 12-screen Assembly Square Cinema in Somerville, Mass, which opened in 1981. It’s way below modern megaplex standards, and is the kind of place that AMC will be embarrassed to put their logo on.
After Sack turned into USACinemas, they also bought the Harvard Square, a 1920s single-screener that over time has been gracelessly chopped up into five screens. This isn’t really AMC’s kind of place either, but it too will be theirs soon.
No other former Sack or USACinema theatre is still part of Loews today. Most have been closed.
BTW, does the AMC/Loews merger include Canadian theatres? If so, there must be a few chains north of the border that will be encompassed.
I read in one of the SEC reports that Loews Cineplex sold off its Canadian holdings in preparation for the merger. The current Loews website lists no Canadian locations.
Does anyone think AMC will stamp their badge on the Beverly Center 13?
AMC now has theatres in Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal, and presumably will still have them after this merger.
I am really dreading this merger. This will leave only one major chain operating within the city limits of Chicago. I really wonder what will happen to some of my favorite theatres (I live in Downtown) including the 600 North (too close to River East 21, the Esquire (because AMC doesn’t show indies and foreign films), the Piper’s Alley (ditto), and the City North 14 and the Webster Place (both in proximity to each other and on the divestiture list).
Note the many chains that were predecessors to Loews'-AMC. All were once major players in the Chicagoland Area: Balaban & Katz, Plitt, Essaness, M&R. All were predecessors of Cineplex-Odeon or Sony-Loews prior to that merger.
Maybe I’ll just go to the Three Penny Cinema.
Interesting comment above about AMC not playing indies and foreign films. What will become of the Uptown triplex in Seattle that Loews has been running as an art house? Here’s hoping Landmark takes over operations…
Mark – I can see AMC Continuing operation at the Beverly Center, even though they already exited Beverly Hills not once, but twice.
The Fine Arts and the Beverly Connection, right? Too bad the Beverly Connection was shuttered instead of the Beverly Center.
[To add a couple more, there are a few AMC sites in the Philly area that started out in life as Budco theatres in the ‘70s or '80s. AMC has a pretty good presence in the New Orleans area thanks to the acquisition of a local chain there a couple years ago, although some of the theatres have not yet reopened in the aftermath of Katrina.
Cineplex Odeon, pre Loews Cineplex, would have included Cineplex builds (e.g., the Universal Citywalk in L.A. and Wisconsin Avenue in DC) along with some older RKO and Century (no relation to the West Coast Century chain, AFAIK) sites. Some of those have closed or been sold off.
Speaking of GCC, anybody know if they made any acquisitions that were later absorbed as part of the AMC takeover?]
All’s that’s left of AMC’s merger with the Budco chain is: AMc (Budco) 309 Cinema 9 Theatre and AMC (Goldman’s) Orleans 8 Theatre. Cineplex Odeon’s was in Philadelphia many years ago when they were known as RKO Century Warner, RKO Stanley Warner, Stanley Warner, and The Stanley Company Of America.
The Century Theatres chain that was based in NYC that acquired RKO Stanley Warner has no relations with the curent Century Theatres chain on the west coast.
Beverly Center was Cineplex’s first entry into the US market, in the early 1980s. This was before Cineplex merged with Odeon. It is not actually in the City of Beverly Hills, but just outside it in LA.
I had at least one friend who refused to go to this place because the theatres were so small.
Check out the screen size at the Beverly Center in relation to the exit door here:
http://www.cinematour.com/tour.php?db=us&id=2114
The are bigger home screening rooms….
In Chicago, add ‘ABC-Great States’ to the list of chains that have fed into this merger.
I’m assuming that pretty much everybody here sees the merger as kind of a dark cloud descending over the movie-theatre scene, as a rather faceless large corporation becomes even larger, further reducing competition, obliterating a long-revered logo (Loews), etc. Anybody see a bright side? For instance, is there a possibility of AMC moving to spruce up some of the locations that have started to hit the skids under Loews Cineplex ownership? Or is it more likely that they’ll just shed the underperforming (or still-performing despite shoddy upkeep) sites, in addition to the ones they’re already selling off to stay in the Justice Department’s good graces?
I agree with Paul. Any Loews Cineplex that I have been to on the west coast could seem to only benefit under AMC management. AMC has some first-rate locations with recent builds. I am not a big fan of their older theaters, but even those are well maintained. I have never seen a plastic bag over a broken seat at an AMC theater…
We’re going to have to rename a lot of theatres here at CinemaTreasures once the merger closing date arrives …
When Loews merged with Cineplex Odeon in 1998, a bunch of theaters were closed in the Chicago area between 1999-2001. They were minor closings between 2002 and now. Besides the prior meger was Babalan & Katz, Essaness, Plitt, M&R, Cineplex Odeon, and Loews-Cineplex, AMC has also bought out General Cinema theaters in 2002. Some of the Loews-Cineplex theaters were bought by the defunct Meridian Theaters and Village Theaters which proved even worse. Theaters bought out by Meridian at one point failed to pay the city (of Chicago) taxes, with the exception of the Old Orchard Theater in Skokie. Hopefully AMC will do better. They did not close any of the former General Cinema theaters and hopefully will do the same to Loews theaters.
I don’t think AMC has closed any former GCC theatres in the Boston area.
Loews, however, has closed almost everything that Sack Theatres ever built or bought.
Is your local Loew’s Theatre closing earlier than usual this Thursday, January 27?
On CinemaTour.com’s forum, someone noticed an LA Times ad in which the Beverly Center Cineplex has no Thursday evening shows listed — only matinees. Loew’s website confirms this. It also shows the Fresh Pond in Cambridge with no shows starting after 7:45 this Thursday night.
Anyone care to speculate on the significance of this? These two are not on the list of locations that Loew’s is legally required to divest. I checked those five too, and none of them are closing early this Thursday.
oops, the above should read “Thursday, January 26”
AMC didn’t close any GC theaters outright but it did close a few that were a bit out of date including the Leigh Valley Mall 1-8 in Allentown, PA.
In LA AMC got rid of most of its GCC acquisitions pretty quickly:
Glendale Cinemas
Sherman Oaks 1 & 2
Sherman Oaks 3-7
Hollywood Galaxy
Beverly Connection
They kept the Avco in Westwood and Redondo Beach Galleria
In Seattle Area they closed Everett Mall 1-3, and 4-10
They kept the Renton Village, Cinerama, and Pacific Place 11
Ironically, they closed their only last remaining AMC build in the Seattle area, Seatac North 6, soon after acquiring GCC, thus making all the theatres listed in the AMC ads in Seattle papers as ex-GCC.
This makes me wonder what AMC really gained out of acquiring GCC?
The Big Question: Who gets Loews E-Walk – which is right across the street from AMC Empire 25 in the Times Square area?
I would imagine Regal or Clearview would take over E-Walk. But here in Chicago, who’s gonna take over Webster Place and City North? I’d so it myself but my Theatre corp is in the planning stages.
Loews signed a lease to build a new Theatre in Monterey Park. I wonder now if its going to be an AMC design since construction hasnt started yet. This theatre would only close an older outdated AMC Montebello 10 about 5 miles away I would assume.
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.
I’ll look into Oakbrook 1-4. Is 1-4 still standing?
The mall is
have a look at this USGS aerial.
View link
(Maps.google.com just had upgraded for closer zoom)
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.
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.
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.
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.)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.)
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.
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.
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.
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.
Its officially done now: http://merger.amctheatres.com/
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
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)
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”.
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.
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.
Here is the website for the merged AMC-Loews Cineplex Theatres.
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 .