Of course, any kind of day and date release puts exhibitors in competition with the studios’ streaming services, and no doubt there’s a loss of cash in the collapse of the theatrical and PVOD window. However, the worst takeaway from dynamic windows is piracy, plain and simple. Such was the message from CinemaCon’s first panel
Executives
AMC Entertainment CEO and newly anointed chairman Adam Aron is having a moment with shareholders — that army of retail investors he said in June numbered approximately 4.1 million and own more than 80% of the stock. Some of them found it hard to access the company’s annual meeting Thursday, which was held in person
AMC Entertainment Wednesday said it’s expanded the role of CEO Adam Aron to include chairman of the board, and selected Ambassador Philip Lader to serve as lead director. As previously announced, current non-executive chairman of the board, Lin Zhang, and Mao Jun (John) Zeng, both of Wanda, are stepping down as AMC directors following Wanda’s
EXCLUSIVE: Alamo Drafthouse Cinema has hired industry veteran Kevin Holloway as Head Film Buyer. The news comes in the wake of the cineaste chain arising out of bankruptcy and opening a new location in El Paso, TX. Plans for new theaters in Manhattan, Staten Island, St. Louis, and Washington D.C. are scheduled for this year.
Cliff Marks is retiring as president of NationalCinemedia on July 1 but will continue to work with the big movie theater advertising network as a consultant in a multi-year deal, the company announced Wednesday. The 19-year NCM veteran joined from ESPN and was an original member of the leadership team in 2002 when it was
AMC Entertainment has 4.1 million individual shareholders, the company disclosed Wednesday, as it heads towards an annual meeting in late July where all of them will be eligible to show up and vote on whatever’s on the agenda after spending months pumping up the stock on investing chat rooms. “The number of investors who want
Imax CEO Rich Gelfond earned $6.9 million last year, down slightly from $7.1 million in 2019 as the pandemic shuttered theaters and Imax screens around the world. The package included base pay of $1.2 million and a stock award valued at $5.5 million. Imax, while hard hit like the rest of the industry, was able
EXCLUSIVE: Universal executive Xavier Albert, who has been Managing Director for France since 2016, is taking on a dual-market role with the studio and will also become Managing Director for Italy. Albert will take over the MD Italy post from Richard Borg who is retiring in July after 30 years with the Universal Pictures International
Amanda Kozlowski has been elevated to the position of EVP, Head of Data Strategy & Innovation for the Lionsgate Motion Picture Group. She previously served as SVP of Digital Marketing. Kozlowski will report to Jen Hollingsworth, Lionsgate’s Motion Picture Group COO. Hollingsworth’s Strategy and Innovation group is looking to further data- and measurement-based decision making
EXCLUSIVE: New York-based Bleecker Street has hired Derval Whelan as its new President of Distribution. She replaces Jack Foley, who exited his post at President of Distribution last year. A highly respected industry vet in exhibition and distribution circles, Foley was at Bleecker Street since its launch and worked with CEO Andrew Karpen for several
EXCLUSIVE: We have learned that motion picture industry distribution vet Jim Zak has been named the SVP, North America of Vista Group’s Numero and Maccs. Zak will be based in Los Angeles and report to Numero and Maccs Chief Executive, and Numero Co-Founder, Simon Burton. Zak will work across both Numero and Maccs, with primary
UPDATED with AMC proxy figures, Aron’s 2020 compensation: In one of the few interviews he has granted during AMC Entertainment’s white-knuckle 2021, CEO Adam Aron hailed the reopening of New York City and shared his thoughts on the “Reddit rally.” Speaking with CNBC (watch the full segment above) on Friday, he said advance ticket sales
AMC Entertainment CEO Adam Aron earned $20.9 million in total compensation last year, double $9.6 million the year before due to a big bonus and stock awards. According to the company’s SEC filing Friday, Aron’s package in 2002 included a base salary of $1.1 million, a bonus of $5 million and stock award of $14.8
AMC Entertainment, the nation’s largest theater chain, said Friday it’s awarding CEO Adam Aron and other executives “supplemental special incentive cash bonuses” to recognize the challenge they faced steering the embattled company on a financial rollercoaster over the past pandemic year. Corporate associates and theatre management will also get special bonuses, with all payouts coming
John Stephens, the outgoing CFO of WarnerMedia parent AT&T, defended the company’s move to release its 2021 film slate concurrently on HBO Max and in theaters and cited Warner Bros. century-long relationship with Hollywood talent — with some disgruntled at the move and the way it was communicated. “We’ve got a long history of working
Adam Aron, CEO of AMC Entertainment, said the nation’s largest cinema chain has raised $204 million of the at least $750 million needs to get to the other side of a global pandemic that has crippled moviegoing. AMC raised cash from stock and bonds sales in rounds in April, June, October and most recently in
If 2020 began with promise, all that changed as every industry tradition we took for granted was stripped away without warning. The pandemic has seen nearly 20 million positive cases in the U.S. alone, and soon 350,000 will be dead. Every facet of entertainment was impacted: live theaters and movie theaters closed, production in TV
Imax CEO Rich Gelfond doesn’t see the Warner Bros.-induced sound and fury in Hollywood subsiding anytime soon as talent joins theaters to protest the studio’s 2021 theatrical windows – nor does he think Warner will stick it out for a full year. “I don’t this is a storm that’s going to blow over in a
Walt Disney blew past Wall Street estimates last quarter although it swung to red and revenue fell with Disneyland shuttered, and movie theaters in major markets dark. It’s the last showbiz giant to report financials in the latest earnings round and the most anticipated as its sprawling businesses touch most of media and entertainment for
EXCLUSIVE: Universal has set changes to its leadership teams for Germany/Austria and the Netherlands as Paul Steinschulte, Managing Director for Germany and Austria, has decided to retire at the end of the year. A 31-year veteran of the studio, he joined in 1989 as part of a joint venture between Universal and Paramount. Universal’s President
What a great time not to be a movie marketer. Theaters half-closed, with COVID-19 again rising. Pipeline dried up. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences asking, in a survey that was due last week, how the pandemic is affecting your craft. Or what’s left of it. But movie promoters on the whole are an
Donna Langley, chairman of Universal Filmed Entertainment Group, and Ann Sarnoff, chair and CEO of Warner Bros had the same reaction Thursday when asked if their companies had any interest in buying movie theaters. They laughed. “We have no plans to do that currently,” Langley said, appearing with Sarnoff and CBS CEO George Cheeks on
Cinemark CEO Mark Zoradi said getting theaters open in California and New York is crucial to the health of exhibition as the second largest U.S. chain has 70% of cinemas open but lacks these key markets — keeping it “behind the eight ball.” Some California counties are open or opening but not yet San Francisco
It’s a big weekend Labor Day weekend for Ann Sarnoff at WarnerMedia. She recently celebrated her first year anniversary as the first woman to oversee Warner Bros in its 97-year history on August 22 (coincidentally on the same day as the studio’s DC FanDome day, which drew 22 million global visitors), and she heads into
After being closed for over five months, Cineworld reopened about 200 of its Regal Cinemas in the U.S. this past weekend. Health and safety measures — which required an investment in the millions across the parent company’s full estate — were in place, and the response from audiences was “encouraging,” says Cineworld Group CEO Mooky
On today’s earnings call for the No. 1 financially challenged exhibitor AMC, CEO Adam Aron took the high road in not damning Disney for their recent seisimic-shifting choice to take Mulan to Disney+ instead of theaters where the streaming service is available. “You might thing I’m disappointed that Mulan is moving, but AMC has no bigger friend
Comcast chief financial officer Mike Cavanagh said the conglom was “pleased” with the weekend PVOD debut of Pete Davidson-starrer The King Of Staten Island – its latest film to go directly on-demand — and reiterated that while the company’s very eager for theaters to reopen it is likely the distribution model may have permanently changed
AMC Entertainment stock jumped over 15% at open in a down market Wednesday at open after execs outlined global opening plans at a conference call late yesterday afternoon. Share had popped by over 17% in premarket trade. It’s been a roller coaster – mostly down – for AMC shares since the coronavirus pandemic forced it
Buried in AMC’s 1Q 2020 earnings release on page 3 today was the statement, “While we are in active dialogue with Universal, no movies made by Universal Studios are currently on our docket.” The note comes a little bit more than a month after AMC CEO and President Adam Aron alerted the studio in a
Hitting topics that are top of mind in Hollywood, ViacomCBS Bob Bakish said stalled production is a money saver now but needs to restart by mid-summer; that movies will be released in theatres as planned if they’re open and enough people are going; and that COVID-19 has spurred cost efficient work that will inform its