Cinemas around the world are nervously piecing together comeback plans — opening with social distancing, shoring up their corporate coffers with cash and restructuring operations to withstand lean times.
It’s a slow process made worse with deadline pressures but in the long run it should succeed. Cinema infrastructure is top-notch and audiences locked down by the coronavirus-induced shelter-in-place are primed to return to out-of-home entertainment.
Cinema industry is building a foundation for a comeback with:
- Giant U.S.-based multiplex giant AMC sold off its theaters in Eastern Europe’s Baltic States for a much-needed $77 million to shore up its corporate balance sheet. AMC, which is owned by China’s Wanda Group, was debt-heavy before the corona virus pandemic and other circuits also pare some operations for capital.
- To raise cash, Cinemark Holdings issued $400 million in publicity-traded debt Aug. 19, and investors buying that debt gave a vote-of-confidence for the Plano, Texas-based circuit with nearly 6,000 screens in 42 states. Other major circuits have tapped similar public markets, bank loans or monetized assets to bolster their financial positions for the current hard times.
- Warner Bros. sci-fi epic “Tenet” — which is the first big major studio film as theaters reopen after virus lockdown — performed well overseas this past weekend, grossing grossed an estimated $53 million from 41 international market. The test in the United State/Canada domestic market comes next month. On a discouraging note, Disney’s long-delayed “The New Mutants” opened poorly in domestic theaters — a patchwork as some big-cities are still closed — and Solstice Studios “Unhinged” starring Russell Crowe did just okay.
- A big chunk of box office is contributed by drive-in theaters, which are of course seasonal. Notice other industries are embracing the drive-in concept, such as drive-in music concerts.
I’m further heartened that Canada’s Landmark Cinemas found just under 1% of consumers said they would never return to movie theaters — indicating no ingrained behavior of avoiding out-of-home entertainment due to the coronavirus. Landmark Cinemas — a unit of Belgium-based cinema giant Kinepolis Group — analyzed 2,000 responses for its report title “Return to Theaters” that was unveiled three days ago.
Says a press release, Landmark Cinemas Canadian moviegoers “revealed that 67% are ready to return to theaters within one month, and 42% said they are ready to return to theaters immediately.” Online ticketer Atom Tickets helped with the report.
Related content:
Leave a Reply