AMC Buys Loews/Cineplex
AMC to Become Second Largest Theater Chain in USA
by Wild About Movies (6/26/05)

AMCAMC Entertainment Inc., the No. 2 U.S. movie theater chain, on June 23rd, said it will buy its next-largest competitor, Loews Cineplex Entertainment Corp., to challenge market leader Regal Entertainment Group. The U.S. movie theater sector has been a hot spot of acquisition activity over the past year-and-a-half, and AMC and Loews are no strangers to each others' businesses -- the two rivals held unsuccessful merger talks early last year. After that round of talks failed, private equity investors J.P. Morgan Partners and Apollo Management agreed to buy AMC for $1.67 billion last July. Terms of Tuesday's deal were not disclosed, but later that same month fellow private equity players Bain Capital, the Carlyle Group and Spectrum Equity Investors agreed to buy Loews Cineplex from another buyout investor for $1.5 billion. AMC's investor group will retain a 60 percent stake in the new company, which will keep the AMC Entertainment name, while the Loews investor group will own the remainder. The deal will consolidate AMC's already formidable presence in large, urban markets. AMC is known for its huge movie complexes -- nearly three-quarters of its screens are located in "megaplexes" that have 14 or more movie screens -- and a large number of its theaters are located in California, Florida and Texas. Most of Loews' theaters are in major metropolitan markets. The company lays claim to the biggest share of the market in New York City, Chicago, Detroit and Mexico City. Once the deal is completed, the new AMC Entertainment will have about 5,900 movie screens in 450 theaters and be run by AMC Chairman and Chief Executive President Peter Brown. AMC rival Regal Entertainment, which operates Regal Cinemas, United Artists Theatres and Edwards Theatres, has more than 6,200 screens in more than 550 locations and has theaters spread more broadly across suburban areas. The longest film industry box-office slump in 20 years cast a shadow over the deal, however. Movie ticket sales just posted their 17th straight weekend of year-on-year declines, and even big-budget films "Star Wars" and "Batman Begins" have been unable to stem the losses. AMC and Regal announced in March a plan to combine their on-screen advertising businesses into a company called National CineMedia, which will market and sell movie theater advertising and book theaters for non-movie events. AMC and Loews expected the deal to close within six to nine months. At the end of 2004, Loews had $1.75 billion of total assets and $1 billion in total debt, according to a filing with the SEC.

For the Loews website: www.enjoytheshow.com

For AMC: www.amctheatres.com

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Wild About Movies now provides you with more movie posters, movie trailers, movie synopses, Behind The Scenes of movies, and celebrity interviews with stars of upcoming movies than any other web site in the world. Today you are able to peruse the movie trailers, movie posters and movie synopses of more than 500 movies not yet in theaters (and more than 150000 movies in theaters and on DVD). Kevin James as "Mall Cop." "The Burning Plain," starring Charlize Theron. The first "Wonder Woman" movie of the millennium. "Charlie Banks" and "Pippa Lee." Clive Owen in "The International." Angelina Jolie in Clint Eastwood's "Changeling." "Lovely Still" - featuring Martin Landau & Ellen Burstyn. Isla Fisher in "Confessions Of A Shopaholic." And Mickey Rourke as "The Wrestler." Jamie Foxx in "The Soloist." Matt Damon in "Green Zone." The Sony Classics movie "Ashes Of Time Redux." And "Nothing Like The Holidays" and Danny Boyle's "Slumdog Millionaire." The Mike Leigh film "Happy Go Lucky." And the documentary "The Linguists." John C. Reilly in "Cirque Du Freak." Patrick Swayze in "Powder Blue." Jake Gyllenhaal as "Prince of Persia: Sands Of Time" and "The Dark Knight" himself, Christian Bale, as John Connor in "Terminator Salvation." Sam Raimi's "Drag Me To Hell." Oscar winner Adrien Brody in "The Brothers Bloom." Rose McGowan as "Red Sonja 2009." Mark Wahlberg in "Max Payne" and the adorable Michael Cera in "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist." Also Gerard Butler in the Frank Darabont film "Law Abiding Citizen" and the sexy Chace Crawford in "The Haunting of Molly Hartley" and "Tyler Perry's Madea Goes To Jail." Rob Zombie's "Tyrannosaurus Rex" and Justin Chatwin in "Dragonball" and Keanu Reeves in "The Day The Earth Stood Still." The independent movies: "The Dukes"and "Filth And Wisdom," directed by Madonna and "Rock N Rolla," directed by her husband, Guy Ritchie. And Seth Rogen is "The Green Hornet." Shia LaBeouf in "Transformers 2." The kid friendly movie "The Perfect Game" along with "Witchblade 2009," as well as Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor as lovers in "I Love You Phillip Morris." Sequels: Everything from Jason Statham in both "Crank 2" and "Transporter 3." Vin Diesel in "Fast And Furious 4." And "Underworld 3," the Steve Martin movie "The Pink Panther 2," and the requisite "Cloverfield 2" and "Iron Man 2." Also Channing Tatum in "GI Joe The Movie." And Seann William Scott in both "Role Models" and "Trainwreck: My Life As An Idiot." The big screen adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" and two Tony winning plays turned movies, "Doubt," starring Meryl Streep, and "Frost Nixon," starring Frank Langella. Also, "The Other End Of The Line" and The Rock in "Race To Witch Mountain." Also, "Friday the 13th 2009" and Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio's next collaboration, "Ashecliffe" aka "Shutter Island." In addition, the big screen incarnation of "Marley & Me" and "City Of Ember" and "The Spirit." Also, Sacha Baron Cohen as "Bruno." "The Great Buck Howard" and Nicolas Cage in "Knowing." Also, Brad Pitt in both "Inglorious Bastards" and "The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button." The big screen adaptation of Maurice Sendack's "Where The Wild Things Are Movie," to fab film director Michael Mann's "Public Enemies," to "Saw 5," or "Saw V," depending whether you're into Roman numerals. And "Taken," starring Liam Neeson. "Local Color" and "Sex Drive." Along with "Watch Out" and "Wild Child" and "The Escapist." The probable movie box office smash, "Ice Age 3." And Daniel Radcliffe naked not in "Harry Potter 6" - but Daniel Radcliffe naked at WAM and on Broadway in "Equus." More? Sure! Peter Jackson's "District 9" and "The Lovely Bones" and "The Hobbit Movies." Colin Farrell in "Pride And Glory" and Leonardo DiCaprio in both "Revolutionary Road" and "Body Of Lies." And "Thor." Dreamorks Animations' "Madagascar 2" and "Monsters vs Aliens." "The Smurfs Movie;" and "Splice;" and "Repo: Genetic Opera;" "Push;" "Terminator 4;" "AstroBoy." Even more! "Fears of the Dark" and the big screen version of "Land of the Lost" and Oliver Stone's "W" along with Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln" and "Chicago 7." And "Star Trek XI." Also, a slew of animated and non animated Walt Disney movies, many in 3D: including "Fraggle Rock: The Movie" and "The Jonas Brothers Movie 3D" and "Bolt," "The King of the Elves" and "Rapunzel," "The Bear and the Bow;" "Toy Story 3," "Newt," "The Princess And The Frog," "Up," "Ponyo On The Cliff By The Sea" and "Cars 2." And Universal's animated movie "The Tale Of Despereaux." Heath Ledger's last movie, "Dr. Parnassus." "Black Devil Doll." More? Wesley Snipes in "Gallowwalker!" Even more: "Quarantine" and "Zack And Miri." Also: Zac Efron in three big screen 2008 movies: "Footloose 2010," "17 Again" and "High School Musical 3." "Bitch Slap" and Daniel Craig in "Defiance," and as 007 in "Bond 22," which now has the official title "Quantum of Solace;" "Delgo" and the Catholic films "Pope Joan" and prequel of "The DaVinci Code," "Angels & Demons;" "Hotel For Dogs" and "Synecdoche, New York" and Benicio Del Toro as "The Wolfman" and "Che." And "Notorious." Also, Hugh Jackman as "Wolverine;" "Valkyrie." The 2009 films, "He's Just Not That Into You," James ("Titanic") Cameron's "Avatar;" "Watchmen," (from the director of "300"), "The Bad Lieutenant 2009" and Hilary Swank in "Amelia." And "Adoration" and the non Disney animated movie"Coraline." Also, "Two Lovers" and Anne Hathaway in both "Passengers" and "Bride Wars." "The Reader," starring Ralph Fiennes. The long awaited page to screen "Twilight." Will Smith in "Seven Pounds" aka "7 LBS." The Canadian smash "3 P'tits Cochons," Italian worldwide hit "Gomorra," as well as the Chinese blockbuster "Red Cliff" and the French hits "Hunting And Gathering" and "Ch'tis." Not to mention the Australian smash "The Tender Hook". Also, Julia Stiles "Cry Of The Owl" in and Diablo Cody in "Jennifer's Body," which she also wrote. Sean Penn as Harvey "Milk." And don't forget the must 'not' sees "My Bloody Valentine 3D" and Uwe Boll's "Far Cry." "How To Be A Serial Killer" and, of course, Jean Claude Van Damme in the aptly titled "JCVD." Also, the "2009 Oscars." For the current and complete 2008 movie box office report... (continue)




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