AMC THEATRES

'AMC Theatres' is the second largest movie theatre chain in North America and the only chain out of the 12 largest on the continent that did not go bankrupt during the 2001-2002 recession,^[1] due in part to the fact that its theatres often dominate lists of the top 50 most profitable theatres in North America. Its mascot is the animated filmstrip Clip who stars in the pre-show policy trailers.

Contents

History

AMC in England

AMC in Hong Kong

Innovating the cinema

Acquisitions

MovieWatcher Program

National CineMedia

Entertainment Centrums

References

Current UK locations

See also

External links

History

The company was founded in 1920 by former traveling showman Edward Durwood with one single-screen movie theatre in Kansas City, Missouri. At a time when vaudeville was on its last legs, Durwood correctly grasped that motion pictures were the future of the entertainment industry. His small chain of single-screen theatres was moderately successful. Durwood's son, Stanley, subsequently attended Harvard University and served as a navigator in the U.S. Air Force during World War II.
In the 1960s, Stan Durwood took control of Durwood Theatres, renamed it American Multi-Cinema, Inc., and began to apply military management and the insights of management science to revolutionize the movie theatre industry.^[2] As he later explained to ''Variety'', "We needed to define what our company was doing in the (exhibition) business. My dad wasn't that organized."^[3]
In 1963, AMC opened the two-screen Parkway II, the first American multiplex, in a shopping center on Kansas City's Ward Parkway. Durwood later claimed that "in 1962 he was standing in the lobby of his 600-seat Roxy in Kansas City mulling over its poor grosses when he realized he could double his box office by adding a second screen and still operate with the same size staff."^[4] This insight arises from the fact that the real-time labor demands of a movie theatre are not constant. Rather, they come in bursts at the start and end of the movie. At the start, a large number of employees have to sell tickets, process tickets at an access point, sell food at the concession stand (a theatre's primary profit center), make sure the theatre is not overcrowded, and run the film projector. While the movie plays, a small number of employees are needed for security and access control, while the others are relatively idle, allowing them to restock concession items, clean restrooms, and clean the lobby. At the end of the movie, a number of employees are needed to clean the theatre for the next showing. When the start times for movie showings in several physically connected auditoriums are staggered correctly, one team can continually keep all of them operational with minimal downtime. An additional advantage is that a ''different'' movie can be shown in each auditorium, which increases the choices available at a theater's box office at any given time, and minimizes the possibility that disappointed moviegoers will take their business to a different theater altogether.^[5]
In retrospect, Durwood's idea seems simple, but it took a lot of trial and error to get the bugs out. For example, when the Parkway II opened, both screens were showing the same movie, ''The Great Escape''.^[6] Next, Durwood followed up on the Parkway II with a four-screen theatre in 1966 and a six-screen theatre in 1969.
AMC pioneered the first North American megaplex when it opened the AMC Grand 24 in Dallas, Texas in 1995, though the first megaplex in the world had been built by European chain Kinepolis in 1988. AMC has continued to open megaplex theatres and now operates the busiest theatre in the country at the AMC Empire 25 theatre in New York City, New York, located in Times Square.
In 1997 AMC formed a joint partnership with Planet Hollywood to develop Planet Movies by AMC.
AMC was planned to have an IPO worth approximately $789 million, however, adverse market conditions convinced the company's management to withdraw from such an offering on May 3, 2007.

AMC in England

AMC also broke new ground in British cinema history when it opened the first American multiplex in any foreign country, building the AMC cinema complex in Milton Keynes, England. The theatre operates under the 'AMC Cinemas' brand name.
In the 1980s AMC built and operated a number of multiplex ten-screen cinemas in the UK, including sites at locations such as Dudley and Tamworth. These were subsequently bought and taken over by UCI as AMC temporarily pulled out of the UK market.
December 2001, the 16-screen AMC Great Northern was opened in Manchester, thereby marking the brand's limited return to the UK. This was later supplemented by the opening of a 12-screen cinema on the new Broadway Plaza site in Birmingham.
At the present time, there are no plans for AMC to open any more sites in the UK.

AMC in Hong Kong

AMC also opened two cineplexes in Hong Kong, at Festival Walk in Kowloon Tong and Pacific Place in Admiralty. The cineplex in Admiralty was opened in 2006.

Innovating the cinema

AMC has been a major innovator in terms of raising industry standards for customer comfort; it invented the cupholder armrest and reintroduced the construction of theatres with stadium-style seating, where the seats are placed on risers so that each person has an unobstructed view of the screen. Both these items have become standard for nearly all new theatres. The early versions of stadium-style seating, which were part sloped floor and part stadium-style seating, made AMC a popular target for ADA lawsuits, as the stairs to the risers made it impossible for wheelchair-bound patron to sit in the stadium section, except in larger auditoriums. AMC solved the problem with full-stadium theatres, has appealed the litigation to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and continues to evaluate ways to provide superior seating to all of its guests. Remodeling of its older part slope floor, part stadium-style auditoriums will depend on the ruling by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
AMC has also had some endeavors that didn't prove as viable, such as experimenting with 16 mm film for projection and selling microwave popcorn at concession stands through a small test in the South several years ago⁴. They also stumbled by agreeing to install the Sony Dynamic Digital Sound system in all their new locations, rather than the more popular Dolby Digital or DTS systems. While the majority of major releases have all three digital tracks, including SDDS, most independent and smaller-budgets films only have Dolby Digital tracks, leaving many films in AMC's otherwise ultra-modern megaplexes showing films in analog sound. Recently, AMC has begun installing Dolby Digital in all new auditoriums.

Acquisitions

AMC has been successful in integrating competitive theatre circuits into its family. In March 2002, AMC bought 'General Cinemas Companies Inc.', which added 621 screens to the company assets as well as Gulf States Theatres which had 68 screens in the greater New Orleans area. In late 2003, AMC acquired MegaStar Theatres, adding top-quality assets to its Atlanta and Minneapolis-St. Paul markets. Then on January 26, 2006, AMC merged with Loews Cineplex Entertainment; AMC was the winner in the merger and the newly merged company continued with the name AMC Entertainment Inc.
The company has interests in 377 theatres with 5,300 screens in 30 U.S. states (plus Washington, D.C.) and 9 other countries. Some of the U.S. theatres are named for basketball legend and businessman Earvin "Magic" Johnson, who became a partner of Loews in the mid-1990s.

MovieWatcher Program

AMC Theatres has a frequent-buyer program called MovieWatcher that rewards guests for loyalty to the company by giving them rewards like free popcorn, free drinks and free tickets.

National CineMedia

National CineMedia develops pre feature entertainment (FirstLook); cinema and lobby advertising products; comprehensive meeting and event services (CineMeetings & Events); and distributes other entertainment programming content (NCM Fathom) on more than 14,000 movie screens nationwide operated by its founding member theatre circuits, AMC Theatres, Cinemark Theatres, and Regal Entertainment Group, as well as other theatre affiliates. National CineMedia, Inc. (NASDAQ: NCMI) is a managing member of National CineMedia, LLC.
FirstLook is a digital entertainment and advertising pre-feature program showcasing content from Discovery Communications, NBC Universal, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Turner Broadcasting System and Universal Studios.
CineMeetings & Events facilitates live and pre-recorded networked and single-site meetings and corporate events in movie theatres.
NCM Fathom presents live and pre-recorded music events, sporting events and other entertainment programming in movie theatres, such as the popular The Metropolitan Opera: Live in HD series.
The company distributes its products and services across its Digital Content Network (DCN), the largest in-theatre digital distribution network in North America, composed of approximately 11,500 digital theatre screens.

Entertainment Centrums

Several of the Canadian AMC Theatres are anchor tenants for Entertainment Centrum's, entertainment plazas in Ontario containing restaurants, fitness centres, Mini Putt, and other forms of entertainment.

References

1. Kathryn Harris, "AMC on Firm Footing as Others Stumble," ''Los Angeles Business Journal'' 23, no. 4 (Jan. 22, 2001): 14.
2. La Franco, Robert. "Coming soon: a megaplex near you." ''Forbes'', 12 August 1996, p. 133.
3. Anonymous. "Durwood legacy packs 'em in." ''Variety'', 16 March 1998, p. 42.
4. Klady, Leonard. "Obituaries: Stanley Durwood." ''Variety'', 19 July 1999, p. 40.
5. Nan Robertson, "Multiplexes Add 2,300 Movie Screens in 5 Years," New York Times, 7 November 1983, C13.
6. Anonymous, "Stan Durwood: Multiplex Theater Pioneer," ''Los Angeles Times'', 16 July 1999, A22.

Current UK locations

★ Broadway Plaza, Birmingham

★ The Great Northern Warehouse, Manchester

See also

★ Movie theater

★ AMC Cinemas, cinema chain in the United Kingdom owned by AMC Theatres.

External links

★ AMC Theatres Website

★ AMC Cinemas UK Website