Ron Keillor
Member

Posts: 125
From: Vancouver, BC, Canada
Registered: May 2003
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posted November 23, 2010 07:52 PM
One of the bigger players in the Monopoly game of Vancouver’s theatrical exhibition market dropped off the board late Monday in the wake of Cineplex Entertainment’s acquisition of Tinseltown Cinemas.
The multiplex located at the corner of Abbott and Pender Streets in downtown Vancouver was the only Canadian theatre owned by Plano, Tx.-based Cinemark – a US-based exhibition giant with properties across the United States and South America.
According to Cineplex spokesperson Kyle Moffatt, the deal to buy the sole Canadian Cinemark property was on the table for weeks, but wasn’t official until late Monday night – when the deal was inked by all parties for an undisclosed sum.
The change in ownership could result in a shift in programming, but Moffatt says booking will depend on audience response.
Currently, Tinseltown is one of the few downtown theatres to screen art house fare. The theatre carried smaller releases such as This Movie is Broken and Exit Through Gift Shop for weeks, racking up some of the best receipts in the nation. But Moffatt says just because Cineplex will be booking the 12-plex in the future doesn’t mean it won’t continue the same booking strategy. “Every theatre caters to a different audience,” he says. “If a given title does well in the theatre, it will stay. It depends on the audience and what they choose to see.”
Cineplex already owns the newest downtown theatre, ScotiaTheatre, at the corner of Burrard and Smythe Streets. The acquisition of a second downtown property could have presented a problem with bookings given the existing zone system for exhibitors – which is designed to ensure competing theatres don’t end up playing the same title across the street from each other.
Moffatt says ScotiaTheatre and the newly renamed Cineplex Odeon International Village Cinemas are far enough apart to allow open bookings at both theatres, without restrictions
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Cineplex+acquires+Tinseltown+multiplex/3874122/story.html#ixzz16ATUY89S
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