AMC & Loews Form Exhibition Colossus

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – AMC Entertainment and Loews Cineplex Entertainment announced on June 21 plans for the two companies to merge into a single chain boasting 5,936 screens worldwide.
Only Regal Entertainment Group, with more than 6,000 U.S. auditoria, boasts a larger screen count.
The combined company will retain the AMC Entertainment name and be operated out of AMC’s base in Kansas City, Mo. Current AMC chairman, CEO and president Peter C. Brown will head the newly formed company. Brown and Loews CEO Travis Reid will co-chair an integration committee to facilitate the merger, which is expected to take six to nine months to finalize.
AMC and Loews are not only two of world’s largest cinema chains, they are two of the oldest. Loews was founded in New York as The People’s Vaudeville Co. in 1904, changing its name to Loew’s Theatrical Enterprises in 1913. AMC traces it origins to Kansas City’s Durwood Theatre, launched in 1920. Durwood Theatres pioneered the indoor mall multiplex in 1963, and changed its name to American Multi-Cinema six years later.
Both chains have grown quickly in recent years. Loews tripled its screen count to more than 2,700 screens in 1998 when it was merged with the Toronto-based Cineplex Odeon megachain.
AMC purchased all of Boston-based General Cinema Corp.’s more than 600 screens, as well as 68 Gulf States Theatres auditoria, in 2002. It purchased 48 screens from MegaStar Theatres the following year.
The combined entity will operate 447 sites in 30 states and 13 countries.
In Focus - August/September 2005