Would you like some butter-flavored topping on that?
The Wall Street Journal today reports that the nation's third-biggest movie-theater chain, Cinemark, is on the aution block. No. 2 AMC Entertainment and No. 4 Loews Cineplex Entertainment announced two months ago that they were in preliminary merger talks. Surely this means vibrating plush stadium seating and a ticket price freeze for the allmighty consumer? Don't count on it.
Though the business of operating movie theaters is improving, investors shouldn't bet on an Academy Award performance in the near term. The movie-going public remains fickle and innovations such as DVDs and video-on-demand have made movie watching at home more appealing. Indeed, U.S. movie attendance fell an estimated 4% in 2003, resulting in the industry's first decline in gross revenue since 1991. Theaters also may face the high cost of upgrading to digital movie projection.
And adding more COS ["customer of size"] seating. Remember, the real money in theater exhibition is in concessions, not ticket sales, despite what box-office obsessed Hollywood toadies like Premiere might lead you to believe.
Unless you're talking about the sort of indie art house that might show Morgan Spurlock's documentary, Super Size Me, which just made its debut at Sundance.
Forget synergistic fast-food tie-ins for this flick. No endorsements will be forthcoming from Mayor McCheese. You see, director Spurlock took one for the team. He decided to eat only McDonalds, three meals per day, for an entire month [a short one, February, but still] and documented the impact on his health. He followed three simple rules:
1) No options: he could only eat what was available over the counter (water included!)
2) No supersizing unless offered
3) No excuses: he had to eat every item on the menu at least once
The doc tracks his progress. [Disclaimer: The cinetrix has an abiding fascination with the literature of fat America and is currently devouring Francine Prose's contribution to the "Seven Deadly Sins" series, Gluttony, with great relish.]
Spurlock seems like an affable guy, if his answers in this Sundance Channel interview are any indication. Here's an example.
Which person, living or dead, would you most like to interview?
Can't I just get drunk in a bar somewhere with Steve McQueen?
Britney or Christina?
We're in Utah, right? Can't I have both?
To get the skinny, visit the Super Size Me Web site here.