Earlier this month Israeli based Cinema City International became the third largest theatre chain in Europe when they acquired Palace Cinemas. The deal includes 8 multiplexes in the Czech Republic, 4 multiplexes in Hungary and 3 multiplexes in Slovakia. This gives CCI an additional 141 screens and makes it the largest exhibitor in Central and Eastern Europe.
The sale of Palace was somewhat inevitable. The chain was founded by Arthur Goldblatt and V.J. Maury and backed with investment from a private equity firm, Argus Capital Partners. Presumably Argus wanted to cash in on their more than ten year investment in Palace. It appears they should be very happy. CCI paid EUR €28 million (or USD $38.16) for Palace which is more than six times the company’s 2010 EBITDA. The acquisition was financed with cash CCI had on hand and existing credit lines.
The acquisition has a number of upsides for CCI, not the least of which is their entry into Slovakia. The company is also increasing it’s market share in both the Czech and Hungarian markets. CCI entered the transaction as the third largest exhibitor in the Czech Republic with 13% of the country’s admissions and 15% of its box office. After picking up Palace they’ll be the country’s largest exhibitor with 111 screens across 13 venues representing 40% of admissions and 45% of the box office.
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Popularity: 3% [?]
North America wasn’t the only territory to break box office records in 2009. In reviewing the backlog of posts I’ve been wanting to get to, I came across an announcement from the Asociace Producentu V Audiovizi a.k.a. Czech Audiovisual Producer’s Association (APA) which reported the country reached record box office and attendance during 2009.
Attendance reached 12.4 million moviegoers generating CZK 1.25 billion crowns (EUR €50.4 million or USD $70.32 million) in ticket sales according to the APA. The final box office was up CZK 31 million crowns over 2008 when grosses amounted to CZK 1.20 K? billion crowns (EUR €46.3 million or USD $64.60 million). What’s impressive about this figure is that the average ticket price in the Czech Republic is only CZK 100.3 crowns (EUR €4.1 or USD $5.72).
Most of the Czech box office (87 percent) came from multiplexes were moviegoers favored homegrown content over foreign productions. Four Czech films were among top 10 grossers of 2009. They include the most successful title of the year “Líbáš jako Buh” (“You Kiss Like A God”) by director Marie Polednáková which earned CZK 90 million (€3.6 million or USD $5 million) from more than one million viewers. It should come as no surprise to find 3D Hollywood blockbusters such as “Avatar” and “Ice Age 3″ among the top finishers as well.
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Popularity: unranked [?]
Just a few months after announcing the installation of 12 digital 3D screens, Palace Cinemas, a leading Central European exhibitor has selected XDC as the d-cinema integrator which will deploy digital cinema throughout all its 170 screens. Installations will be financed using XDC’s virtual print fees and will commence in the latter half of 2009.
Budapest based Palace is the largest theatre circuit in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Of course, XDC will rely on the CineStore server they manufacture in each installation. Every one of Palace’s 20 theatres will be networked and use the CineStore Plaza as their central storage server in conjunction with XDC’s TMS. No word on what projectors have been selected, though they are sure to be DCI-compliant.
In Amsterdam for Cinema Expo, V.J. Maury, Palace Cinemas Chief Executive Officer, seemed excited that digital cinema was finally rolling out at circuit-wide. Read More »
Popularity: 20% [?]
The Czechs have come up with a new cinema concept, which is to screen a surprise movie at Prague’s largest arthouse cinema where patrons only pay afterwards depending on how much they like the film. From ABC Prague’s website:
Aero cinema in Prague has chosen an interesting way, how to attract people to the screenings: there will be special evenings, called “Naslepo” (“Blind”), where visitors won´t know, which movie they are going to see.
The movies screened on these days will be special – those that cannot be seen in other cinemas (they are not in usual distribution in the Czech Republic), but which are nevertheless interesting and worth seeing.
The first screening took place on 19th of September, though no word has reached us what film was shown, how many showed up or whether anyone paid. It’s an interesting move as cinema owners wouldn’t dare to put on something that they didn’t believe people would genuinely like.
Elsewhere in Prague you had the chance of catching an open-air marathon screening of television series ‘Lost‘ on the big screen, also according to ABC Prague. “Fans of popular TV seriers Lost may look forward to an extraordinary experience in Prague. A marathon of the third season of Lost will be shown on a large screen in the open-air area of Cisarska Louka in Prague. It’s provided by AXN channel for free.” The cinematic series was shown over two Sundays from 5pm to 5am. The website helpfully suggest that you “take a blanket with you as you’ll be sitting on grass,” but sadly does not suggest any collective ‘Lost’ drinking games for the Czech beer that was no doubt consumed.
Popularity: 4% [?]
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