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Federal Judge Temporarily Pauses USD $110 Billion Paramount-Warner Merger

A federal judge has temporarily halted Paramount Skydance’s USD $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, handing 12 state attorneys general their first victory in a lawsuit seeking to block the deal. U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín imposed a 14-day temporary restraining order through 3 August, when she will consider whether to keep the transaction frozen while the antitrust case proceeds. The states argue that combining two of Hollywood’s five remaining major studios would give the new company 27% of wide-release theatrical distribution and 30% of anticipated blockbusters, increasing its leverage over film rental terms, release dates and access to the most desirable screens.

Paramount insists the lawsuit ignores the modern entertainment marketplace and will ultimately benefit the very big tech companies the states claim to be challenging. The company points to approvals or expired waiting periods in 24 international jurisdictions and argues that the merger will create a better-capitalized competitor to Netflix, Amazon and other global platforms. Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison has also promised at least 30 films annually for full theatrical release with minimum 45-day windows. That sounds reassuring to exhibitors, but a non-binding output promise is not the same as preserving competition between two independent suppliers. More movies from one enormous distributor may fill the calendar, yet it also leaves cinemas negotiating with one fewer studio when the serious discussions about screens, dates and percentages begin.

The deal is also stuck in regulatory traffic overseas. Britain’s culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, has indicated that she is minded to refer the acquisition for further examination by Ofcom and the Competition and Markets Authority on public-interest grounds, while Parliament’s summer recess could leave the process unresolved until at least 1 September. Meanwhile, every additional delay is expensive: Paramount faces approximately USD $650 million in quarterly ticking fees if the transaction remains unclosed after 30 September.

Just as striking is who has not joined the states’ case. Kansas is home to AMC Theatres, Texas to Cinemark and Alamo Drafthouse, Wisconsin to Marcus Theatres and Missouri to B&B Theatres. Those circuits represent an enormous share of American exhibition, yet their home-state attorneys general are leaving California and its partners to challenge a merger allegedly threatening exhibitors’ bargaining power. Apparently, antitrust concern has its own release pattern—and several of the industry’s biggest home markets have chosen not to book it.

Source: Wall Street Journal

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Despite Debt Drama, AMC Delivers Record Second Quarter

AMC Theatres posted the strongest quarterly revenue and Adjusted EBITDA in its 106-year history, as a healthier film slate finally gave the world’s largest cinema operator something more substantial to celebrate than another creatively engineered refinancing. Second-quarter revenue rose 14.2% to USD USD $1.60 billion, while Adjusted EBITDA surged 69.6% to $321.4 million, crossing USD $300 million for the first time. Attendance increased 13.5% to 71.3 million patrons, free cash flow more than doubled to USD $190.1 million, and AMC handily beat earnings expectations. However, its GAAP net loss widened to USD $11.4 million, while the company still carried a USD $1.45 billion stockholders’ deficit at the end of the quarter.

The quarter also demonstrated just how much operating leverage remains buried inside the exhibition business. According to CFO Sean Vivin, approximately USD $200 million of additional revenue produced USD $131.9 million in incremental Adjusted EBITDA, an impressive 66% flow-through that lifted AMC’s margin from 13.6% to 20.1%. Premium formats continue doing much of the heavy lifting: premium and XL auditoriums represent only about 8% of AMC’s screens but generated more than half of the company’s ticket revenue during the opening weekend of “The Odyssey.” Fewer screens, better screens appears to be more than a slogan.

AMC’s financial sequel remains less tidy. The company extended maturities, converted USD $155.8 million of notes into shares and launched equity offerings totaling USD $350 million, moves that will eliminate near-term debt maturities but further dilute shareholders. Vivin acknowledged that leverage below 6.5 times EBITDA is “not our target,” with AMC ultimately aiming for approximately 3.0 times. The record quarter proves AMC can generate serious cash when the movies arrive. It does not yet prove that the company has escaped its debt-heavy third act, but for once, the plot is moving in the right direction.

Source: Celluloid Junkie

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PVR INOX Returns to Profit as Premium Cinema Drives Recovery

India’s largest exhibitor has returned to profit, with PVR INOX reporting record FY2026 revenue of INR ₹67.43 billion (approximately USD USD $700 million) and profit after tax of INR ₹3.87 billion (USD $40 million). In an interview with Deadline, PVR INOX Executive Director Sanjeev Kumar Bijli outlined how premium formats, stronger concession spending and a more capital-light expansion strategy are shaping the circuit’s next phase of growth. The company welcomed 150 million guests during the year and now operates 1,798 screens across 359 cinemas in 113 cities throughout India and Sri Lanka.

The recovery looks considerably less complete when measured in people rather than rupees. Indian cinemas recorded 832 million admissions in 2025, still 19% below the 1.03 billion tickets sold in 2019, even as national box office revenue reached a record USD $1.48 billion. PVR INOX’s average ticket price increased 8% to INR ₹280 (USD $2.90), while food and beverage spending per customer rose 9.5% to INR ₹147 (USD $1.50). India is therefore following an increasingly familiar global pattern: premium formats, higher prices and greater concession spending are restoring revenue faster than audiences are restoring attendance.

PVR INOX added 93 screens and closed 18 underperforming ones during the year, with 55% of its new screens developed through franchise-owned or other capital-light arrangements. Having mall developers help fund cinema construction is hardly a new exhibition invention, but it gives PVR INOX room to expand while protecting the healthier balance sheet it has spent several years rebuilding. Premiumization may be helping the company turn the financial corner, but the longer-term challenge remains universal: there are only so many ways to charge more for the moviegoers who are already showing up.

Source: Deadline

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IND/EX 2026 Shows Community Is Independent Cinema’s Competitive Advantage

While much of the exhibition industry gathered at CineEurope to discuss premium formats, technology and market share, 788 independent cinema and festival leaders convened in Chicago for IND/EX 2026. As Andreas Fuchs reports, the agenda focused less on shiny new equipment and more on the practical business of survival: fundraising, accessibility, staffing, advocacy, audience development and the ethics of exhibition. Independent cinemas may not be able to outspend the major circuits, but they can certainly out-belong them.

The numbers suggest this is more than feel-good programming. A survey of more than 27,000 moviegoers found that over 70% consider their preferred art house cinema highly valuable to their quality of life, while 91% believe it improves their community. Art House Convergence cinemas have increased grosses 8.8% year-over-year and 38% since 2019. Combined, they would represent the 13th-largest cinema circuit in the United States. Nearly one-quarter of respondents began attending their preferred art house within the past three years, with 68% of those newer patrons under 45; an encouraging rebuttal to the idea that independent cinema audiences are aging into extinction.

Art House Convergence President Deirdre Haj distilled the sector’s advantage neatly: “Those big chains, they have customers. We have communities.” Amid media consolidation, shrinking arts funding and pressure on independent distributors, that distinction is becoming increasingly important. Community is not simply independent cinema’s warm-and-fuzzy differentiator; it is its audience-development strategy, advocacy platform and, increasingly, its business model.

Source: Celluloid Junkie

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