Media Money
- The Future of The Media Landscape
- Predictions 2010: Media
- Why Careful Shoppers Are Great for the Box Office
- Black Friday at Best Buy
- Facebook's Biggest-Ever Holiday Shopping Season
- Facebook's New Dual Class Structure - Slow Steps to an IPO
- Can Murdoch Help Bing Challenge Google and Shift the Content Equation?
- Twilight, Inc., A Worldwide Craze
- Oprah to Leave Syndication in 2011
- Sony's E-Reader Shortage and the Digital Book Battle
RSS FEED
MOST SHARED
- Kohlberg Kravis Bidding for Morgan Stanley's CICC Stake
- Cisco Has 84% of Tandberg, Won't Extend Bid
- Case Closed but Woods Scrutiny Continues
- UK Economy Turned, Inflation to Spike: BoE Economist
- Keeping America Great
- Australia Regulator Opposes Caltex-Exxon Deal
- GE, Comcast Complete Deal Over NBC Universal: Source
- Toyota Takes Lead Position in Canada in November
- Treasury Assistance Comes at High Price For GM
- Unemployment to Peak at 10.5%: Moody's Economist
- 8 Stocks to Gain on Obama's Afghan Plan: Analysts
- BofA On Proposed Changes In The Housing Bailout Program
- The Future of The Media Landscape
- November Auto Sales Muddle Along
- Busch: What Obama Won't Say Tonight
- Stick with Equities—Avoid Emerging Markets: Laszlo Birinyi
- Pfizer Chomps On A Carrot
- Job Cuts Fall to Lowest in Nearly 2 Years: Challenger
- Wal-Mart Targets Video Games with Latest Price Cuts
- 'Black Swan' Shuns Public Life Because of Bernanke
- Look Ahead: Markets Count Down to US Jobs Report
- Dubai World To Meet with Creditors Next Week
- Obama to Send More Troops; Seeks Afghanistan Exit
- GM Removes CEO Henderson; Whitacre Is Interim Chief
- UK Economy Turned, Inflation to Spike: BoE Economist
- Who Were the Biggest Winners And Losers This Year?
Text Size 
Correspondent
At long last 3-D is finally rolling out to more theaters, which means great news for movie theater chains and studios who, with the technology, can charge more for tickets and pack theaters.
Friday Regal Entertainment [RGC
Loading...
()
] closed 6.6 percent higher, while Cinemark Holdings [CNK
Loading...
()
] added 6.4 percent. This comes on the news that JP Morgan will finance up to 15,000 digital cinema installations over the next five years at the three biggest theater chains, Regal, Cinemark, and AMC, which is private. Next week JP Morgan is sending out the briefing books for the $525 million financing - $325 million bank syndication and $200 million in equity from private equity funds and the theater chains themselves.
The digital systems will enable movies to be sent digitally, saving studios the hefty cost of the prints and shipping them around the country. In turn the studios have agreed to "virtual print fee deals," which effectively allows the studios to put their savings on print fees towards helping the theaters cover the costs of the new systems.
This is a long time in coming: DCIP (Digital Cinema Implementation Partners), had planned to roll out the new systems at the beginning of 2009 but the credit crunch made that an impossibility. It's a huge deal: now there may not even be 2,000 3-D theaters in North America. If all goes as planned this new injection of cash will ensure that there are 2,500 screens by the debut of much-anticipated "Avatar" from 20th Century Fox in December.
Next week there's a big 3-D Entertainment Summit in Universal City (right in the back yard of our Los Angeles Bureau) and we can expect to hear more then about the rollout of 3-D and what it means for the industry. Also next week, Technicolor is introducing a new way to turn traditional celluloid film into 3-D, which should be a cost-saving from the digital systems 3-D usually requires.
On CNBC.com
Questions? Comments?
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes