Landmark Theatres — the indie cinema chain owed by billionaire businessman Mark Cuban — is up for sale, Ted Mundorff, CEO for the theatre chain tells TheWrap.
Landmark oversees 245 screens in 21 cities, including Los Angeles and New York City. The exhibitor falls under Wagner and Cuban’s 2929 Entertainment umbrella, which includes Magnolia Pictures, HDNet Movies and a handful of other media properties.
Cuban and business partner Todd Wagner bought the indie exhibitor form Oaktree Capital Management in 2003 and explored a sale of Landmark and Magnolia back in 2013, but the talks went nowhere.
The new exploaration of a sale comes at a time of transition for exhibitors. Just last week, Landmark signed a deal with the all-you-can-watch subscription service MoviePass to drive more moviegoers to the theaters.
In a new survey from the MPAA, attendance among frequent moviegoers in a key 18-to-24 years old demographic was down 28 percent last year, compared with 2016. Attendance among teens who frequent the cineplex was down 22 percent.
Overall, box office revenue from 2017 was down nearly 3 percent, compared with 2016 — even as the average ticket price rose 4 percent to $8.97.
There’s been a recent trend of consolidation in the industry though. In December, U.K.-based Cineworld bought Regal Entertainment for $3.6 billion, and in 2016 AMC Entertainment bought Carmike Cinemas for a little more than $1 billion.
Deadline first reported the news.