{"id":12120,"date":"2018-08-20T07:22:35","date_gmt":"2018-08-20T07:22:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=12120"},"modified":"2018-08-20T07:22:35","modified_gmt":"2018-08-20T07:22:35","slug":"amazon-could-be-coming-to-a-movie-theater-near-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=12120","title":{"rendered":"Amazon could be coming to a movie theater near you"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

\"5\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Amazon has already tried to reinvent brick-and-mortar grocery stores and book sellers. Is the movie theater next?<\/h2>\n

The company is “in the running” to buy Landmark Theaters, according to Bloomberg<\/a>. Landmark is a private chain of about 50 cinemas that specialize in showing independent and foreign films, and is controlled by billionaire investors Mark Cuban<\/a> and Todd Wagner through their holding company, 2929 Entertainment. <\/p>\n

It’s tough to know exactly what Amazon<\/span> (AMZN<\/a><\/span>)<\/span> is thinking, and it’s not even clear that a deal will happen. Bloomberg’s report noted that talks “could still fall apart.” A separate report on the website Deadline<\/a> cited sources who dismissed Amazon as a contender entirely. <\/p>\n

Amazon, Landmark and 2929 Entertainment did not respond to requests for comment from CNNMoney. <\/p>\n

But analysts who follow the entertainment and technology industries have a few theories about why Amazon might be interested in the theater business. <\/p>\n

The company is best known for its ubiquitous internet shopping service<\/a>. But Amazon has been steadily building its physical presence, said Gene Munster, managing partner with the venture capital firm Loup Ventures. The company bought the organic grocery chain Whole Foods<\/a> last year. It has opened grocery<\/a> and book stores<\/a> under the Amazon name, too. <\/p>\n

“For the first 25 years of the internet we’ve seen the world in two competing domains: digital and physical,” Munster said. “Amazon clearly believes the future of the internet lies in the convergence of digital and physical offerings to meet customer needs.” <\/p>\n

Landmark has an obvious digital counterpart: Amazon’s Prime Video<\/a>. The distribution service streams original shows like “Transparent<\/a>” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel<\/a>,” among other programs. <\/p>\n

The theater chain could also help juice Amazon’s reputation, said Jonathan Kuntz, a film historian and lecturer at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. <\/p>\n

If the deal goes through, he said, “Amazon is buying a little bit of prestige \u2014 the quality end of the market.” The company already has had its eye trained on the awards circuit. “Manchester by the Sea<\/a>,” which was nominated for Best Picture at the 2017 Academy Awards, was distributed by Amazon Studios. <\/p>\n

Theater ownership is also an avenue that Amazon could use to distribute and monetize its content, said Eric Wold, an analyst at B. Riley FBR. <\/p>\n

Despite concerns in recent years about a decline in attendance<\/a> at the box office, Wold said it’s still a strong industry as long as movie studios produce high-quality movies. <\/p>\n

Landmark could also broaden Amazon’s audience \u2014 Wold added that the people who frequent the theater chain don’t necessarily subscribe to Prime, the subscription service needed to watch Amazon programs. <\/p>\n

And all that would come at what’s likely a low risk for Amazon, a company with a $909 billion market capitalization<\/a>. <\/p>\n

“I don’t know the dollar values involved here, but they are not betting the whole company on the Landmark deal,” Kuntz said. <\/p>\n

But while Wold said a potential deal could benefit Amazon, he didn’t expect it to make waves in the theater industry. Landmark is tiny compared to giant movie chains like AMC Theaters<\/a> and Cinemark<\/a>, which each have hundreds of locations. <\/p>\n

Investors don’t appear to be phased, either. Shares of AMC<\/span> (AMC<\/a><\/span>)<\/span> and Cinemark<\/span> (CNK<\/a><\/span>)<\/span> rose during trading hours Thursday, after the Bloomberg story published. Each closed about a percentage point or two higher at the end of the day. While Cinemark was down slightly Friday, AMC stock kept rising. <\/p>\n

In any case, some observers said that Amazon’s interest in theaters could portend eventual changes in the industry. Munster said Landmark could be a “starting point” for Amazon, which could buy more theaters in the future. <\/p>\n

Kuntz, meanwhile, suggested that Amazon could use theaters to transform the experience for moviegoers entirely. For example: virtual reality. <\/p>\n

CNNMoney (New York) <\/span> First published August 17, 2018: 12:00 PM ET<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amazon has already tried to reinvent brick-and-mortar grocery stores and book sellers. Is the movie theater next? The company is “in the running” to buy Landmark Theaters, according to Bloomberg. Landmark is a private chain of about 50 cinemas that specialize in showing independent and foreign films, and is controlled by billionaire investors Mark Cuban…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":12121,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}