Cinema Industry Set For Further Consolidation

After a period of rapid consolidation early this decade, partly prompted by the wave of bankruptcies that hit US cinema chains in 2000-01, merger and acquisition activity in the industry has slowed. However, according to Exhibitor Rankings, an analysis by Dodona Research, 64 companies operating 200 or more screens now own 31,855, or 29%, of all cinema screens worldwide. This compares to 51 companies of similar size with 29,747 screens between them in 2004.