Cineworld to buy Regal theaters for $3.6 billion to challenge AMC

LONDON — The two largest movie theater chains in the United States will soon be owned by foreign companies.

British movie theater owner Cineworld said Tuesday it had agreed to acquire Regal Entertainment Group, one of the biggest cinema operators in the United States, for $3.6 billion.

The deal would greatly expand the scale and geographic footprint of Cineworld, which primarily operates in Europe, and create the world’s second-largest movie theater owner to better compete with AMC Entertainment, which is owned by Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda. The Cineworld-Regal combination would create a company with more than 9,500 screens in 10 countries.

It comes at a time of flux for operators of movie theaters competing for attention and dollars in an increasingly saturated marketplace. At the same time, studios, such as The Walt Disney Co., are exerting more control over when and how their biggest films are shown, putting pressure on operators.

And despite higher average ticket prices, box office revenue is down in the United States this year after a dismal summer.(Ticket sales are likely to be bolstered by the release of “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” later this month.)

Cineworld would pay $23 a share in cash for Regal. Shares of Regal rose $1.95, or 9.4 percent, to close at $22.68 on Tuesday.

[THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO] Regal Entertainment Group is the nation’s second-biggest cinema operator, with 7,315 screens at 561 cinemas. Cineworld is Europe’s second-largest movie theater chain, with 2,227 screens at 232 sites in Europe and Israel.