NCM Expands Theater Network With Santikos Theatres And Cinetopia
Gail Chiasson, North American Editor
Centennial, Colorado-based National CineMedia, believed to the largest cinema advertising network in the U.S., is expanding its national reach with the addition of several new movie theater circuit affiliates in 2015 and 2016, representing an increased audience of over 10 million movie-going attendees.
Involved in the arrangement are: Santikos Theatres, Cinetopia, and several others.
Santikos Theatres has signed an agreement to become an NCM affiliate as of 2016, adding its 142 screens to NCM’s national theater network. The Santikos Theatre circuit includes nine unique entertainment venues in South Texas, including some of the top grossing theatres and top Premium Large Format screens in the US. Featured locations include the Palladium IMAX in San Antonio and the Palladium AVX and Silverado IMAX in the Houston area. Opening in early 2016 for Santikos is another unique entertainment complex, the Casa Blanca.
John Santikos, the circuit’s founder and owner, died in late 2014, leaving operation and assets of the circuit to the San Antonio Area Foundation – which makes Santikos Theatres the only known theatre circuit that donates all profits to local charities. Santikos employees proudly continue the company’s 104-year-old tradition of providing exceptional guest experiences, superior cinematic presentations and multiple entertainment offerings within fabulous and unique facilities.
Cinetopia, with its four theaters and 63 screens, has joined NCM’s network as an affiliate, effective beginning this month. Cinetopia theaters include the Overland Park 18 in the Kansas City area, the Progress Ridge 14 in the Portland, Oregon area, and the Vancouver Mall 23 and the Mill Plain 8 in the Vancouver, Washington area. Each of Cinetopia’s locations adds luxury to the movie-watching experience in grand auditoriums, living-room theaters, movie parlors and GXL theaters with wine, a selection of local microbrews, fresh market-to-table cuisine and plush seats.
Other regional and local affiliates which recently became a part of NCM’s national network include the Crossroads Movies 8 in Oklahoma City and the Rosecrest Entertainment Lexington Cinema 8 in North Carolina.
In addition, NCM has also renewed affiliate agreements with Galaxy Theatres, with 13 theaters and 66 screens in the Los Angeles, Seattle, Las Vegas, Austin, and Des Moines areas, and the premier entertainment destination LA Live in Los Angeles — further solidifying its position as America’s largest cinema network.
“Advertisers value ubiquitous audience coverage, so creating a premier national video advertising network with a larger impression base that can compete more effectively with TV, online and mobile networks is good for both our advertising clients and our theater circuit partners,” says Kurt Hall, NCM chairman and CEO.
“And we are making good progress that bodes well for our theater circuit partners in the coming year, as we are seeing increasing advertiser demand that has resulted in our 2015 upfront commitments nearly doubling versus 2014, after a strong Q4 2014 where revenue per average network screen increased 13% versus Q4 2013.
“We are confident that the addition of these new high-quality theater affiliates to our network, along with the increased investments we are making in our proposal, inventory management and audience targeting technology systems, will allow us to compete even more effectively in the video advertising marketplace of the future.”
The new affiliate theatre will join other national theatre circuits AMC, Cinemark, Regal Entertainment Group and over 40 other leading regional theater circuit affiliates nationwide in exclusively presenting NCM’s FirstLook pre-show with Shazam interactivity and the ability to seamlessly target moviegoers online and on mobile devices through NCM’s digital offerings.
These new affiliates will also benefit from NCM’s industry-leading innovations including its Turbo initiative, which accelerates the delivery time of media from proposal to on-screen to less than 72 hours to give businesses that rely on time-sensitive promotional advertising strategies, such as car dealerships, retail stores and QSRs, the opportunity to take advantage of the power of cinema.
NCM will also be launching the industry’s first Cinema Audience Targeting Optimizer (CATO) system this year that will help attract new advertisers to cinema by giving brands the ability to create more effective media plans with NCM based on film genres to maximize consumer targetability.
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