Movie Theaters Commit $2.2 Billion to Upgrade Cinemas, Improve Tech, and Even Add Pickleball Courts

NATO president and CEO Michael O'Leary explains to IndieWire why this investment will lead to more people going to the movies.

The top eight movie theater chains in the country have committed to invest more than $2.2 billion over the next three years in modernizing and upgrading their cinemas with the hopes of getting more people in the door, the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) announced on Thursday.

The investment dollars will go toward everything from improving the screens, projection, sound, concessions, theater seating, air conditioning, lighting, signing, carpeting, adding amenities like bars, restaurants, and arcades — and in some cases even adding things like pickleball courts to provide a fully rounded entertainment experience.

“I never thought when I took this job I’d be talking about pickleball courts as much as I am,” Michael O’Leary, the president and CEO of NATO, told IndieWire. He explained he got to see a new B&B Theatres location in Dallas that has 12 screens but also an outdoor space with a bar, a live performance space, and two pickleball courts. You don’t even have to watch a movie to rent out the court, but it all helps the big picture.

“This is all part, frankly, of a larger effort on behalf of some of our members to provide moviegoing fans with a more expansive experience, which goes beyond just going to the movies,” O’Leary said. “It’s all part of us responding to what consumers want when they go out for an evening.”

It hardly means that pickleball courts are going to be taking over your movie theaters anytime soon, but it does speak to the ways in which the major chains are making an effort to modernize, improve the customer experience, and find new ways to get audiences regularly coming back. O’Leary explained they’re investing capital back into the movie theaters that hasn’t been there the last few years now that the box office has picked up some steam and has given everyone “a little bit of a breeze at our back.”

The eight theater chains that reported their numbers to NATO, including AMC Entertainment Inc., Regal Cinemas, Cinemark USA, Inc., Cineplex, Marcus Theatres Corp., B&B Theatres, Harkins Theatres, and Santikos Entertainment, and have roughly 21,000 screens account for about two-thirds of the entire U.S. box office.

Not all of those 21,000 screens are in need of modernization, but many are, and as IndieWire reported in the past, operating them is hardly cheap. O’Leary said the investment though will go not just to technical and presentation improvements but to other parts of the theater as well. He also believes that these improvements don’t preclude some theater chains from looking to expand and acquire or build new theater locations. There are many cities and neighborhoods almost completely devoid of a movie theater for miles around.

Whatever the money ends up going to, O’Leary said these investments will go a long way toward helping the box office in the short and long term.

“You’re going to create an environment which is more inviting, which people are going to not just want to go to, but they’re going to want to come back to,” he said. “I do think there’s a direct correlation between the theater, the experience people have there, how they feel about it, and not just going, but wanting to come. So I do think that this investment will yield more people going to movies in the future.”