After pressing pause on their long-term relationship, Regal Cinemas and National CineMedia (NCM) have renewed their vows for a new ten-year contract in which NCM will provide Regal with its in-theatre, pre-show advertising program.
Regal, AMC, and Cinemark came together in a joint venture to create NCM as a stand-alone company offering this service to exhibitors and since that time NCM has remained Regal’s exclusive provider. However, after Regal’s parent company Cineworld announced last September that it was filing for bankruptcy,
Regal informed NCM that it was canceling its current contract in order to evaluate better alternatives, either by renegotiating the terms of its agreement with NCM or by moving to an alternative provider. NCM challenged the validity of Regal’s move by filing a lawsuit against Regal.
This uncertainty pushed NCM into its own crisis since Regal represented the largest single network of theatres within the NCM network. In April, NCM also decided to file for bankruptcy in order to have the flexibility to restructure its own substantial debts. In the end, the desire to avoid legal complications provided sufficient incentive for the two companies to make up and continue to work together.