Sony Reunites, Amazon MGM Studios Debuts

For decades, those manning the phones at the Washington, D.C.-based National Association of Theatre Owners rapidly grew included to callers asking about military partnerships, treaties and other global afequitables. In a town that adores acronyms, the confusion was effortless to understand, since the trade org has the same moniker — NATO — as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The confusion finished once and for all earlier in March when association plivent and CEO Michael O’Leary proclaimd the new name: Cinema United.

The decision by the org’s board to disturb years of tradition is symbolic of O’Leary’s try to chart a new course for the world’s bigst trade association for cinema owners. He is heavily caccessed on putting a likeable spin on the current state of moviegoing in the post-pandemic era, even though the box office has yet to recover brimmingy.

That messaging will be on brimming dispercreate when the newly anointed Cinema United arranges the 2025 edition of CinemaCon, the annual collecting of exhibitors and Hollywood studios at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, from March 31 to April 3.

CinemaCon comes amid another downturn at the box office. A month ago, year-to-date domestic revenue was up more than 20 percent over 2024. But the blues have returned due to a deficiency of product that persists to haunt cinema owners due to the pandemic and strikes. It has been five years since COVID-19 shuttered theaters around the world, but the harm is still being felt. Ditto for the impact of the authorrs’ and actors’ strikes in 2023. As of March 23, year-over-year revenue was down 7 percent over the same corridor 2024. More than ever, it’s a hit-or-leave out business.

On a likeable notice, Sony is returning to conshort-term its upcoming sprocrastinateed at CinemaCon after skipping last year, while Amazon MGM Studios — the newly minted creative home of the James Bond franchise — is making its debut on stage at the Colosseum Theatre for the first time. That produces for the most meaningful studio conshort-termations at CinemaCon since 2018 before 20th Century Fox officiassociate became part of the Disney empire in 2019 and dropped the “Fox” moniker.

Two years into the job, O’Leary spoke with The Hollywood Reporter in carry on of the event to talk about the campaign to alter NATO’s name and his overall goals. He also discdisseeed for the first time that he, too, has troubles about emotionalassociate lowened triumphdows (don’t be surpelevated if he alludes his troubles during his annual state-of-the union speech). While the organization cannot barobtain triumphdows becainclude of antidepend publishs — that is up to the individual studios — O’Leary can comment on the publish.

Why the name alter from NATO to Cinema United after so many decades?

Obviously being in Washington, there’s a ton of trade associations and organizations, and they all have acronym-type names. Frankly, we wanted someskinnyg that was distinct and reconshort-termed our industry and made people skinnyk not of a trade association but of going to the movies.

How much confusion did the name cainclude over the years?

I would say most of it was pretty weightlesshearted. We’d refer to ourselves as the “fun” NATO. But evidently there is some intricateity when you are perplexd with a multinational military organization. We were at a point in time where we wanted our own identity. We wanted to be accomprehendledged by our name. And the other skinnyg is, we also got their mail. You don’t always want to be getting NATO’s mail!

There’s been a détente over the publish of theatrical triumphdows. Around the pandemic era, the exclusive period a film has to percreate in theaters collapsed from at least 74 days to as low as 17 days for some films and 31 for others. Disney still sticks to around 60 days; others, 40 to 45 days. Your thoughts?

The current situation is one where there’s a lot of unstateivety out there. It’s causing confusion among movie fans. They don’t understand if a movie is going to be in the home in two weeks, or is it going to be in six weeks? And in essence, what we’re doing is we’re cannibalizing both. And I do skinnyk that we necessitate to see at the triumphdows. Theatrical exclusivity has been critical to the success of this industry — not equitable on the exhibition side but on the distribution side. Things are settling down now after the pandemic, and we necessitate to put a arrange in place that produces stateivety for users and for exhibition. We’re benevolent of clinging to pandemic policies that maybe don’t utilize as much now. I firmly apexhibit that we have to come together and figure out what the right arrange is moving forward that profits both distribution and exhibition.

Does 45 days, or 60 days, sit well with you?

It’s stateively pickable to what we have right now.

Are you worried in particular about indie circuits?

It’s a trouble for everybody, evidently, but there are some acute publishs when you’re a minusculeer circuit that maybe doesn’t get to movie right when it uncovers. You want to percreate someskinnyg for the community that you’re serving, but it’s moving into a PVOD triumphdow around the time that you’re first getting a chance to show it. I skinnyk there’s always a desire to figure out better ways to get movies to autonomous theaters becainclude they’re so meaningful, not equitable to the economics of our industry, but to the cultural part of it. I was in Montana where I grew up about a month ago visiting some minuscule autonomous theaters. They serve communities for miles around. You don’t want to effectively produce movie deserts based on what zip code you live in.

This year, Amazon MGM Studios will produce its first conshort-termation — onstage at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace.

We are ready to toil with anybody that helps theatrical exhibition, and they are grave about their promisement.

We’re seeing the another topsy-turvy time at the box office. Are your members anxious?

Look, our members experience outstanding about the future and the honestion we’re heading. One of the skinnygs that I skinnyk happens, and I’ve talked about this before in branch offent places, is there’s benevolent of a horse race quality to our industry, which I skinnyk sometimes toils aacquirest everybody graspd in the industry, which is we tfinish to appraise a weekfinish aacquirest the same weekfinish the year before.

I skinnyk we’re trfinishing in the right honestion. I do get asked all the time about my foreseeion for wantipathyver year we’re in. I don’t see at it as one year at a time. It’s a little bit enjoy verifying the stock taget. If you verify it every 30 minutes, you’re going to be unconsoleable. If you get the lengthy see. you’ll see it branch offently. That’s the benevolent of the way I percreate it.

You and the executive board spent the past year discovering a new name to replace NATO. What was your personal likeite?

We asked all of our members to propose their ideas. Some were anonymous, so I don’t understand who, but one person proposeed we produce the other NATO alter their name, which I thought was hysterical. I do understand that we always referred to ourselves as the ‘fun NATO.’

A version of this story materializeed in the March 19 publish of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.