Movie theater companies are encroaching on hotels bread-and-butter as the venues become an increasingly attractive option for companies looking to hold large meetings, conferences and events.
With new designs that offer comfortable chairs, stadium seating and technology, theaters are trending as a viable option for businesses, especially because they tend to be less expensive than hotels. Showcase Cinemas is one of the early adopters of the more recent push to attract the corporate crowd, offering to lease its 29 cinemas in six states, the New York Times reports.
AMC Theatres, along with its subsidiary Carmike Cinemas, offers meetings in 660 of their venues, and AMC and Regal Entertainment Group are taking things a step further by having dedicated event-planning staff available in more than 560 theaters across 43 states in the U.S.
This new initiative seems to be paying off. According to the NYT, Regal said the number of events held between 2011 and 2016 more than doubled from 5,000 to 11,000. Many theaters even offer catered food and beverage during these events.
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