Outside of film business circles (and even sometimes in them), the acronym NATO refers to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the transnational military alliance between 32 countries committed to maintaining the post-WWII world order. But for that niche group of people who make a big deal of going to CinemaCon in Vegas every April, NATO is the National Association of Theatre Owners. But now no one needs to be confused.
NATO, the cinema trade group which represents movie theaters across the country, is changing its name to Cinema United, NATO…er…Cinema United president Michael O’Leary told the Associated Press on Tuesday. O’Leary, who took over the post last year after former president John Fithian stepped down, said the trade group was in need of a rebrand and also conceded that getting phone calls about Ukraine was getting a little old.
The rebrand also comes with a new tagline: Moviegoing Is Our Mission.
Cinema United represents the 32,000 screens in the U.S. and another 30,000 screens across 88 countries, and that encapsulates not just the “Theatre Owners” of NATO but also the employees at those movie theaters, so the name change was fitting for yet another reason.
Beginning March 31, Cinema United is bringing together the folks who represent all those screens for CinemaCon, which is the annual convention in which the studios show off their upcoming theatrical slates to entice those theater owners to book their movies on their screens. O’Leary and company will surely take the occasion to echo the rallying cry of Sean Baker during the Oscars about putting movies into theaters (“Anora” is one of the lowest-grossing Best Picture winners ever), but it will also raise awareness about ways in which to help theaters recover.
After a few weak weekends in a row and a disappointing run for some major tentpoles like “Captain America: Brave New World,” the domestic box office for the year is now slightly off pace from where it was last year. To combat that, Cinema United will tout some of its recent promotions, including a commitment of $2.2 billion among cinemas to upgrade tech and install improvements and other amenities, as well as specialty weekends nationwide that will offer discounts on concessions to certain groups like families or couples celebrating date night.
