As Paramount chases $111-billion Warner Bros. acquisition, David Ellison sheds his theater chain

The Ellison family-controlled Harbor Lights Entertainment has sold its Showcase Cinemas theatre concatenation to a large European cinema radical successful a $30-million deal.

Belgium-based Kinepolis volition soon run 13 cinemas crossed the United States. Seven are successful Massachusetts, 4 successful New York, 1 successful Ohio and 1 successful Rhode Island.

David Ellison, who is present successful complaint of Paramount Skydance, acquired National Amusements past twelvemonth from the Redstone family. He renamed the institution Harbor Lights. National Amusements was the commencement of Redstone’s media empire, which astatine 1 constituent included power of CBS, Paramount and Viacom.

Paramount is successful the process of acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery successful a $111-billion deal. Under the proposal, Ellison has said the 2 studios volition merchandise 30 films per year. But helium and his squad would besides person to marque $6 cardinal successful cuts and instrumentality connected $79 cardinal successful woody debt.

The woody is awaiting regulatory approval, but officials successful respective states are making plans to effort to artifact the merger. The imaginable suit would question to situation the projected merger connected antitrust grounds, arguing it would alteration competition, little wages and pb to wide occupation losses.

With the merchantability of the theaters, Kinepolis volition adhd 164 screens to its portfolio. The institution was formed successful 1997 and presently operates 63 cinemas successful Europe and astir 60 theaters successful the U.S. and Canada.

The recently acquired theaters drew astir 4 cardinal visitors and generated much than $90 cardinal successful gross past year.

“This acquisition allows america to grow our marketplace presumption successful the U.S. from Michigan to the East Coast with an plus and a squad that alteration america to instrumentality Kinepolis’ operational exemplary and firm strategy, yet enhancing the acquisition for moviegoers successful these markets,” Eddy Duquenne, Kinepolis’s main executive, said successful a statement.

The institution said Showcase Cinemas would clasp its name. It expects the acquisition to beryllium implicit by the extremity of the summer.

Times staff writer Wendy Lee contributed to this report.