Bow Tie Snaps Up LI Theater Chain

RIDGEFIELD, CT-Locally based Bow Tie Cinemas will vault into the top 10 list of US movie theater chains when its acquisition of the Clearview Cinemas chain is finalized. Based in Bethpage, NY, Clearview is a unit of Cablevision, whose CEO, James Dolan, is also executive chairman of Madison Square Garden Co., and which has reportedly sought a buyer for its movie exhibition business since last May.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Bow Tie, which currently owns and operates 177 screens in five states, will become the eighth largest chain in the US following the acquisition, with a screen count of 388 at 63 locations.

In a release, Ben Moss, Bow TIE CEO and a member of the fourth generation of the founding family, calls the pending sale “a transformational acquisition for Bow Tie Cinemas and an exciting new chapter in our company's rich history.” The deal is expected to close in the coming months, according to the release.

The deal entails 41 of Clearview's 47 locations in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Five theaters with expiring leases will not be part of the sale, according to Bloomberg, and Cablevision will hang onto the 1,151-seat Ziegfeld Theatre in Midtown Manhattan, among the last single-screen movie palaces in the region. Bow Tie will manage the Ziegfeld, the release states.

Cablevision acquired the Clearview chain for $158 million in 1998, according to Newsday, which also is owned by Cablevision. It has since developed a handful of ground-up multi-screen theaters, mainly in New Jersey; however, the majority of its screens are housed in older neighborhood movie houses that have been subdivided over the years.

Bow Tie, which was founded by the Moss family more than a century ago, plans to upgrade its new acquisitions with digital projection, improvements to the theaters' concession stands and décor and a more advanced point-of-sale system intended to enhance customer loyalty programs. The chain has opened a number of new builds in recent years, and will add to its screen count with two complexes in Saratoga Springs, NY over the next few months.  

The deal is in line with a trend toward industry consolidation in recent years. Earlier this year, for example, Knoxville, TN-based Regal Cinemas, the nation's largest theater circuit, bought the Portland, OR-based Hollywood Theatres for $191 million in cash. The deal added 43 locations and 540 screens to Regal's tally.