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slapintheface wrote:
I am not sure how current this info is. Last fall this theater was re-located to another building that was already owned by the owners (I believe that is what I heard). www.troymoviehouse.com/index.html They went from 4 screens to 2 screens. No idea if the old location is empty still.

wimovieman wrote:
{With the need to go digital in all my theatres, I am selling (sacifice price) one of my single screen theatres. It is located in a beautiful part of north central Wisconsin and has a 3 bedroom apartment above, along with a small store front. The theatre is part of the CBG. It is in a town of 3000 plus, first run non-competive area with small towns around--closest competition is 25 miles east, 45 miles south, 35 miles north and 45 miles west. It has been operated absentee owner for 30 years, but could do much better with an owner operater and showmanship skills.}

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2 screen first run theatre for sale in Northwest Indiana...
www.kennedytheatre.com

Yelp reviews:http://www.yelp.com/biz/kennedy-theatre-hammond

Asking price is 250k
We have a long term lease that is currently $800 a month and currently only charge $5 for all tickets for first run movies and cheap prices on concessions and brought in more in 2011 than we are asking. Each of the two screens has 150 seats.

This is a great little theatre that has done quite well for us the last 5 years. We are moving a little further south and need to sell it to someone who wants a great little money maker.

PM me for more information or email at:
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ironpillar71 wrote:
Sorry to throw cold water on you but $250k for a theater that is only a lease is way overpriced. There are twins that include the real estate for that price sitting unsold. $800 is a great lease but the landlord has the power in a commercial setting. I know of two operators in the midwest that lost their leases to other operators in the last year.

plus, that devil of a word..........digital.

Just trying to be honest with you here.

Rufusjack,

I appreciate your input and we are just getting started down the road to researching and selling.
I will assume that you are a current theatre owner and have a certain opinion on the way things are. I don't disagree with what you said but I am trying to be a bit more optimistic in the end result. I understand that digital is coming like a hurricane and all odds seem to be against the independants these days. But I also realize my market here and the relationship with my building owner. The fact that I can bring in almost 350k a year with rock bottom prices on a 300 seat twin can not be discounted as a potential selling point (and it still hasnt reached its potential). I may also be in a bit of a different situation with my building owner (who is willing to sell the building cheap as well). Im not saying I won't end up selling for a lot cheaper but I know how my theatre produces and I think it will still produce valuable entertainment to the community for years to come.
But again, I am just not getting into the research so all of this groups input will be heeded.

Thanks

My formula for buying a theater is 3 years profits they show on the books. So you make $50,000 per year I pay $150,000 provided there is a lease of at least 9 years."Off the books" money means nothing to me and I don't factor it in on A sale. I also don't pay for potential gross,If I am bring it to potential why would I pay someone for that?

JUST MY FORMULA .....

Thanks for the input Jack.
I suppose this probably isnt the right thread for the deeper discussions of defining business value but I am still combing the threads to glean what I can. Your formula makes sense but I think might oversimplify every instance. I do assume its your general "rule of thumb" to cookie cut potential opportunities and I will keep it in mind when i do put together a realistic number.
I do disagree with your view on "potential" gross though, surely you consider future income into your business decision right? To clarify my statement, I didn't mean I expect to be paid for potential gross but I intend on using it a sales pitch.

ironpillar71 wrote:
Do you play 85% of your movies on the break? Do you average 13 movies per screen per year? If the answer to both questions is yes, then this theater can qualify for a VPF from one of many integrators. If you do not sell by Aug. I would encourage to sign a VPF deal and get the digital equipment installed. A theatre owner could recoup 50-85% of their digital cost. The vpfs deals are transferable upon sale.

Only play on the nreak for the 6-8 biggest titles of the year and then move-over the rest of the time???

I agree with slap's 3 year valuation method. But you have to factor digital costs going forward. That could bery well be $2000 per month.

Leases can be broken pretty easy by landlords. Your lease is very cheap. Could be too cheap.

If you own the building, you can stay as long as you pay your mortgage and property taxes. Of course eminent domain could raise it's head but that is rare.

For sure use it as a sales pitch-- nothing wrong with that.

Yes future cash flows are important. You get those from looking at the past and adjusting from there based on known factors (significant cost of digital) and do your best for the unknown factors like future competition.

Rufusjack,

I'll be honest. Im slightly ignorant of the detailes workings of the digital agreements. I would like to get more details on that if possible. I'll look through the forums and see if there is a "digital for dummies" thread that will help.
I suppose its time to get seriously educated on that if I choose to move forward.

ironpillar71 wrote:
The first thing you need to do is look at the movies you played in the past year. What % did you play on the break? If the answer is less than 85%, you will not have a VPF program to help you recoup you digital conversion cots. UNLESS.........

Are you a member of the CBG? If no, you or anyone who buys your theater will have to pay for 100% of the conversion on your own.

If you do play 85% or more on the break, you have until 9/30/2012 to have your paperwork finalized with the integrators. I would allow 30 days for the paperwork to go through the system. Once you have a VPF deal executed, you will have 6 mos to get the equipment installed. Your VPF deal can be transferred to a person buying your theater.

Most theaters in the top 3000 locations will be able to afford the transition. Pretty much all of them in the top 2500 will be converted by March 31, 2013. That top 2500 will account for 95% the box office gross for most movies. There will be NO incentive for a studio to release movies on film at that point.

I expect there will be digital only releases starting in January of 2013.

If you play less than 85%, you can still get a VPF deal, but you have to get bank financing and the VPF payments aren't as much. We play about 65% of our films on the break. I got bank financing and we just received notice that our first VPF check is on the way.

So I'm thinking that an existing theater owner who is looking to sell could and should get signed up in a VPF program and transfer it to the new owners.

BusyBee wrote:
Are you CBG? If not, what integrator are you using?

We are CBG and we are using Cinedigm. I just pulled up an old email wherein we were encouraged to pursue Cinedigm financing because it was not limited to CBG members. So, I'm not sure why I was under the impression that I needed a CBG membership. CBG did facilitate our communications with Cinedigm and the communication from the CBG and the webinars were extremely helpful. I don't regret my membership, but I'm not sure it was necessary.