Legendary musician Phil Collins will perform a cross-Canada concert later this month as a one-night only affair thanks to Cineplex Entertainment theatres.
The move comes as movie theatre chains grow revenue streams outside screening conventional films by renting out space to corporate groups or screening live events via satellite link.
Cineplex has 1,342 screens in Canada, including 342 that are digital, according to Pat Marshall, vice-president of communications. Cineplex had only 84 digital screens in Canada at the end of 2008.
Revenue from non-movie presentations is one of the company’s fastest growing sources of income.
“It’s an area of business that continues to grow,” Marshall told Business in Vancouver Thursday. “If I look back five to 10 years, this was a business dominated by one element: world wrestling entertainment.”
Now, some of the most popular programming includes live opera via satellite from New York, Marshall said.
As the number of digital screens grows, so does the percentage of 3-D screens. According to the Motion Picture Association of America, the number of digital 3-D screens worldwide tripled in 2009, reaching 8,989, or 6% of the total (See “Festivals keep indie film world alive” – issue 1093; October 5-11).