Movie Monopoly

The news of a massive movie house merger got Bostonist all worked up. Where will we go? How much will we pay? We’re already paying $15 to go see a movie at the MFA on opening night, and the Loews Boston Common gets close with their $10.25 weekend admission. The announcement today that AMC plans to acquire the Loews Cineplex theatres reminded us of when Shaw's and Star merged. Bostonist can’t really tell the theatres apart when we’re inside. It’s dark, the seats sit on an impressive rake, the sound is loud. Same with Shaws and Star, except they're well lit and flat floors. No word yet on potential name changes to the Loews and AMC complex, perhaps AMC will leave a couple Loews just to make us feel comfortable.

After the closing of the Loews Copley Place this winter to make way for a Barney's New York store we thought Boston had lost something. With this imminent merger we’re pretty sure, and the Boston Globe is with us, that there’s going to be a price hike. The merger won’t affect cities like New York where there are both Regal Cinema (the nation's largest chain) and combined Loews-AMC theatres strewn about the city, so the Feds will probably not put up any regulatory roadblocks. All of Boston’s stadium seating multiplexes with digital sound (is there any other way to see Star Wars III?) will fall under the jurisdiction of one company. With a monopoly on 32 of Boston’s most popular screens, not only will the new company be positioned to bargain with the movie studios, but it will have little competition when showing feature films. Seeing a new release film in Boston could soon cost the same as buying the DVD. As an always thrifty consumer, Bostonist might start our own movie theatre.