Boxoffice - February 2017

NATO COMMUNIQUÉ
gan as family-run companies, with Wehrenberg, until
its purchase, the oldest family-run cinema company
in the United States.
NATO’s current structure, with a constant
dialogue between regional affiliates and the national
association, gives the industry the flexibility to shift
focus on regulations and legislation from the states
to the federal government and back again. In the
same way, the international nature of the modern
cinema industry requires a flexibility to shift focus
as laws and regulations pop up across the globe to
exhibition’s benefit and detriment. Sugary-beverage
taxes that failed in the U.S. migrated to Mexico; their
enactment there revitalized such measures’ proponents
in the U.S., where local measures have since
been enacted at the municipal level.
NATO is exploring, as John Fithian noted in his
Boxoffice column in December, with our international
members and sister trade associations, ways
to structure new and more effective international
relationships to meet the global realities that face our
industry. At the same time, the association is looking
at ways to make sure our domestic lobbying efforts
are more effective and better supported across the
various states and regional affiliates.
From the local to the regional to the national to
the international, the growth and consolidation of
the industry across borders will continue, as the concerns
and interests of an increasingly similar industry
converge. Technology standards, film product, release
windows, movie theft, government regulation, and
audience tastes grow more alike every day, and the
cinema industry continues to evolve to meet those
changes. As domestic members expand internationally
and international members expand into the
domestic market, NATO will evolve with it. n
MEMBERSHIP
Companies Screens Sites
Domestic 597 33,026 3,325
U.S. Territory 3 330 42
Canadian 20 2,257 243
International 49 28,888 3,487
TOTAL 669 64,501 7,097
INTERNATIONAL MEMBERSHIP*
DATE COMPANIES TOTAL SCREENS
April 2010 26 11,634
Sept 2010 27 11,981
April 2011 32 11,761
Sept 2011 36 12,639
April 2012 33 13,089
Sept 2012 34 14,616
April 2013 36 18,243
Sept 2013 38 19,095
April 2014 37 20,374
Sept 2014 37 21,391
April 2015 39 22,507
Sept 2015 41 22,713
April 2016 45 24,384
Sept 2016 48 27,344
*Outside U.S. and Canada / As of 28 December 2016
14 BoxOffice ® FEBRUARY 2017