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The Stinger Report #1233 - Entertainments New Hospitality - Part 2
The Bar & Restaurant Expo 2025 and CinemaCon 2025 highlighted accelerating convergence in hospitality, social entertainment, and cinema, driven by evolving consumer demand for immersive experiences. BRE attendance rose 6% year-on-year, with optimism fueled by new concepts like Round One’s Japanese food courts and ongoing restructuring at major chains such as Topgolf and Dave & Buster’s, the latter facing a 9.4% same-store sales decline due to past missteps and rising competition from “Cinetainment” entrants. CinemaCon reflected a sector in flux: box office revenues remain pressured-down 11% versus 2023 and 50% in March alone-amid tentpole film underperformance and streaming disruption. Yet, the industry is betting big on technology upgrades (e.g., AMC’s global expansion of 4DX and ScreenX, Barco’s HDR laser projectors) and experiential diversification, including partnerships and competitive socializing. The breakout success of “A Minecraft Movie” and a surge in video game IP adaptations signal a strategic pivot as cinemas and leisure venues seek new revenue streams and audience engagement.
This is the Stinger Report, issue Number 1233, entertainment's New Hospitality Part 2, by Kevin Williams. In the completion of the Bar and Restaurant Expo coverage, we look at the fallout from the event and the impact of hospitality and social entertainments across the leisure entertainment landscape. In conclusion, bre25 wrapped with a positive sheet, with a reported 10,984 attendants to look over some 500 exhibitors. The attendance was up on the previous year by 6% and the atmosphere from the show floor was extremely positive, in part fuelled by an audience hungry for social entertainment entertainment. Next year's show marks its 40th anniversary and will be held in the same time slot as AEI, march 23rd to 25th 2026, though at different venues. It is hoped that the shortfall in the amusement show attendance will be made back by the inclusion of attendees from BRE.
Speaker 1:Developments in the market were coming thick and fast around the time of the Vegas event. Developments in the market were coming thick and fast around the time of the Vegas event. These developments reflected the shake-up across big brands and prominent operations in the space Hospitality. It was announced that entertainment venue operation Round One, with their over 100 Japanese and 60 US venues, revealed they would be launching a food-based venue concept Called Round One Delicious. The space will represent a Japanese food court offering real Japanese food of different genres. Seven merchants with 12-seat counters per store planning to open in three major US cities New York, los Angeles and Las Vegas. The Vegas site is rumored to be the first US site to deploy.
Speaker 1:Regarding the changing social entertainment landscape, it was revealed that Topgolf would be undertaking a significant layoff of corporate staff ahead of the separation from Callaway Golf. The Topgolf operation is in the middle of significant restructuring, this especially pressing as the chain addresses revenue generation across their sites and growing competition, marking on of the largest e-tertainment chains. In the news, dave and Busters revealed a 9.4% decline in same-store sales in the fourth quarter reporting. These developments were addressed in incredibly honest opinions on their predicament from the interim CEO during investor calls. The problems were blamed at the significant and ill-advised changes at the brand under the company's former executive team, who departed in December. The statement went on to reflect on the prior leadership. While well-intentioned, made significant and ill-advised changes to marketing, food and beverage operations, remodels and games investment that negatively impacted the business. The senior executive continued about the previous management that they had made very dramatic and chaotic changes, distracted, confused and overwhelmed our customers and operators, citing overlapping and conflicting promotions, along with the company not undertaking the proper testing of prototypes or remodeling. The current interim CEO confirmed that the company is re-evaluating its prototype development and looking at rolling back some decisions addressing problems such as de-emphasized new games, and so the company has not introduced many new games into its stores in over two years. These hard-hitting remarks levelled a litany of mistakes they felt the previous operation had allowed to take place and what they felt was the key reason for the drop in revenues. D&b will have to work hard to redress these issues in a market flooded with new competitors. We will be evaluating these new rollbacks in following reports. Many of these new competitors are coming from the cinetainment sphere, and only a matter of weeks after BRE24, the cinema sector would hold their major trade event for the North American market.
Speaker 1:Cinema's US event. The annual gathering of the North American Movie Theatre Business Trade Convention, cinemacon 2025 in Vegas, was a gathering that reflected a changing landscape for the sector. A new approach to the movie theatre business has been underway for the last few years, post-covid and the decline. This was reflected in the announcement following CinemaCon 25 that the National Association of Theatre Operators NATO, that the National Association of Theatre Operators. Nato, representing some 31,000 theatre screens in the US, would be rebranding itself, now renamed Cinema United. The association's resolve is to honour the sectors and steer the next era of cinema. The theatre owners were still facing impacted box office, with some reports suggesting revenue down by 11% compared to 2023, and 2025 has started with March seeing a drastic 50% decline on the previous year. Concern regarding tentpole film properties underperforming, storm clouds swirling in the face of the failure of Disney's Snow White, a lot riding on releases such as Warner Bros Superman and Disney's Avatar, fire and Ash Successes needed to achieve an estimated domestic box office of $9.5 billion. However, only a matter of days after the expo, green shoots would be seen with the impact of a Minecraft movie.
Speaker 1:But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Movie production was in transition, seeing major layoffs across the Hollywood sector, also the erosion of audiences staying at home via the streaming revolution. This revolution is hitting home for the theatre business, with the acquisition of Warner by Amazon and resulting news that Amazon expects to release movies. They expect to give cinema presentation, along with the merger of Skydance Media and Paramount Global, the Vegas show coming at a pivotal point in the sector's history and future positioning In time for the CinemaCon 2025 event, we saw considerable announcements of new partnerships and development plans for leading theater chains First up and announcements from AMC Theater, the largest theatrical exhibitor in the United States and the world, forming a global deal with CJ4Dplex which will see them partnering towards opening over 65 ScreenX and 44 DX auditoriums at AMC locations internationally, including under their Odeon chain, along with the US sector, to be completed by 2027.
Speaker 1:Cj4 DPLEX operates 1,200 locations internationally, 780 of these being 4DX installations, while AMC Entertainment operates 900 theatres 900 theaters. This move comes after CJ4Dplex had partnered with theater chain Regal to install some 52 4DX and 52 ScreenX equipped theaters since 2014, including inside their Cineworld and CCI divisions. This development with AMC will greatly increase the coverage of the world's first multi-projection cinema Scene-NEX platform and motion seating and FX environment 4DX installation expected to be over 1,200 globally. Another new announcement, timed for the theatre industry show and involving CJ4Dplex's plans to ramp up the ScreenX global reach, saw Barco revealed as part of a global agreement that would see 1,000 of their laser projectors deployed for the ScreenX venues by 2030. During CinemCon 2025, a presentation was made of HDR by Barco, offering up to six times higher peak luminance with deeper blacks and brighter highlights the platform supported by the Barco HDR LS4K projection system, enabling HDR high dynamic range viewing experiences that will be coming to theaters, internationally Promoted as the age of laser projection, also supporting integrated media servers. Regarding IMAX cinema development, it was revealed that 95 agreements for new and upgraded IMAX locations across the world. Again, amc announced the continuation of the agreement with IMAX, while Canepolis has plans for nine new locations. Continuing with Barco and in an agreement with Theatre Chain View, they will be rolling out over 1,000 Barco Series 4 laser projectors across their screens in Europe by 2029.
Speaker 1:View is the largest cinema operator in the UK and Italy and the largest privately owned cinema operator in Europe, spanning 223 sites. View was established in May 2003, having grown organically and through strategic acquisition, while in other upscaling projection news and Helios, the largest independent cinema chain in Poland, signed a multi-year agreement with Christie to convert its entire chain to RGB pure laser projection. Helios start its transformation by installing 63 pairs of projectors and servers in 8 cinemas. The drive for better immersive projection a factor in trying to keep the cinema experience relevant Announced during the CinemaCon 25 week. Warner Bros Discovery revealed that they had been in collaboration with MR-based attraction developer Immersive Gamebox, the company licensing their Batman franchise to create a new multiplayer game for their project-based immersive enclosure platform. The game is expected to be rolled out in April across several of their 33 installations in the UK, us and EU. This announcement comes hot on the heels following immersive Gamebox owners being acquired, a project that obviously was instigated by the previous management team.
Speaker 1:On the floor of CinemaCon 25, away from the projector and cinema seating providers, the amusement trade made continuing inroads towards the cinetainment growth in the market. Leading North American distributor, betson Enterprises, took a familiar stance at the show, presenting foyer and game room products. Apple Industries presented on their booth their new Movie Photo booth, incorporating taken pictures into a movie-style souvenir photo strip from the latest blockbuster films. Licensed studios include Sony, disney, marvel, 20th Century Fox, pixar and more. While, compared to previous years, talk of the application of VR was very much muted, other amusement distributors attended the event, but many favoured direct meetings rather than exhibition space. Much of the negotiations at this corporate extravaganza, away from the blockbuster movie reveals and the film's scheduling for the coming year, the core bread-and-butter amusement foyer business is achieved through countless meetings across the corporate hotel suites, private discussions swirling round one ex-cinema amusement distributor that was about to be acquired See below Announcements at the show included. Amc Theatres again announced that moviegoers seeking a frozen treat can now enjoy Dip in Dots, the theme park mainstay, now offered to cinemas. This rollout follows a highly successful test of Dip in Dots products in select AMC markets over the last year.
Speaker 1:Rise in cinetainment development was a hot topic on and off the CinemaCon 25 convention floor. Cinema owners went to the mainstream media to promote their feeling for the future of the exhibition business and, at the same time, announced new investments being made. Looking at the international theatre business and PVR Inox previously PVR Cinema, the Indian multiplex chain with some 355 properties, including other countries in the area, in recent news media interviews, the leading executive of the corporation revealed they expected to launch 100 screens in the Indian market this year. Their theatres are in malls and shopping centres and the development of better audience retention. Looking to develop competitive socialising elements in partnership with their cinema locations, they have four experimental developments underway that take existing sites and repurpose them to include a game room and social element alongside reconfigured theatres. This is not the first time that PVR has invested in entertainment spaces in support of their cinema business. In 2017, the operation developed a HP Virtual Reality VR Lounge at PVR ECX Mall of India, noida. This first lounge was sponsored by HP, an experiment that had been hoped to have been rolled across some ten venues in their chain but proved an idea that did not prove profitable and was abandoned. A mirror of what was seen with the failed IMAX VR arcade concept developed in North America, or seen with failed partnerships that AMC has had with Spaces, terminator VR, endeavor or with Dreamscape.
Speaker 1:Leading brands investing into Cinetainment represent Cineplex with their Rec Room and Playdium chains, as well as their new Cineplex Junction offering Rec Room and Playdium chains, as well as their new Cineplex Junction offering B&B theatres and several new openings of amusement entertainment additions to their theatre business. The Gamescape Entertainment Space by Cinemark, along with Roadhouse Cinema Chain and their new Roadies, lanes Games plus Gastropub and Railyard Gaming plus Gastropub venues with strong social entertainment. Investing into competitive socialising for the cinema sector saw the recent announcement from the Light venue opening in Huddersfield, uk, covering 70,000 square feet with an extensive entertainment edition. This following last year's acquisition of the movie chain for £15 million and media reports of a collaboration between the lights entertainment chain and boutique bowling alley operator All Star Lanes towards exploring options of how they can work together productively. Additional news of new developers in this sphere was seen with the news that Evo Entertainment Group has started the process to develop a new entertainment venue in the city of Forney, texas, pending local council approval. The site is expected to be one of the largest of the CineTainment chain's operation, comprising state-of-the-art cinema and a dedicated attraction and amusement component with F&B.
Speaker 1:In conclusion, for many that attended CinemaCom 25, the event offered a mixed bag. The hopes of better box office were vital, along with the changing media landscape and the impacts on streaming regarding the future calendar of movies to screen. Initial flop tentpole releases had sent jitters through the sector, as they saw at that time a 6% drop on previous year's revenue. At this point, with the benefit of hindsight, this situation would be quickly addressed with a successful release of a Minecraft movie see below. The show confirmed a later date with April 13-16, 2026. This will see a week separation between the co-located Restaurant and Bar Expo and Amusement Expo International AEI. Like AEI, cinemacon had moved to a new venue, leaving the Mandela Bay Casino Resort for the Caesars Palace Casino Resort venue, and this will continue for 2026. Under the direction of the new Cinema United Association, there are other major changes expected to the format and structure of the trade expo, especially considering scene attainment, which we hope to report on soon.
Speaker 1:Video game hit movie releases Taking place days after CinemaCon 2025, the launch of the Warner Bros a Minecraft movie added extra focus on the cinema industry turning an important corner in revenue. The film saw an opening weekend globally grossing some $301 million, a number that beat the previous records created by another video game-based movie, super Mario Bros. It is expected that the movie sector will now be focusing on future video game IP crossovers to address faltering box office. For the amusement trade, the deployment of popular pieces based on successful properties into the sinertainment space will grow, such as the Raw Thrills, minecraft Dungeons Arcade release seeing the launch of its latest update during AEI. One of those video game IPs announcing their adaptation to the big screen is that of the 1986 arcade and consumer game classic Outrun Revealed. After CinemaCon, the franchise would be receiving a big screen adaptation produced by Universal Pictures in partnership with Sega Japan, hoping to capture Lightning in a Bottle again, following Sega's success with the Sonic the Hedgehog series of movies. Will this encourage a relaunch of the sports car racer back into the arcades or a rush to buy classic cabinets for inclusion in venues will have to wait to be seen. But is the latest game-driven IP following on from other successes such as Angry Birds, while an arcade provenance to the license seeming to add to the bankability of the property, all hoping to address the shortfall in box office for the industry as video game characters replace superheroes' IP? Big screen issues?
Speaker 1:Speaking of other Las Vegas landmarks, the Sphere was under the microscope as it undertakes major restructuring, first opened in 2023 and representing a 17,000-seat venue to view the 16K resolution screen, with a secondary external exosphere LED display used for advertising. The whole operation seeing a massive $2 billion construction cost Operated by Sphere Entertainment, presenting live performance from A-list bands and running a specially commissioned series of films. It was announced that Madison Square Garden's network, msg Network, owners of the troubled venue were facing a drop in revenue over the last three months, ending December, revenue down 2% to $308 million. The operation is sitting on an $800 million debt which they are looking to refinance the venue In a statement made by executives. If they cannot find a route to refinancing, then they will be looking at bankruptcy, certain media sources suggesting that board advisors were in favor of this move. The operation already seeing the abandonment of plans for a London and Berlin version of the Sphere. The abandonment of plans for a London and Berlin version of the Sphere. We reported on the use of the Sphere as part of the CES 2025 keynote made by Delta Airlines. As reported in our CES 2025 coverage, the MSG network was linked to reports that they had been promoting the development of a mini-Sphere concept to be deployed round the globe. These were seen as positive promotion that would overshadow the more concerning revenue implosion, while at the same time, sphere Entertainment announced the name of the attraction's emoji mascot seen on the outside screen as Orby, with accompanying merchandising, along with a partnership with Google DeepMind to upscale the 1939 classic movie the Wizard of Oz using AI technology to be up-pixeled to be screened at the sphere.
Speaker 1:Further M&A development. Shake-up in the North American amusement sector took place only days after CinemaCon 25, following the completion of Cineplex divesting their interests in Player One Amusement Group selling to Open Gate Capital in 2023. It was now announced that Japanese corporation Genda had signed a joint agreement to acquire Player Ones and their subsidiary Pixel Intermediate Holding Operations, including the 104 game centers and 2,000 mini locations in the United States and Canada now rolled into G Gender's North American business, which will now amount to some 14,000 locations. It was reported that Gender paid $177 million 25.5 billion yen for this latest acquisition. This comes after Gender's 2024 acquisition of National Entertainment Network, nen, and their 8,000-operation business by Gender.
Speaker 1:This development sent massive shockwaves through the North American amusement trade, catching many by surprise. Gender has become a growing US force with their Kiddleton operation and their acquisition of the Chicago Pac-Man entertainment site, rebranded Enterium. In the announcement, gender suggested that, with the inclusion of the Player One business, this will bring the group's total sales to approximately $300 million in North America for 2027. This will add to the expansion of their Japanese operation, having seen a spree of venue acquisitions from groups in the home island Since their 2020 acquisition of the Sega Amusement Facility operation, rebranded Gigo. More M&A developments expected from gender in the coming weeks. Watch this space for more details on their market impacts.
