As New Yorkers bristled at the news last week that Loews Cineplex is raising its city movie-ticket prices to a downright offensive $10, the ongoing troubles plaguing the movie theatre sector motivated Moody’s Investors Service to issue a report elucidating the agency’s sector-specific, nuanced criteria for rating CMBS loans backed by these theatres.
While Loews representatives claim that the increase in ticket price was not related to the company’s recent filing for bankruptcy protection – and was, in fact, done to cover rising costs – observers interpret the move as part and parcel of the overarching distress which has afflicted the sector.
