Regal expected to buy Fenway 13 theater
Regal Entertainment Group, operator of the nation's largest movie theater chain, is expected to make its debut in the Boston market this week with the purchase of the Fenway 13 theater from AMC Entertainment.
The deal would make Boston a battleground between the nation's two largest theater chains, with Regal moving into the Fenway location and AMC hanging on to its 19-screen Boston Common theater.
Neither chain returned phone calls last night. But two people with knowledge about the transaction, both of whom asked not to be identified in advance of the formal disclosure, said the theater is slated to change hands Friday. On Regal's website, the Fenway 13 is already showing up on theater lists for members of the chain's Crown Club.
AMC was required to sell the Fenway complex to gain regulatory approval for its merger with Loews Cineplex Entertainment.
Perry Lowe , a professor of marketing at Bentley College in Waltham and a former theater operator himself, said moviegoers are unlikely to notice much difference when Regal takes over. He said pricing and theater operations will probably be very similar after the changeover.
``All we're doing here is changing ownership," Lowe said. ``We're really just talking about consolidation."
The movie theater industry has been going through a wrenching restructuring the past several years as some chains declared bankruptcy and were then purchased by private equity investors, have tried to bolster their presence in key markets while unloading older, poorer-performing theaters that lack the sound, picture, and seating quality of newer theaters.
In a July 31 conference call with analysts, Amy E. Miles , Regal's chief financial officer, said the Knoxville, Tenn., company planned to open nine theaters with 130 screens this fiscal year and close 28 theaters with 225 screens.
In the second quarter, Miles said, Regal's admissions revenue rose 7.8 percent as a result of a 6.6 percent increase in attendance and a 1.2 percent increase in average ticket prices.
``We have continued to take price increases," Miles said . ``So there has been no change there."
Lowe said Regal is probably purchasing the Fenway theater because it wants to have a presence in one of the nation's largest movie theater markets, one he said is probably growing as affluent residents move into the city.
``For a major player not to be represented in a top 10 market is unusual," Lowe said.
Regal owns 11 theaters in the state, primarily on Cape Cod and in central Massachusetts. Most were acquired when Regal bought out Hoyts Cinemas.
The US Justice Department, working with Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly , negotiated a consent decree with AMC last December that required similar divestitures in Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas, New York, Seattle, and Washington. D.C.
The Justice Department said in December that a merger of AMC and Loews in Boston would have given the combined firm too much market power and would likely have led to higher ticket prices.
The federal agency defined Boston as the downtown area and said AMC and Loews controlled 100 percent of the market. A court filing at the time said the Loews Boston Common and the AMC Fenway complexes had 2004 box office revenues of $20.8 million.
Regal and AMC will probably coexist fairly peacefully in Boston. The two companies are partners, along with Cinemark USA, in a company called National CineMedia that sells in-theater advertising on behalf of all three chains.
After its merger with Loews, AMC of Kansas City, Mo., said in March that it was doing away with weekend premium prices that exceeded $10 at Boston Common and at its Liberty Tree Mall location in Danvers. The company also increased its student price by $1, created a new senior age of 60, and ended off-peak pricing hours at 4 p.m. on weekends instead of at 6 p.m.
Bruce Mohl can be reached at mohl@globe.com. 
