John Fithian Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

CinemaCon is doubling as a retirement party for its president and CEO, John Fithian, who in his final opening day speech urged movie theater owners to not use the word “content” to describe what they put on their screens.“The words ‘product’ and ‘content’ are still used far too often, and they diminish the value this industry provides,” Fithian said on Tuesday. “We are not in the widget business…Movies are fun, entertaining, and sometimes art.

Brent Lang Executive Editor John Fithian, Patrick Corcoran and Jackie Brenneman, who were top executives at the National Association of Theatre Owners, are joining forces to launch a new consulting firm for clients in the cinema space. Dubbed The Fithian Group, the trio will advise clients on strategy and communications, as well as use their connections in the exhibition industry to find investors and forge partnerships. All three executives will serve as founding partners.

Deadline has confirmed that the National Association of Theatre Owners Tech Advisor, Jerry Pierce, has resigned from the exhibitor trade org following the dismissal of EVP and General Counsel Jackie Brenneman.

EXCLUSIVE: The National Association of Theatre Owners’ EVP & General Counsel Jackie Brenneman has departed, several sources inform Deadline. This became effective Friday. Brenneman was also one of the founders, and the President of NATO sister org, The Cinema Foundation.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Patrick Corcoran is stepping down from the National Association of Theatre Owners, ending a 24-year run that most recently saw him serve as vice president and chief communications officer of the exhibition industry lobbying organization. It’s a time of transition at NATO, with Michael O’Leary taking over as president and CEO from John Fithian, who ran the organization for decades. Corcoran worked closely with Fithian, helping to manage the group’s public relations outreach. His tenure overlapped with tectonic changes in the theatrical landscape, from consolidation of major chains to the rise of streaming to a public health crisis in COVID that led to the closure of cinemas for months. Through it all, Corcoran, a wry, unflappable presence labored to argue that movie theaters were not in a death spiral and would continue to attract customers, just as they had for more than a century. He also had to deal with fractious theater owners, all while helping to launch NATO’s annual exhibition business conference, CinemaCon.

The National Association of Theatre Owners VP & Chief Communications Officer Patrick Corcoran is departing after 24-plus years.

A video salute from James Cameron to John Fithian launched CinemaCon Tuesday, with the director offering a big “thanks on behalf of the worldwide creative community for your passionate dedication to championing the cause of the theatrical experience.”

Brent Lang Executive Editor During the pandemic, studios experimented with shrinking the amount of time that their films screened exclusively in cinemas, while spending oceans of money to launch streaming services. But the debt they racked up has sent their share prices plummeting and, now, studios are making more movies for theaters and cutting back on their streaming budgets. CinemaCon, the annual exhibition industry showcase that is unfolding this week in Las Vegas, couldn’t be happier about the shift in strategy. John Fithian, the head of the National Association of Theatre Owners, the trade group behind the show, touted the new state of play during his speech to the convention, while praising Apple and Amazon for embracing the big screen with movies like “Air” and the upcoming “Killers of the Flower Moon” and “Napoleon.” Both of these companies will reportedly spend more than $1 billion on theatrical films.

Three years after brutal Covid shutdowns, spring is in the air for cinemas with the box office blossoming and the economics of streaming looking muddy. Traditional studios are re-committing to theatrical, with Apple and Amazon on board. That’s the view from the perch of John Fithian, longtime president and CEO of the National Association of Theatre Owners, taking a final bow next week in Las Vegas at CinemaCon, the industry’s biggest annual event. He will formally pass the baton to Michael O’Leary on May 1.

John Fithian, longtime head of the National Association Of Theatre Owners, has received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Variety of Southern California, as he prepares to step down after overseeing NATO through decades of transition.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Michael P. O’Leary certainly has a tough act to follow. He’s taking over as president and CEO of the National Association of Theatre Owners from John Fithian, who has been a major force for two decades as the top lobbyist for the exhibition industry. And, he’s assuming the job at a trying time for the movie theater industry, which was battered by — and has yet to fully recover from — the pandemic. Attendance and ticket sales haven’t returned to pre-COVID levels and major theater chains, including the CineWorld-owned Regal have been forced to file for bankruptcy, while roughly 2,000 screens across the industry have shuttered. Exhibitors that stayed in business have suffered from a supply shortage.

Michael P. O’Leary will be appointed the president and CEO of the National Association of Theatre Owners beginning May 1.

The National Association of Theatre Owners has appointed Michael P. O’Leary as President and CEO of the Association beginning May 1, 2023. He takes over for outgoing NATO Boss John Fithian, who announced his retirement back in October after working with the exhibitor trade org for three decades.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Michael P. O’Leary, an executive who has straddled the worlds of government, lobbying and media, has been named as president and CEO of the National Association of Theatre Owners. He will take over from John Fithian, whose retirement after decades at the exhibition industry advocacy group was announced last year. O’Leary will begin the transition into his new role at NATO in April. He officially takes the reins from Fithian in May. NATO said that O’Leary has served in senior positions at The Entertainment Software Association, 21st Century Fox, the Motion Picture Association, on Capitol Hill and at the Department of Justice.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Filmmakers Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas are set for a big honor at this year’s CinemaCon, the annual convention of movie theater owners.  Nolan and Thomas will receive the NATO Spirit of the Industry award, presented by the National Association of Theatre Owners, on April 27 at Las Vegas’ The Colosseum at Caesars Palace. “I am deeply honored to present the Spirit of the Industry Award to our good friends Chris and Emma as my last official act as President of NATO,” noted NATO President and CEO John Fithian. “No one has done more to advance the theatrical experience than these two champions of cinema.”

NATO will present Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas with its Spirit of the Industry Award at CinemaCon in April for the event’s closing night Big Screen Achievement Awards.

On Monday, the exhibition trade org the National Association of Cinemas announced that it’s longtime CEO and President John Fithian of 24 years was retiring.

After more than a two decades run as the Boss of trade org the National Association of Theatre Owners, John Fithian is retiring, effective May 1, 2023. Technically, Fithian counts 30 years working for NATO, having begun working with the org as a former attorney at Washington DC’s Patton Boggs, LLC.

“It is nearly impossible to sum up a career of three decades in a few sentences,” said Fithian in a statement. “I will leave that to others.

Brent Lang Executive Editor John Fithian, the top lobbyist for the exhibition industry, will retire as the CEO of the National Association of Theatre Owners on May 1, 2023. The group said it has already begun a search for Fithian’s successor, but he leaves big shoes to fill having been a major force at NATO, as it is called, for 30 years. Initially engaged as outside counsel to NATO in 1992, Fithian assumed the presidency in 2000. In that capacity, he helped guide the group’s members through some of the most tumultuous periods in the cinema business’s history, including its transition to digital projection, as well as the COVID-19 closures that brought the industry to its knees.

served custody papers on behalf of her ex Jason Sudeikis while on stage. For the director, the moment was “a huge breach in security, which is really scary.”Wilde was on stage presenting footage from her upcoming film “Don’t Worry Darling,” starring Florence Pugh and Harry Styles, in April, when she was mysteriously interrupted by an unidentified person who approached from the audience and slid a manila envelope in her direction.

CinemaCon officials are still trying to figure out how a woman was able to get to the stage to serve Olivia Wilde custody papers from her ex, Jason Sudeikis.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film WriterThe trade organization representing American movie theater owners isn’t gloating about Netflix’s recent stock misfortunes — they’re opening their arms, they say.At CinemaCon, the annual Las Vegas convention of theatrical exhibitors, leadership from the National Association of Theatre Owners touched on Netflix’s recent subscriber losses and subsequent jaw-dropping $54 billion loss in market cap.Netflix’s sign of softening brought a screeching halt to the prevailing industry logic that going all-in on streaming investment was the way to please shareholders. While some speculated this would benefit traditional theatrical releases, Warner Bros.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaThe movie theater industry’s top lobbyist said that the persistent experimentation that saw studios release movies in cinemas at the same time they landed on streaming or on video-on-demand is over. “I am pleased to announce that simultaneous release is dead as a serious business model, and piracy is what killed it,” John Fithian, head of the National Association of Theatre Owners, told a packed auditorium of exhibitors on Tuesday at CinemaCon. Fithian didn’t claim that release windows, industry parlance for the length of time that movies are available exclusively in theaters, is going to get longer.

Before NATO Boss John Fithian and MPA Chief Charles Rivkin took the stage this AM at CinemaCon in Las Vegas,  The Batman director Matt Reeves started things off, praising exhibition, and promising theater owners, he’s in for the long haul when it comes to making movies for the big screen.

CinemaCon launches Monday at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, the second in-person gathering of theater owners and Hollywood studios since August, and Covid. That edition was shadowed by the Delta Variant, ongoing theater closures and shifting release dates. Now the picture is significantly brighter. Domestic attendance at the confab, including a full complement of studio heads, is at a pre-pandemic level (international still a bit softer given challenges in some markets). Moviegoing is on the rise and the release sked looks full and fixed. NATO President & CEO John Fithian and MPA Chairman-CEO Charles Rivkin fielded questions from Deadline on the evolving post-Covid landscape and relationship between the two camps. (Some responses are condensed and edited for clarity.)

Sony Pictures Classics art heist caper The Duke, Neon’s tender Petite Maman, and Charlotte from Good Deed Films, an animated biopic with mature themes, open an eclectic specialty weekend ready to draw older crowds if they’re ready to return.

Cineplex president and CEO and 35-year exhibition vet Ellis Jacob will receive the 2022 NATO Marquee Award at this year’s CinemaCon, which runs April 25-28 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

Every year, theater owners from all over the world gather at CinemaCon to watch as movie studios show exclusive peeks at future films that will be gracing the big screen. It’s seen as a celebration of film and the theatrical experience.

Following MPA Chairman-CEO Charles Rivkin today at CinemaCon were National Association of Theatre Owners Chief John Fithian and No. 1 global circuit boss Adam Aron, who continued the patriotic messages for theatrical exhibition about how they are an essential to a multi-billion industry.

The Delta Variant, streaming wars and surging piracy loom large as CinemaCon launches Sunday at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, the first in-person gathering of theaters owners and Hollywood studios since the pandemic struck 18-months ago. The virus has slashed registered attendees to circa 2,000 from 3,500 pre-pandemic, with a sizeable European contingent entirely shut out by U.S.

Recently, it was revealed Scarlett Johnasson is suing Disney over a breach of contract regarding the hybrid release of her superhero film, “Black Widow.” Reports claim the actress is expected to lose upwards of $50 million after “Black Widow” was released simultaneously in theaters and on Disney+ Premier Access.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaThings didn’t go exactly as planned.After spending the bulk of the pandemic hustling to get government assistance for movie theaters hit hard by COVID-19, John Fithian should have been savoring a box office revival this summer.Instead, the head of the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO), the exhibition industry’s main lobbying arm, is working with members to try to convince Hollywood studios that they need to stop releasing movies on their

On Dec. 21, nearly a year after the first cases of COVID-19 were diagnosed in America, the U.S.

The National Association of Theatre Owners on Monday called for the lame-duck Congress and Trump administration to pass relief legislation that would provide immediate aid to local movie theaters devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic. “American movie theaters need help now,” NATO president-CEO John Fithian said in a statement issued two days after Democratic candidate Joe Biden was declared the victor in the 2020 presidential race, beating Donald Trump.

NATO on Monday again called for Congress and the Administration to aid movie theaters devastated by the coronavirus pandemic by passing relief legislation.“American movie theaters need help now,” John Fithian, NATO President & CEO, said in a statement “Soon, a vaccine will allow our industry to return to normal, but without bipartisan action now in the lame duck session of Congress, hundreds of movie theaters will not make it.