Reading International Inc Cl B (RDIB)

Description:

Reading International, Inc., a Nevada Corporation was incorporated in 1999 incident to its reincorporation in Nevada. It is an internationally diversified company mainly focused on the development, ownership and operation of entertainment and real property assets in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. Currently, it operates in two business segments: Cinema Exhibition, through its 58 multiplex theatres, and Real Estate, including real estate development and the rental of retail, commercial and live theatre assets. The Company conducts its cinema operations on four basic and rather simple premises: first, notwithstanding the enormous advances that have been made in home entertainment technology, humans are essentially social beings, and would continue to want to go beyond the home for their entertainment, provided that the they are offered clean, comfortable and convenient facilities, with state of the art technology; second, cinemas could be used as anchors for larger retail developments and its involvement in the cinema business could give it an advantage over other real estate developers or redevelopers who must identify and negotiate exclusively with third party anchor tenants; third, pure cinema operators could get themselves into financial difficulty as demands upon them to produce cinema based earnings growth tempt them into reinvesting their cash flow into increasingly marginal cinema sites; and fourth, it is never afraid to convert an entertainment property to another use, if there is a higher and better use of its property, or to sell individual assets, if it is presented with an attractive opportunity. It focuses on the ownership and operation of three categories of cinemas: first, modern stadium seating multiplex cinemas featuring conventional film product; second, specialty and art cinemas, such as its Angelika Film Centers in Manhattan and Dallas and the Rialto cinema chain in New Zealand; and third, in some markets, particularly small town markets that would not support the development of a modern stadium design multiplex cinema, conventional sloped floor cinemas. It also offers premium class seating and amenities in certain of its cinemas and is in the process of converting certain of its exiting cinemas to provide this premium offering. Show times and features are placed in advertisements in local newspapers and on its various websites. The Company's real estate activities have historically consisted mainly of: the ownership of fee or long term leasehold interests in properties used in its cinema exhibition activities or which were acquired for the development of cinemas or cinema based real estate development projects; the acquisition of fee interests for general real estate development; the leasing to shows of its live theatres; and the redevelopment of existing cinema sites to their highest and best use. The Company operates in a competitive environment. It faces competition from other sources of entertainment and other entertainment delivery systems. It also faces competition from various other forms of beyond-the-home entertainment, including sporting events, concerts, restaurants, casinos, video game arcades, and nightclubs.