National CineMedia, the in-theater advertising company that works with AMC Theatres, Cinemark and Regal for pre-show commercials content, has closed a major deal to venture outside of the cinema.
The firm, led by Thomas Lesinski, has sealed an agreement to acquire Captivate Holdings, which powers tens of thousands of small screens in office buildings, lobbies and elevators that show short ads and content as people walk by (or when waiting for your floor in an elevator). The deal is valued at $275 million.
National CineMedia already has a foothold in this business through all of its screens showing ads in movie theater lobbies (it had 17,000 screens in over 1,300 theaters, as of its annual report). Now it wants to bring that formula to office buildings and residential properties, too. And with Captivate’s platform, the company says it’ll have 48,000 digital screens to do so.
Its primary vehicle to sell ads is its Noovie pre-show which is hosted by former Today correspondent Maria Menounos and features movie trivia, junket-style interviews with celebrities and Hollywood flashback moments mixed in with commercials.
Since emerging from bankruptcy in 2023 — just as the COVID years were particularly brutal to theaters, they also wreaked havoc on in-theater advertising — National CineMedia has been positioning itself for a rebuild. The company spent $8.2 million last November to buy Spotlight Cinema Network, an ad network which caters to boutique, luxury and drive-in theaters like Cinépolis Luxury Cinema, Landmark Theatres and more.
The restructured firm, once co-owned and launched by the major theater chains as a joint venture, also disclosed in its annual report that it now has no ownership interest from AMC and Cinemark as of the beginning of this year. Now it’s looking to become a national player in the advertising game, but is taking on debt to do so in the form of a $275 million senior secured first lien term loan facility.
“The acquisition of Captivate is a key step in advancing NCM’s strategy to build a broader premium video and digital out-of-home advertising platform,” stated National CineMedia chief Lesinski on Monday, adding: “With the transaction now closed, our focus turns to bringing these capabilities together and executing on the opportunities we see across the combined business.”