The exhibition industry’s preeminent trade association changed its name last week, in a move that was widely-rumored and, perhaps, long overdue.
Since 1965, the U.S. based organization advocating for cinemas had operated as the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO), representing cinemas with approximately 32,000 movie theatre screens in the U.S. and 30,000 additional screens in other countries. On Tuesday, NATO announced that it was renaming itself to “Cinema United”, with the sub-heading to its new logo proclaiming “Moviegoing is Our Mission.”
The name change was spearheaded by its relatively newly appointed CEO Michael O’Leary, who explained that the move was made to “double down on the org’s mission to emphasize seeing movies on the big screen.” Another reason for the change is the understandable confusion caused between NATO the movie theatre association and NATO the military defense treaty a.k.a. the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
The new branding will be highlighted at CinemaCon, the organization’s largest annual convention which begins in one week at Las Vegas’s Caesar’s Palace, from March 31 through April 4..The new brand and mission come at an interesting moment for movie theatres. It has been five years since the COVID-19 virus touched down, causing enormous disruption to the 100+ year tradition of moviegoing. Many exhibitors are still struggling to regain their footing amidst a changed consumer landscape.
And after a tough start to 2025, exhibitors are finding themselves in yet another dry spell at the box office. O’Leary is pointing to several exciting developments at this year’s CinemaCon, among them Sony’s return to the convention to promote their upcoming slate of movies and Amazon’s first turn at the mic, as further evidence of their commitment to theatrical distribution. The rebrand is an attempt to refocus the mission of the organization on encouraging moviegoing, using whatever means necessary to achieve the objective.
