National Association of Theatre Owners
The National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) is a United States-based trade organization whose members are the owners of movie theaters. Most of the worldwide major theater chains' operators are members, as are hundreds of independent theater operators; collectively, they account for the operation of over 35,000 motion picture screens in all 50 U.S. states and over 33,000 screens in 100 other countries. NATO was founded in 1965 by the merger of the largest movie theater trade organizations, the Theater Owners of America and the Allied States Association of Motion Picture Exhibitors. The long -running official magazine of NATO is "Boxoffice"; between 2001 and 2007, they also published "In Focus". History. As the motion picture industry became larger, movie production companies began consolidating and controlling distribution. The largest producer, Famous Players-Lasky, joined and later merged with the largest distributor, Paramount (eventually becoming Paramount Pictures), and together they began block-booking in 1917, forcing theaters to buy mediocre films to get the good ones. Theaters banded together to bargain for better pricing, with 26 of the largest combining into First National Exhibitors Circuit—which went on to become a producer and distributor in its  own right, before being bought by Warner Bros. By 1921, Paramount already owned 300 theaters, and other producers were catching up. Studios soon contracted with each other to keep first-runs inside the affiliated network, using this access to coerce independents into selling out. In 1921, the first predecessor of NATO was founded, the largely affiliated Motion Picture Theater Owners of America (MPTOA), soon followed by the independent Allied States Association of Motion Picture Exhibitors (Allied), Unaffiliated Independent Motion Picture Exhibitors of America, National Independent Theatre Exhibitors, and more, to demand better pricing and access to first-runs. Unlike the  others, the MPTOA embraced affiliated theaters, and soon became the largest organization. During World War II, many theaters joined the new War Activities Committee, after the war becoming the Theatre Activities Committee and soon American Theatre Association (ATA), which strongly supported "United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc.", the antitrust case against all of the major studios. A plan to merge with MPTOA, which strongly supported the studios, ran into friction, with many affiliated theaters leaving the ATA over its stance; conversely Allied, the largest purely-independent group, refused to join over the presence of affiliates. The merger went ahead in  1947, minus affiliates of Loews, RKO, and Warner Bros., and they became the Theater Owners of America (TOA) with about 10,000 theaters. After divestiture in the fallout of the 1948 "Paramount" decision, many formerly-affiliated theaters ended up joining either TOA or Allied. During the post-war period, theater revenue collapsed as television became widespread, even as film rental became more expensive, and thousands of theaters closed, particularly in city centers hard hit by suburban flight. Finally, in 1966 TOA and Allied merged into the National Association of Theatre Owners, largely based on TOA's structure but headed by Marshall  Fine, former Allied chairman. The 1970s were difficult for NATO; although the blockbuster "The Godfather" revitalized theater-going and revenue, in 1975 a new National Independent Theatre Exhibitors (NITE) came together to challenge NATO, eventually numbering almost a thousand theaters, and governance reforms were pushed by members as well. When the reforms stalled, the entire California and Illinois chapters pulled out in 1977, along with many small chains around the nation. After 1980, many of the requested reforms were finally implemented, including a full-time president and a full-time lobbyist in Washington, as well as moving its headquarters from  New York to Los Angeles; by the end of the decade, NITE had folded back into NATO, leaving only one dominant organization. The 1980s saw a relaxation of antitrust regulation and subsequent purchasing of many chains by distributors and large conglomerates, including 120 theaters by Paramount and Warner; by the end of the decade, consolidation left the top 10 owners in control of 55 percent of the industry. In the 1990s, theater growth exploded, and by 1999, movie screens peaked at 36,448, the vast majority of which were affiliated with NATO. Events. CinemaCon. As ShoWest, the convention was formerly one  of four major worldwide annual events owned by the Film Group unit of Nielsen Business Media before being sold in 2011 to e5 Global Media and operated exclusively by NATO. In now-renamed CinemaCon in 2011, the convention is NATO's only official convention of theater owners controlled by the organization itself. The first gathering took place March 2011 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada, with the second held April 23–26, 2012, at the same venue. CinemaCon is now a standalone movie theater industry trade show or exposition originally established by NATO in 1975, usually held in Las Vegas  in March. On March 11, 2020, NATO canceled CinemaCon 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. ShoWest Convention 1976 ShoWest Convention 1978 ShoWest Convention 1979 ShoWest Convention 1981 ShoWest Convention 1982 ShoWest Convention 1983 ShoWest Convention 1984 ShoWest Convention 1985 ShoWest Convention 1986 ShoWest Convention 1987 ShoWest Convention 1988 ShoWest Convention 1989 ShoWest Convention 1990 ShoWest Convention 1991 ShoWest Convention 1992 ShoWest Convention 1993 ShoWest Convention 1994 ShoWest Convention 1995 ShoWest Convention 1996 ShoWest Convention 1997 ShoWest Convention 1998 ShoWest Convention 1999 ShoWest Convention 2000 ShoWest Convention 2001 ShoWest Convention 2002 ShoWest Convention 2003 ShoWest Convention 2004 ShoWest Convention 2005 ShoWest  Convention 2006 ShoWest Convention 2007 ShoWest Convention 2008 ShoWest Convention 2009 ShoWest Convention 2010 ShoWest Convention 2011 ShoWest Convention 2014 Other conventions. The remaining Nielsen Media event properties include CineEurope held in Barcelona, Spain in June, CineAsia held in early December in varying locations throughout Southeast Asia, and ShowEast, held in late October or early November in the Southeastern United States, usually somewhere in the Miami-Dade area. American Movie Awards. In 1980, NATO initiated the American Movie Awards, held at the Wilshire Theater, Beverly Hills, California, and broadcast on NBC, with the winners selected based on voting by theater  patrons. Various legal difficulties prevented the awards from being presented in 1981, and the event was discontinued after the 1982 awards due to competition from other awards shows.