Longtime studio distribution exec Chris Aronson played a key role in the sale of Comscore Movies. i Mindy Small/Getty Images Private investment firm Advaya Capital has completed a deal to acquire Comscore Movies, which collects box office grosses and tracks data across all cinemas in North America and 95 percent of theaters globally for Hollywood studios and other clients. Going forward, the venture will once again be known as Rentrak, the name it operated under for years before being sold to Comscore.
According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Comscore sold its box office business for $70 million in cash.
The sale comes as the theatrical business is in the midst of a rebound, on track to post its best year since the pandemic.
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“This acquisition is a commitment to theatrical industry’s past, present and future,” Advaya Capital managing partner Anat Guptal said in a statement. “Returning to the Rentrak name reflects a return to the spirit of service and innovation that made this platform what it is. We look forward to engaging with studios, distributors and theaters alike to hear how we can continue to improve upon the legacy of the business.”
The team working behind the scenes to buy Comscore Movies from Comscore Inc. include longtime studio distribution executive Chris Aronson, who was most recently president of domestic distribution at Paramount. During a break between studio gigs, he founded Rentrak Theatrical, which bolstered the ability to gather grosses in real-time from theaters around the country.
Aronson will join the board of the new venture alongside Arturo Guillén, who served as global managing director and executive vp of Comscore Movies, and brings 25 years of direct industry experience dating back to the origins of the business at EDI.
“The theatrical business is entering a period of profound evolution, and data is the compass that will guide its future, “Guillén said in the same statement. “By combining Comscore’s unmatched historical data and global footprint with the agility of private enterprise along with the strategic vision of Chris Aronson and Anant Gupta, we are building a platform that doesn’t just report numbers, it builds the future of cinema. We are committed to helping the movie industry grow as a whole.
The business provides studios, distributors, and exhibitors with the data they rely on for release strategy, financial settlements, talent compensation and downstream licensing decisions. Comscore Movies has been considered the gold standard for box office data for nearly 50 years, and traces its roots to 1976, when Marcie Polier Swartz founded Entertainment Data Inc. (EDI), establishing the first system for neutral, trusted box office data collection. EDI was acquired by Nielsen in 1997 and rebranded Nielsen EDI. In 2010, Rentrak Theatrical acquired the Nielsen EDI business outright, unifying the industry under a combined, trusted platform. Rentrak merged with Comscore in 2016.
Comscore Movies collects transaction-level data from approximately 34,000 theaters and more than 200,000 screens across 70-plus countries. While continuity is the immediate priority, Advaya’s acquisition is equally a commitment to investment and innovation as the theatrical industry continues to recover from the pandemic.
Advaya plans to invest in the company across three dimensions: expanding and deepening the dataset, including in underpenetrated international markets; leveraging AI to automate and enhance data collection as well as build out descriptive and predictive analytics capabilities; and developing new products and services that address unmet needs across the theatrical ecosystem, with an eye toward the evolving relationship between theatrical release and streaming.
Private equity has been pushing hard into media and entertainment data in recent years. In 2022, Nielsen, the gold standard for TV measurement, sold to a PE firm in a $16 billion deal, and Kantar Media sold in a $1 billion deal last year. U.K.-based data firm Ampere Analysis sold to a PE firm earlier this week.
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