Advertisement
Company Town Blog

Shari Redstone’s Rising Star Media sold to Russian theater chain

By Richard Verrier
Share

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Shari Redstone and her partners have sold the Russian theater circuit Rising Star Media to Cinema Park, Russia’s largest cinema chain.

Redstone, daughter of media mogul and Viacom Inc. and CBS Corp. Chairman Sumner Redstone, announced Monday that she and her partners, Paul Heth and investment banker Charlie Ryan of UFG Private Equity of Russia, sold the 75-screen theater chain last week to Cinema Park. Financial terms were not disclosed. But people close to the deal said the business was sold for $200 million, making it an appealing offer at a time when emerging markets like Russia have grown increasingly profitable to the major Hollywood studios.

Advertisement

Redstone launched Rising Star Media in 2002 in partnership with Boston-area-based theater company National Amusements, of which she is president, and in 2009 acquired 100% ownership of the company with Heth and Ryan.

‘I fell in love with the country within hours of my first visit to Moscow,’’ Redstone said in a statement. ‘I was deeply impressed with the energy and vibrancy of the Russian people and their love of entertainment -- particularly with their fascination with movies. I knew immediately that Russia was a place that we needed to be and I am very proud of what we were able to accomplish there in such a short period of time.’

Rising Star Media, which operates luxury multiplex venues under the name Kinostar de Lux, has 75 screens between Moscow and St. Petersburg and says it owns the top five grossing cinemas in Russia.

Cinema Park is a dominant player in the Russian exhibition industry. Founded in 2002 by Prof Media, one of Russia’s largest media and entertainment holding companies, Cinema Park in 2010 served 12 million patrons and generated revenues of $120 million.

RELATED:

Aggressive Texas theater chain Rave to buy 35 theaters from Sumner Redstone

Advertisement

Redstone to sell stock in CBS and Viacom to help pay down debt.

Mark Cuban puts Landmark Theatres and Magnolia Pictures up for sale

-- Richard Verrier

Nickolay Chechet / PRNewsFoto / Rising Star Media

Company Town Blog
Richard Verrier

Richard Verrier is investigations editor for Arts and Entertainment at the Los Angeles Times. He has been with The Times since 2001 and has run our Company Town since 2016. After stints at the St. Petersburg Times and the Orlando Sentinel in Florida, Verrier joined the paper as a reporter, and for many years covered all aspects of the entertainment industry before turning to editing. He oversees the Company Town coverage while working to guide and edit investigative and enterprise reporting across the entertainment team, collaborating with writers and editors from all departments. He is a native of Montreal and a graduate from the University of Toronto and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.

Advertisement