Mooky Greidinger, CEO of Regal Parent Cineworld, thanks the theater managers and staff at the CinemaCon address

Mooky Greidinger, Managing Director of Regal parent company Cineworld, which is emerging from bankruptcy, took to the CinemaCon stage today to greet Regal staff and Lionsgate. The Hunger Games.

At the final studio presentation of the week, Lionsgate rolled out the first trailer The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Serpentsa prequel it’s the latest in the billion-dollar franchise.

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Exhibitors have long served as distributors in smaller territories, Greidinger noted, as Cineworld has done with Lionsgate films in Israel and Eastern Europe — including The Hunger Games.

“About 12 years ago, I got a call from our sales manager and she told me, ‘I just landed with Lionsgate,'” and the studio had a new project: three films based on the Suzanne Collins book series. He had never heard of them. “I said, ‘I trust Joe [Drake].’ I have a really great history with him. But who knows if people read the book in Israel? She went out and bought the book and said she couldn’t put it down.”

Drake is currently president of the Lionsgate Motion Picture Group.

Greidinger also thanked those who run movie theaters on a daily basis, from managers to “If the crews that greet customers aren’t friendly and don’t address any issues that come up, it can really ruin the experience,” he said. “I want to pay tribute to the team in every theater in the world, not just in the United States. And especially our team, the Regal Management Team. I praise you.

Cineworld filed for Chapter 11 last fall. The company recently filed its restructuring plan with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, which has the support of a majority of creditors, and hopes it will be approved by the judge and this summer be released. It is not clear whether Greidinger will remain at the helm of the big chain, which has signed for Chapter 11 post-Covid, with heavy debt, no cash cushion and a slowly recovering treasury. The restructuring plan calls for the company to raise $2.6 billion, including a $1.46 billion senior secured credit facility and an $800 million issuance of new common stock.