Regal, IFTA and the CNC Launch a Pilot to Fill Cinema's Empty Seats

Regal Cinemas, the Independent Film & Television Alliance and France's CNC have launched a pilot programme that hands under-used cinema screens to a neutral programmer, with the sole brief of driving up attendance. The initiative, called Future of Distribution, was unveiled at the Lumière Summit in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France, and begins across chosen markets in the fourth quarter of 2026, according to Variety. An initial findings report is scheduled for the first half of 2027.

The problem is stark. North American cinema admissions totalled roughly 770 million in 2025, down about 37% from 2019. Occupancy across the sector runs at just 11 to 15% — meaning that on any given day, the vast majority of cinema seats sit empty.

The pilot reframes that decline as a mismatch between films, venues and showtimes rather than a shortage of audiences. Participating cinemas make a defined number of idle screens and timeslots available to an independent programmer who answers to no studio relationship or circuit priority. That programmer can slot in wide releases, documentaries, repertory titles or special events — whatever fills the room. The logic is simple: the seats exist, the audiences exist, but the right film is not on the right screen at the right hour.

Five principles govern the pilot. Cinemas join on an opt-in basis. Existing release schedules and theatrical windows — the protected gap between a film's cinema run and its home-video or streaming availability — stay intact. An independent oversight structure runs the programme for a fixed period. Only capacity that would otherwise go dark is used. And all participating venues receive the results.

What makes the approach unusual is its discipline. The pilot tests whether programming innovation alone — no new films, no new screens, no new subsidies — can produce a measurable increase in admissions without disrupting the distribution arrangements that already exist. Studios keep their release dates. Cinemas keep their bookings. The programmer simply fills the gaps.

For an industry that has spent the post-pandemic years chasing streaming deals, consolidating circuits and trimming screen counts, that is a notably narrow bet. The question the pilot puts to the data is whether the answer to falling attendance has been sitting in the projection schedule all along.