Lobbyists push against big movie theater buys, including Carmike chain, by Chinese investors

On a sweltering day this summer, a handful of protesters gathered outside an AMC movie theater in New York City's Times Square, holding red signs proclaiming 'AMC - American Movie Communists.” They were opposing the giant movie theater company AMC's $1.2 billion purchase of a rival cinema chain, Carmike, which has theaters in 41 states. The deal, which still is subject to government approval, would make AMC the largest theater chain in the United States.

The protesters targeted AMC's Chinese owners - the sprawling Chinese real estate and entertainment company called Dalian Wanda that acquired the American movie chain in 2002, creating the world's largest theater empire. The protest suggested the Carmike acquisition would further extend Beijing's hidden control over American mass media.

Carmike operates the Wynnsong 12 in Cedar Rapids on Edgewood Road SW.

But the protesters had not gathered on their own volition. They were being paid to be there by a Washington, D.C., lobbying company, Berman and Co., waging a war against Chinese acquisitions of American movie theaters.

It was one of the many ways a quiet battle is underway to halt a trend of Chinese businesses gobbling up American companies. The battle's reach now goes beyond traditional areas with obvious national security implications - such as President Barack Obama's decision late Friday to block the acquisition of a semiconductor company with sensitive technology - into other areas such as movie theaters, where concerns about financial ownership collide with issues of cultural openness.

Berman and Co., which uses a network of organizations to carry out campaigns on behalf of anonymous clients, is led by Rick Berman. He has defended such issues such as second-hand smoke, trans-fats, tanning beds and payday loans.

The new campaign, called 'China Owns Us,” is nominally run by the Center for American Security, a registered trade name for a 501(c)4 nonprofit called the Enterprise Action Committee, according to Washington, D.C., corporate records.

'What I'm trying to do is stop somebody else from managing the culture here,” Berman said.

AMC's chief executive, Adam Aron, said those concerns were unwarranted.

'AMC is completely run by its American management in Leewood, Kan., as American as an American place in the heartland you can find,” he said. 'We're in the business of selling movie tickets and popcorn, and we don't involve ourselves in what goes on in China.”