Blackstone, JPMorgan to Fund Cinema Plan

Blackstone(BX Quote - Cramer on BX - Stock Picks) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM Quote - Cramer on JPM - Stock Picks) plan to raise more than $1 billion to fund the conversion of up to 20,000 U.S. cinema screens to digital projection systems, in a deal to be announced on Wednesday, the Financial Times reports on its Web site.

Blackstone and JPMorgan are arranging the financing for a consortium made up of the three largest U.S. cinema chains, which has done a deal with five Hollywood studios, FT.com reports, citing a person familiar with the situation.

Lions Gate (LGF Quote - Cramer on LGF - Stock Picks)has joined Walt Disney(DIS Quote - Cramer on DIS - Stock Picks), Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom(VIA Quote - Cramer on VIA - Stock Picks), 20th Century Fox, a unit of News Corp.(NWS Quote - Cramer on NWS - Stock Picks), and NBC Universal's Universal Pictures in signing up to the consortium's plan, FT.com reports.

The Digital Cinema Implementation Partners consortium is made up of AMC Entertainment, Cinemark(CNK Quote - Cramer on CNK - Stock Picks) and Regal Entertainment(RGC Quote - Cramer on RGC - Stock Picks). The consortium has been in talks with the studios for several months over how to structure the costly conversion to digital cinema.