Blackstone, JPMorgan to Fund Cinema Plan

Blackstone

(BX) - Get Report

and

JPMorgan Chase

(JPM) - Get Report

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)

has joined

Walt Disney

(DIS) - Get Report

, Paramount Pictures, a unit of

Viacom

(VIA) - Get Report

, 20th Century Fox, a unit of

News Corp.

(NWS) - Get Report

, 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) - Get Report

and

Regal Entertainment

(RGC)

. The consortium has been in talks with the studios for several months over how to structure the costly conversion to digital cinema.

This article was written by a staff member of TheStreet.com.