Now, Warner and his executives are talking to the BBC and other TV producers about showing TV shows, concerts and sporting events at their venues, capitalizing on a new satellite network that makes it possible to beam live entertainment to most theaters in America.

Although movies will always remain their bread and butter, theater executives such as Warner believe they can generate a growing business by showing something other than movies at the multiplex.

Currently, alternative content accounts for 1 percent or less of revenue for major circuits such as Cinemark. In three to five years, however, that could increase to 10 percent or more, Warner predicts.

For decades, most movies were delivered on heavy, bulky spools of actual film. More recently, most movies have been stored on digital hard drives and physically shipped to theaters across the country, a costly and time-consuming process.

The new system significantly reduces the price of showing movies in theaters. Ten to 15 years ago, it cost about $2,500 to deliver a film print to a theater. By comparison, it costs about $200 to $250 to distribute digital hard drives to movie theaters, and significantly less _ at least half the cost of shipping hard drives around the country by truck and plane _ to deliver content via satellite.

About 75 percent of the screens from the nation’s top three exhibitors have the ability to deliver movies and other entertainment via the satellite network.