Note 17 – Lease Agreements

Most of our cinemas conduct their operations in leased facilities. Thirteen of our eighteen operating multiplexes in Australia, four of our eight cinemas in New Zealand, and all but one of our cinemas in the United States are in leased facilities. These cinema leases have remaining terms inclusive of options of 1 to 39 years. Certain of our cinema leases provide for contingent rentals based upon a specified percentage of theater revenue with a guaranteed minimum. Substantially all of our leases require the payment of property taxes, insurance, and other costs applicable to the property. We also lease office space and equipment under non-cancelable operating leases. All of our leases are accounted for as operating leases and accordingly, we have no leases of facilities that require capitalization.

We determine the annual base rent expense of our cinemas by amortizing total minimum lease obligations on a straight-line basis over the lease terms. Base rent expense and contingent rental expense under the operating leases totaled approximately $31.2 million and $1.6 million for 2011, respectively; $30.9 million and $1.1 for 2010, respectively; and $27.5 million and $794,000 for 2009, respectively. Future minimum lease payments by year and, in the aggregate, under non-cancelable operating leases consisted of the following at December 31, 2011 (dollars in thousands):


		Minimum Ground		Minimum Premises		Total Minimum
		Lease Payments		Lease Payments		Lease Payments
2012	$	3,160	$	27,957	$	31,117
2013		3,216		25,196		28,412
2014		2,131		22,929		25,060
2015		1,095		19,950		21,045
2016		1,129		18,449		19,578
Thereafter		16,472		60,470		76,942
Total minimum lease payments	$	27,203	$	174,951	$	202,154

Since approximately $86.4 million of our total minimum lease payments of $202.2 million as of December 31, 2011 consisted of lease obligations denominated in Australian and New Zealand dollars, the U.S dollar amounts of these obligations will fluctuate in accordance with the relative values of these currencies. See Note 26 – Related Parties and Transactions for the amount of leases associated with any related party leases.