COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES Legal Actions The Company is subject to claims and legal actions in the ordinary course of business. The Company believes such claims will not have a material effect individually or in the aggregate on its financial position, results of operations or cash flows. Operating Commitments - Facilities The Company has entered into operating lease agreements for its corporate headquarters and other regional offices. The Company has right-of-use (ROU) assets of $20.9 million and short-term and long-term lease liabilities of $1.8 million and $23.2 million, respectively, on the balance sheet as of September 24, 2020 for all material leases with terms longer than twelve months. These balances are included within Other assets, Other current liabilities and Other liabilities, respectively, on the unaudited Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets. As of September 24, 2020, the Company had a weighted average remaining lease term of 9.4 years on these leases. When measuring the ROU assets and lease liabilities recorded, the Company utilized its incremental borrowing rate in order to determine the present value of the lease payments as the leases do not provide an implicit rate. The Company used the rate of interest that it would have paid to borrow on a collateralized basis over a similar term for an amount equal to the lease payments in a similar economic environment. As of September 24, 2020, the Companys weighted average annual discount rate used to establish the ROU assets and lease liabilities was 7.34%. During the three and nine months ended September 24, 2020 and September 26, 2019, the Company recognized the following components of total lease cost (in millions). These costs are presented within Selling and marketing costs and Administrative and other costs within the unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Income depending upon the nature of the use of the facility. Three Months Ended Nine Months Ended September 24, 2020 September 26, 2019 September 24, 2020 September 26, 2019 Operating lease cost $ 0.9 $ 0.7 $ 2.7 $ 2.3 Short-term lease cost  0.1  0.2 Variable lease cost 0.1 0.1 0.4 0.4 Total lease cost $ 1.0 $ 0.9 $ 3.1 $ 2.9 The Company made total lease payments of $0.9 million, $0.9 million, $2.7 million and $2.5 million during the three months ended September 24, 2020 and September 26, 2019 and nine months ended September 24, 2020 and September 26, 2019, respectively. These payments are included within cash flows from operating activities within the unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows. Operating Commitments - ESAs and Affiliate Agreements The Company has entered into long-term ESAs with the founding members and multi-year agreements with certain network affiliates, or third-party theater circuits. The ESAs and network affiliate agreements grant NCM LLC exclusive rights in their theaters to sell advertising, subject to limited exceptions. The Company recognizes intangible assets upon issuance of membership units to the founding members in accordance with NCM LLCs Common Unit Adjustment Agreement and upfront cash payments to the affiliates for the contractual rights to provide the Companys services within their theaters as further discussed within Note 4 - Intangible Assets . These ESAs and network affiliate agreements are considered leases under ASC 842 once the asset is identified and the period of control is determined upon the scheduling of the showtimes by the exhibitors, typically one week prior to the showtime. As such, the leases are considered short-term in nature, specifically less than one month. Within ASC 842, leases with terms of less than one month are exempt from the majority of the accounting and disclosure requirements, including disclosure of short-term lease expense. No ROU assets or lease liabilities were recognized for these agreements and no change to the balance sheet presentation of the intangible assets was necessary. However, the amortization of these intangible assets is considered lease expense and is presented within Amortization of intangibles recorded for network theater screen leases within the unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statement of Income. In consideration for NCM LLCs access to the founding members theater attendees for on-screen advertising and use of lobbies and other space within the founding members theaters for the LEN and lobby promotions, the founding members receive a monthly theater access fee under the ESAs. The theater access fee is composed of a fixed payment per patron, a fixed payment per digital screen (connected to the DCN) and a fee for access to higher quality digital cinema equipment. The payment per theater patron increases by 8% every five years, with this next increase occurring in fiscal year 2022, and the payment per digital screen and for digital cinema equipment increases annually by 5%. The theater access fee paid in the aggregate to all founding members cannot be less than 12% of NCM LLCs aggregate advertising revenue (as defined in the ESA), or it will be adjusted upward to reach this minimum payment. As of September 24, 2020 and December 26, 2019, the Company had no liabilities recorded for the minimum payment, as the theater access fee was in excess of the minimum. Following the 2019 ESA Amendments, Cinemark and Regal receive an additional monthly theater access fee that began on November 1, 2019 in consideration for NCM LLC's access to certain on-screen advertising inventory after the advertised showtime of a feature film. These fees are also based upon a fixed payment per patron: (i) beginning at $0.025 per patron on November 1, 2019, (ii) $0.0375 per patron beginning on November 1, 2020, (iii) $0.05 per patron beginning on November 1, 2021, (iv) $0.052 per patron beginning on November 1, 2022 and (v) increase 8% every five years beginning November 1, 2027. Additionally, following the 2019 ESA Amendments, beginning on November 1, 2019, NCM LLC is entitled to display the Platinum Spot, an additional single unit that is either 30 or 60 seconds of the Noovie pre-show in the trailer position directly prior to the attached trailers preceding the feature film. The attached trailers are those provided by studios to Cinemark and Regal that are with the feature film, which is at least one trailer, but sometimes two or more trailers. In consideration for the utilization of the theaters for the Platinum Spots, Cinemark and Regal are entitled to receive 25% of all revenue generated for the actual display of Platinum Spots in their applicable theaters, subject to a specified minimum. If NCM LLC runs advertising in more than one concurrent advertisers Platinum Spot for any portion of the network over a period of time, then NCM LLC will be required to satisfy a minimum average CPM for that period of time. The Company does not owe the founding members any theater access fees or any Platinum Spot revenue share when the theaters are not displaying the Company's pre-show or when the Company does not have access to the theaters. As such, the Company did not and will not owe these fees for the period of time the founding members' theaters were temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 Pandemic and future fees will be reduced if attendance remains lower than historical levels. The digital screen fee is calculated based upon average screens in use during each month. No digital screen fees were or will be incurred for the period of time the founding member's theaters were temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 Pandemic and future fees will be reduced for months where screens are in use for only part of the month. The network affiliates compensation is considered variable lease expense and varies by circuit depending upon the agreed upon terms of the network affiliate agreement. The majority of agreements are centered around a revenue share where an agreed upon percentage of the advertising revenue received from a theaters attendance is paid to the circuit. As part of the network affiliate agreements entered into in the ordinary course of business under which the Company sells advertising for display in various network affiliate theater chains, the Company has agreed to certain minimum revenue guarantees on a per attendee basis. If a network affiliate achieves the attendance set forth in their respective agreement, the Company has guaranteed minimum revenue for the network affiliate per attendee if such amount paid under the revenue share arrangement is less than its guaranteed amount. As of September 24, 2020, the maximum potential amount of future payments the Company could be required to make pursuant to the minimum revenue guarantees is $64.0 million over the remaining terms of the network affiliate agreements. These minimum guarantees relate to various affiliate agreements ranging in term from three years to twenty years, prior to any renewal periods of which some are at the option of the Company. The Company accrued $0.2 million and $0.5 million related to affiliate agreements with guaranteed minimums in excess of the revenue share agreement as of September 24, 2020 and December 26, 2019, respectively. As the guaranteed minimums are based upon agreed upon minimum attendance or affiliate revenue levels, the Company did not incur minimum revenue share fees during the period of time the respective affiliate's theaters were temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 Pandemic and will not for the remaining duration an affiliate's theater attendance or revenue levels are low as the minimum levels must first be met by the affiliate.