Company type | Privately held company |
---|---|
Industry | Leisure, Entertainment & refreshments |
Founded | 2005 |
Defunct | 2023 |
Fate | Administration, folded into Omniplex Cinemas |
Successor | Omniplex Cinemas |
Number of locations | 5 (July 2023) |
Products | Tickets, popcorn, alcohol, drinks & confectionery |
Website | www |
Empire Cinemas Limited was a multiplex cinema chain in the UK. Prior to the company entering administration in July 2023, there were 13 Empire Cinemas across the country, with 128 screens in total.
The ultimate beneficial owner of Empire Cinemas Ltd was Irish entrepreneur Thomas Anderson. Anderson also owns Inspiration Holdings Ltd, a company which now owns Altive Media, Pearl & Dean advertising company, Titan Parking and Clarkebond. [1] The CEO of Empire Cinemas, Justin Ribbons, is also an Executive Director of Inspiration Holdings.
The Empire was originally a cinema in Leicester Square in London which opened in 1884 as the Empire Theatre and was a West End variety theatre, designed by Thomas Verity.
Empire Cinemas Limited was formed in 2005 when Empire acquired the cinemas divested from Odeon Cinemas and Cineworld after the Office of Fair Trading had required them to divest 11 of the Odeon chain and six of the Cineworld chain. In 2005, both Odeon and the UK operations of UCI were taken over by Terra Firma who planned to merge the businesses under the Odeon brand. At the same time, Cineworld took over the UK and Ireland operations of UGC and began merging them into their existing Cineworld brand. Empire Cinemas Ltd acquired both groups of available cinemas and began to rebrand them all as Empire Cinemas.
In July 2016, the company sold five cinemas, including the flagship in Leicester Square, to Cineworld for £94 million. [2] The cinemas transferred to Cineworld cinemas on 12 August 2016. [3] In June 2017 the Newcastle upon Tyne cinema was also sold to Cineworld cinemas. [4]
In March 2020, Empire Cinemas and all other cinemas in the UK closed temporarily due to a national lockdown in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. [5]
On 7 July 2023, Empire Cinemas entered administration with the immediate closure of six cinemas. [6] The remaining five cinemas continued to trade under the Empire Cinemas name until 4 December 2023, when the rest of Empire Cinemas was acquired by Omniplex Cinemas, with it dissolving in the process. [7]
Empire, in conjunction with cinema chain Showcase, published Escape, a bi-monthly customer magazine that was distributed freely at 50 cinemas. It contained film reviews, interviews and competitions. [8]
Location | Screens | Notes |
---|---|---|
Bishop’s Stortford | 6 | Permanently closed in July 2023, due to entering administration. [6] |
Birmingham (Great Park) | 13 | Standard and Premium Seating in all screens, 1 former luxury screen and 1 IMAX screen seating 422 plus 4 wheelchairs. Acquired by Omniplex Cinemas in December 2023. [7] |
Catterick Garrison | 7 | Includes an IMPACT screen. Recliners, sofas and standard seating available in every screen. Permanently closed in July 2023. [6] |
Clydebank | 10 | Acquired by Omniplex Cinemas in December 2023. [7] |
High Wycombe | 8 | Sofa and electric recliner seating added in Screens 3 & 4 in 2018. Acquired by Omniplex Cinemas in December 2023. [7] |
Ipswich | 14 | Includes 2 IMPACT screens and 2 D-BOX screens. Opened 31 March 2017. [9] Acquired by Omniplex Cinemas in December 2023. [7] |
London – Haymarket | 3 | Acquired in exchange as part of the sale of five cinemas to Cineworld. Under Empire control from 7 April 2017. Permanently closed in May 2023. |
Slough | 10 | 1 luxury screen, 1 IMPACT screen. Permanently closed in December 2022. [10] |
Sunderland | 12 | Including VIP seating. Permanently closed in July 2023. Acquired by Omniplex Cinemas in February 2024 [6] [11] |
Sutton | 12 | Reopened on February 13, 2018 after an extensive refurbishment. Now features 2 IMPACT screens, and 2 D-Box screens. Acquired by Omniplex Cinemas in December 2023. [7] |
Sutton Coldfield | 4 | Closed during COVID-19 lockdown in November 2020. Purchase by PDJ Management Ltd announced in December 2023. [12] [13] |
Swindon | 12 | 1 IMAX screen installed in 2017. Permanently closed in July 2023. Reopened as Vue in December 2023. [6] |
Walthamstow | 9 | Opened 20 November 2014. Permanently closed in July 2023. [6] |
Wigan | 11 | Opened in 1996 as Virgin Cinemas before being taken over by UGC, Cineworld and then Empire. Permanently closed in July 2023. Acquired by Omniplex Cinemas in March 2024 [6] [14] |
Empire Cinemas closed its Ealing cinema on 5 September 2008 and demolished the cinema in early 2009 for redevelopment, retaining the front facade. Empire had not yet started building work on the new cinema or (according to Ealing Council) presented a timescale for the building work as of 25 July 2011, so Ealing Council started to pursue a compulsory purchase of the Ealing cinema site. At a council meeting attended by CEO Justin Ribbons on 28 June 2011, Mr Ribbons responded to the council's complaints, saying that the delay was caused by a misunderstanding between Empire and council planning officers. [15] [16] At a later meeting between Justin Ribbons and Ealing Council on 14 September 2011, Mr Ribbons said that he was "optimistic that work could re-start before Christmas" [17] however as of May 2012, construction work on the site had not yet started.
On 29 May 2012, Ealing Council's leader wrote to Empire to inform them that compulsory purchase proceedings would now start. [18] On 2 June 2012, Empire Cinemas released a statement to the press, [19] announcing that Clarkebond (a consultancy owned by Empire's parent company, Inspiration Holdings) had been appointed to manage the construction, which would now start in "August 2012"; and that the finished cinema would open in "early 2014". As of 3 October 2012, construction had still not started and Empire changed the start date listed on their website from "August" to "August/September". As of 18 October 2012, any reference to a start date has been removed from the web site. On 19 October 2012, construction and excavation vehicles were seen in operation on the cinema site, however as of July 2015 no further building work had commenced.
Ealing Council served a compulsory purchase order on the site in July 2014, as part of plans to create a new "cultural quarter" in the area. [20] The council announced it had reached an agreement with Land Securities to develop the cinema and buildings nearby, and that Picturehouse Cinemas would operate the new cinema. [21] An inquiry into the compulsory purchase order was launched in April 2015, [22] and was approved in October 2015. [23] Construction work began on the site in December 2016. [24]
The Empire, Leicester Square is a cinema currently operated by Cineworld on the north side of Leicester Square, London, United Kingdom.
Vue International, is a multinational cinema holding company based in London, England. It operates in the United Kingdom and Ireland as Vue, with international operations in Denmark and Germany ; Italy ; Poland and Lithuania (Multikino); Netherlands.
UGC is a cinema operator in France and Belgium, operating 57 cinemas as of 2022. It is also a major film production and distribution company.
Cineworld Group plc is a British cinema operator headquartered in London, England. It is the world's second-largest cinema chain, with 9,139 screens across 747 sites in 10 countries: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, the United Kingdom and the United States. The group's primary brands are Cineworld Cinemas and Picturehouse in the United Kingdom and Ireland, Cinema City in Eastern and Central Europe, Planet in Israel, and Regal Cinemas in the United States.
Regal Cinemas is an American movie theater chain headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee. A division of Cineworld, Regal operates the second-largest theater circuit in the United States, with 6,853 screens in 511 theaters as of December 31, 2021. The three main theatre brands operated by Regal Entertainment Group are Regal Cinemas, Edwards Theatres, and United Artists Theatres.
Picturehouse Cinemas is a network of cinemas in the United Kingdom, operated by Picturehouse Cinemas Ltd and owned by Cineworld. The company runs its own film distribution arm, Picturehouse Entertainment, which has released acclaimed films such as Hirokazu Kore-eda's Broker and Monster, Scrapper, Corsage, Sally Potter's The Party, Francis Lee's God's Own Country and The Wife. A previous iteration of this distribution arm, which focused largely on alternative content, was sold in 2017 to Howard Panter and Rosemary Squire and rebranded as Trafalgar Releasing.
Odeon Cinemas Limited, trading as Odeon, is a cinema brand name operating in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Norway, which along with UCI Cinemas and Nordic Cinema Group is part of the Odeon Cinemas Group subsidiary of AMC Theatres. It uses the famous name of the Odeon cinema circuit first introduced in Great Britain in 1930. As of 2016, Odeon is the largest cinema chain in the United Kingdom by market share.
Cineplex Inc. is a Canadian operator of movie theater and family entertainment centres, headquartered in Toronto. It is the largest cinema chain in Canada; as of 2019, it operated 165 locations, and accounted for 75% of the domestic box office.
The Odyssey Complex, consisting of Odyssey Place and the SSE Arena, is a sports, entertainment and science learning complex located within the Titanic Quarter in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Famous Players Limited Partnership was a Canadian-based subsidiary of Cineplex Entertainment. As an independent company, it existed as a film exhibitor and cable television service provider. Famous Players operated numerous movie theatre locations in Canada from British Columbia to Newfoundland and Labrador. The company was owned by Viacom Canada but was sold to Cineplex Galaxy LP in 2005.
Maney is an area of Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, England. It is situated close to the town centre of Sutton Coldfield and is also near Wylde Green and Walmley. The main thoroughfare is Birmingham Road, which runs through Maney.
ABC Cinemas was a cinema chain in the United Kingdom. Originally a wholly owned subsidiary of Associated British Picture Corporation (ABPC), it operated between the 1920s and the 1980s. The brand name was reused in the 1990s until 2000.
The Gate is a retail and leisure complex in Newcastle upon Tyne, England.
The Red Dragon Centre is an indoor entertainment complex in southern Cardiff, the capital of Wales. It was originally known as the Atlantic Wharf Leisure Village when it opened in August 1997. The complex features restaurants, cafés, a Hollywood Bowl bowling alley with arcade amusements, an Odeon multiplex cinema, a casino and an on-site car park.
Digital Cinema Media (DCM) is an advertising company, supplying cinema advertisements to Cineworld, Odeon, and Vue cinema chains, as well as some independent cinema chains. The company was formed in July 2008 and is owned by Cineworld and Odeon equally.
John Stanley Coombe Beard FRIBA, known professionally as J. Stanley Beard, was an English architect known for designing many cinemas in and around London.
Omniplex Cinemas is a cinema chain in Ireland set up in 1991. It is operated by Paul Anderson. It operates cinemas throughout Ireland and the United Kingdom. In 2013, Omniplex began a €14.5m investment and renovation in a number of its cinemas including the rolling out across Ireland of its large screen format OmniplexMAXX.
The Light Cinemas is a British independent cinema chain that exclusively screens films using digital cinema technology.
{{cite web}}
: Missing or empty |title=
(help){{cite web}}
: Missing or empty |title=
(help)