A movie theater, cinema, or cinema hall, also known as the big screen, the silver screen, movie house, the movies, picture house, the pictures, picture theater, or simply theater is a business that contains auditoria for viewing films for public entertainment. Most are commercial operations catering to the general public, who attend by purchasing tickets.
AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. is an American movie theater chain founded in Kansas City, Missouri, and now headquartered in Leawood, Kansas. It is the largest movie theater chain in the world. Founded on December 2, 1920, AMC has the largest share of the U.S. theater market ahead of Regal and Cinemark Theatres.
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.
Landmark Theatres is a movie theatre chain founded in 1974 in the United States. It was formerly dedicated to exhibiting and marketing independent and foreign films. Landmark consists of 34 theatres with 176 screens in 24 markets. It is known for both its historic and newer, more modern theatres. Helmed by its President Kevin Holloway, Landmark Theatres is part of Cohen Media Group.
Cinemark Holdings, Inc. is an American movie theater chain that started operations in 1984 and since then it has operated theaters with hundreds of locations throughout the Americas. It is headquartered in Plano, Texas, in the Dallas–Fort Worth area. Cinemark is a leader in the theatrical exhibition industry with 521 theatres and 5,855 screens in the U.S. and Latin America as of June 30, 2022. It is also the largest movie theatre chain in Brazil, with a 30 percent market share.
Cineplex Inc. is the largest cinema chain in Canada.
National CineMedia (NCM) is an American cinema advertising company. NCM displays ads to U.S. consumers in movie theaters, online and through mobile technology. NCM presents cinema advertising across a digital in-theater network, consisting of theaters owned by AMC Entertainment, Cinemark, Regal Entertainment Group and other regional theater circuits.
Harkins Theatres is an American movie theater chain with locations throughout the Southwestern United States. Harkins Theatres is privately owned and operated by its parent company, Harkins Enterprises, LLC. The company operates 31 theaters with 487 screens throughout Arizona, California, Colorado, and Oklahoma. It is the 7th largest movie theater circuit in North America and the largest family-owned theater chain in the United States.
Sight & Sound Theatres is an entertainment company that produces Bible stories live on stage. Based in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Sight & Sound operates two theaters: one in Ronks, Pennsylvania and the second in Branson, Missouri. Each year, more than a million people from around the world attend performances at the theatres. It has been a major tourist attraction of Pennsylvania's Lancaster County, and is considered the largest faith-based theater company in the nation.
Film distribution, also called film exhibition or film distribution and exhibition, is the process of making a movie available for viewing by an audience. This is normally the task of a professional film distributor, who would determine the marketing and release strategy for the film, the media by which a film is to be exhibited or made available for viewing and other matters. The film may be exhibited directly to the public either through a movie theater or television, or personal home viewing. For commercial projects, film distribution is usually accompanied by film promotion.
A multiplex is a movie theater complex with multiple screens within a single complex. They are usually housed in a specially designed building. Sometimes, an existing venue undergoes a renovation where the existing auditoriums are split into smaller ones, or more auditoriums are added in an extension or expansion of the building. The largest of these complexes can sit thousands of people and are sometimes referred to as a megaplex.
ArcLight Cinemas was an American movie theater chain that operated from 2002 to 2021. It was owned by The Decurion Corporation, which was also the parent company of Pacific Theatres. The ArcLight chain opened in 2002 as a single theater, the ArcLight Hollywood in Hollywood, Los Angeles, and later expanded to eleven locations in California, Massachusetts, Maryland, and Illinois.
MovieTickets.com is an online movie ticketing website founded by AMC Theatres and Hollywood.com in 2000; CBS Corporation, Famous Players, and National Amusements all came on board prior to launch; and it is now a subsidiary of Fandango Media. MovieTickets.com provides movie times for all theaters, and online ticket purchasing for all Clearview Cinemas and National Amusements theaters, among other smaller chains; such as Mann Theatres in Los Angeles. In 2010, MovieTickets.com sold over 16 million tickets for over 200 exhibitors, with 14,000 screens.
Screenvision Media is a cinema advertising and film distribution company in the United States.
CineVista Theatres was a movie theatre chain in Puerto Rico founded in the 1990s. After CineVista went bankrupt and started closing its theatres, Caribbean Cinemas became the only theatre chain in Puerto Rico.
4DX is a 4D film presentation system developed by CJ 4DPlex, a subsidiary of South Korean cinema chain CJ CGV. It allows films to be augmented with various practical effects, including motion-seats, wind, strobelights, simulated-snow, and scents. First debuted in 2009, it presents films in both stereoscopic 3-D and monoscopic 2-D formats.
John Rubey is an American television executive, CEO and Executive Producer for Rubey Entertainment. Previously he served as Fathom Events' first chief executive officer leading the company to substantial revenue and event attendance growth. Prior to Fathom, Rubey was President of AEG-TV and Network LIVE where he produced many events for Fathom and others.
ScreenX is a panoramic film format which presents films with an expanded, dual-sided, 270-degree screens projected on the walls in a theater. First introduced in 2012, it is created by CJ 4DPLEX, a subsidiary of the CJ CGV group which also created the 4DX motion-theater technology, which, in fact, uses a similar logo and combines both formats, known as "4DX Screen". Co-developed by KAIST, it is considered a "sideways" version of IMAX and a presumed competitor to streaming platforms such as Netflix. In addition to films, the ScreenX theater also shows advertisements filmed or converted for the format.
The COVID-19 pandemic had a negative effect on certain films in the early 2020s, mirroring its impacts across all arts sectors. Across the world, and to varying degrees, cinemas and movie theaters were closed, festivals were cancelled or postponed, and film releases were moved to future dates or delayed indefinitely. Due to cinemas and movie theaters closing, the global box office dropped by billions of dollars, streaming saw a significant increase in popularity, and the stock of film exhibitors dropped dramatically. Many blockbusters originally scheduled to be released by mid-March 2020 were postponed or canceled around the world, with film productions also being halted. This in turn created openings for independent cinema productions to receive wider exposure.
