 | |
| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Cinemas |
| Predecessor | Rainbow Cinemas |
| Founded | February 2, 2005 |
| Headquarters | |
Area served | Canada |
Key people | Greg Spencer Gina Facca |
| Website | imaginecinemas |
Imagine Cinemas is an independently owned chain of cinemas, founded on February 2, 2005. The chain consists of 11 locations with a total of 72 screens in Ontario making it the third-largest movie theatre chain in Canada, outside of Quebec, and the largest independent Canadian-owned chain.
On February 2, 2005, Imagine Cinemas opened its first theatre in Tecumseh, Ontario. They also bought The Palace Theatre in Windsor, Ontario but closed the facility in 2012. [1]
In April 2014, Imagine announced the acquisition of Frederick Twin Cinemas in Kitchener, Ontario. [2]
On May 27, 2016, Imagine announced the acquisition of seven theatres in Ontario formerly owned and operated by Rainbow Cinemas. [3] The following year, they announced the opening a new theatre at the Alliston Mills Shopping Centre. [4] On August 2, 2018, Quebec owned media company UB Media won the rights to represent sales for Landmark Cinemas Canada and Imagine. [5]
October 30, 2019, they acquired Gem Theatre in Keswick, Ontario. [6]
Whistler Village 8 Cinema was closed on Jan 6, 2023.
Sobeys Inc. is the second largest supermarket chain in Canada after Loblaw Companies Limited, with over 1,500 stores operating across Canada under a variety of banners. Headquartered in Stellarton, Nova Scotia, it operates stores in all ten provinces and accumulated sales of more than C$25.1 billion in the fiscal 2019 operating year. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Empire Company Limited, a Canadian business conglomerate.
Loews Cineplex Entertainment, also known as Loews Incorporated, is an American theater chain operating in North America. From 1924 to 1959, it was the parent company of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM). It was formerly jointly owned by Sony Pictures and Universal Studios and operated theatres in the United States, Canada, South Korea, Spain and Mexico.
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 in 1920, AMC has the largest share of the U.S. theater market ahead of Regal and Cinemark Theatres.
Empire Company Limited is a Canadian conglomerate engaged mostly in food retail and corporate investments. Founded in 1963, the company is headquartered in Stellarton, Nova Scotia and owns the Sobeys supermarket chain. In total, the company owns, affiliates or franchises more than 1,500 stores; in addition to Sobeys, brands include Safeway, IGA, Foodland, Farm Boy, FreshCo, Thrifty Foods and Lawtons Drug.
The ByTowne Cinema is a one-screen repertory movie theatre located in Ottawa, Ontario, The cinema is one of Ottawa's main venues for independent and foreign films. The 650-seat cinema is located on Rideau Street at Nelson, several blocks east of the Rideau Centre. It was closed on December 24, 2020, with a final week of screenings shown on February 26 to March 7, 2021. The cinema reopened under new ownership on September 8, 2021.
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 in the United States. It was formerly dedicated to exhibiting and marketing independent and foreign films.
Magic Lantern Theatres is a chain of 11 movie theatres in Canada. Three of these locations are Rainbow Cinemas discount theatres. Magic Lantern Theatres was founded in 1984 in Edmonton, Alberta, while Rainbow Cinemas was founded in the early 1990s in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. The two chains merged and are now based in Edmonton. In May 2016, a strategic decision was made to sell all of the Ontario cinemas to Imagine Cinemas, except for the Cobourg location. With Magic Lantern and Rainbow operate 43 screens, it is the fourth largest movie chain across Canada behind Cineplex Entertainment, Landmark Cinemas and Imagine Cinemas.
Cineplex Inc. is the largest cinema chain in Canada.
Empire Theatres Limited was a movie theater chain in Canada, a subsidiary of Empire Company Ltd., the holding company of the Sobey family conglomerate.
Famous Players Limited Partnership is 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.
Landmark Cinema of Canada Inc. is a Canadian cinema chain. Based in Calgary, Alberta, Landmark operates 39 theatres with 317 screens, primarily in Ontario and western Canada. Its holdings include much of the former Empire Theatres chain which it acquired in late 2013, and some Famous Players locations divested as part of that chain's purchase by Cineplex Entertainment. Landmark is the second-largest cinema chain in Canada after Cineplex. It was acquired by Belgium company Kinepolis in 2017 for $123 million.
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.
Motion picture ratings in Canada are mostly a provincial responsibility, and each province has its own legislation regarding exhibition and admission. For home video purposes, a single Canadian Home Video Rating System rating consisting of an average of the participating provincial ratings is displayed on retail packages, although various provinces may have rules on display and sale, especially for the R and A categories.
Grant Park Shopping Centre is a 70-shop, nearly 400,000-square-foot shopping centre in the Grant Park area of southwest Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
Guildford Town Centre is a shopping mall located in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada. It opened on November 8, 1966, and is owned by Ivanhoé Cambridge, a Quebec-based real estate company. It is the largest mall in the Lower Mainland south of the Fraser River as well as the third-largest in British Columbia, after Metropolis at Metrotown in Burnaby and Park Royal Shopping Centre in West Vancouver.
The Carlton Cinema is a cinema in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located on Carlton Street on the original premises of the historic Odeon Theatre and is known for playing films that the larger chain theatres ignore.
The COVID-19 pandemic had a deep impact on the Canadian economy, leading it into a recession. The government's social distancing rules had the effect of limiting economic activity in the country. Companies started mass layoffs of workers, and Canada's unemployment rate was 13.5 percent in May 2020, the highest it has been since 1976.
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