The company was originally called "Loew's," after the name of its founder, Marcus Loew. In 1969, when the Tisch brothers acquired the company, it became known as "Loews." The company merged with Canadian-based Cineplex Odeon Corporation in 1998, only to go bankrupt in 2001. The company merged with AMC Theatres on January 26, 2006, while the Canadian operations merged with Cineplex Galaxy in 2003.
The Loews Theatres name was used until 2017 when AMC simplified their branding to focus on three main lines: AMC, AMC Classic, and AMC Dine-In after their purchase of Carmike Cinemas. Prior to the discontinuation, Loews Cineplex operated its theatres under the Loews Theatres, Cineplex Odeon, Star Theatres, Magic Johnson Theatres, Cinemex and MEGABOX brands. Its corporate offices were located in New York and Toronto.
Loew's Theatres Incorporated was formed in 1904 in Cincinnati, Ohio, by entrepreneur Marcus Loew. Loew founded a chain of nickelodeon theaters which showed short silent films in storefront locations. Soon the company opened vaudeville houses and movie palaces. Loew's theaters were found in cities throughout the United States, but primarily in East Coast and Midwest states.
Loews Corporation, the successor company to the original firm founded by Marcus Loew, announced on April 9, 1985 that it was negotiating to sell Loews Theatres to a group headed by A. Jerrold Perenchio.[1][2][3] Loews Corporation by this time was a holding company owned by brothers Robert and Laurence Tisch that specialized in hotels and insurance. Perenchio completed the acquisition for $160 million on July 11.[4]
On October 20, 1986, when federal regulations had been relaxed, Tri-Star Pictures, then a joint venture co-owned by The Coca-Cola Company (also owners of Columbia Pictures at the time) and Time Inc.'s HBO, entered an agreement to acquire Loews Theatre Management Corporation for $300 million; Tri-Star closed the acquisition in December.[5][6][7] HBO left Tri-Star, which merged with Columbia Pictures in 1987, resulting in the formation of Columbia Pictures Entertainment. On May 26, 1987, Tri-Star said it planned to double the 300-screen chain's size over the next year and a half through acquisitions and constructing new theaters.[8] On January 25, 1988, Columbia agreed to acquire USA Cinemas Inc., with 325 screens, for $165 million; the acquisition was closed on March 2.[9] Later in 1988, Loews bought 48 screens in the Washington, D.C. area from Roth Enterprises, M&R Theatres with 70 screens in the Chicago area, and JF Theatres, Inc. with 66 screens in the Baltimore area.[10][11][12] Upon the full acquisition of Tri-Star by Columbia Pictures, and when Columbia Pictures Entertainment (now Sony Pictures Entertainment) was bought from Coca-Cola by Sony in 1989, Sony inherited the theaters.
On April 19, 1994, Loews announced it would change its name to Sony Theatres.[13] On April 27, Sony partnered with basketball player Magic Johnson to form Magic Johnson Theatres, a mini-chain of theaters specifically geared toward the inner cities, particularly in Los Angeles.[14] A year before, Sony Dynamic Digital Sound was installed in several theatres, since the parent company used it to promote Sony's cinema sound division, which eventually shut down in 2002. Sony Theatres began reverting back to the Loews Theatres name in October 1996.
In September 1997, Cineplex Odeon Corporation announced that it would merge with Loews Theatres for $1 billion, the merger was later approved by the United States Department of Justice on April 16, 1998 and was later completed that year to form Loews Cineplex Entertainment, thus making it a joint venture between Sony and Universal Studios.[15][16] The combined company had theatres in the United States, Canada, Mexico, South Korea, and Spain. The company sold off its newly acquired subsidiary, Cineplex Odeon Films, to Alliance Atlantis, which was formed from the merger of Alliance Entertainment Corporation and Atlantis Communications that year.[17] In 2001 the company declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Among the changes was the closures of 46 theatres in North America including 21 Loews theatres in the U.S. and 25 Cineplex Odeon theatres in Canada.[18]
In 2005, AMC Theatres announced that it would merge with Loews Cineplex Entertainment and that the merged company would adopt the AMC name.[22] At the time of the merger, Loews operated 198 theaters with 2,235 screens. Many theaters were rebranded as AMC Loews until the Loews name was phased out in 2017.
Cinéma Cineplex Odeon in Sainte-Foy, Quebec, was one of the Cineplex Odeon-branded theatres built by Loews Cineplex in Canada in the early 2000s prior to its merger by Galaxy Cinemas
The former Cineplex Odeon Canada Square Cinemas in Yonge-Eglinton (Toronto) opened in 1985. Closed by Loews Cineplex in 2001 and was acquired by Famous Players due to space limitations at a nearby SilverCity.
A Loews Theatre box office in Metreon, San Francisco
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the multinational conglomerate Sony.
National Amusements, Inc. is an American privately owned movie theater operator and mass media holding company incorporated in Maryland and based in Norwood, Massachusetts.
Major film studios are production and distribution companies that release a substantial number of films annually and consistently command a significant share of box office revenue in a given market. In the American and international markets, the major film studios, often known simply as the majors or the Big Five studios, are commonly regarded as the five diversified media conglomerates whose various film production and distribution subsidiaries collectively command approximately 80 to 85% of U.S. box office revenue. The term may also be applied more specifically to the primary motion picture business subsidiary of each respective conglomerate.
Cineplex Odeon Corporation was one of North America's largest movie theatre operators and live theatre, with theatres in its home country of Canada and the United States. The Cineplex Odeon brand is still being used by Cineplex Entertainment at some theatres that were once owned by the Cineplex Odeon Corporation, with newer theatres using the Cineplex Cinemas brand. The company was the result of Cineplex Corporation in 1984 purchasing and merging with Canadian Odeon Theatres, which itself was the result of a merger between Canadian Theatres and Odeon Theatres of Canada in 1978.
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.
TriStar Pictures, Inc. is an American film studio and production company that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, part of the multinational conglomerate Sony. It is a corporate sibling of Sony studio Columbia Pictures.
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.
Cineplex Odeon Films was the film distribution unit of the Canadian cinema chain Cineplex Odeon Corporation. The company was originally named Pan-Canadian Film Distributors. In 1998, the company was sold off to Alliance Atlantis Communications, which eventually folded into Entertainment One.
Odeon, stylised 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 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 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.
Magic Johnson Theatres is a chain of movie theaters, originally developed in 1994 by Johnson Development Corporation, the business holding of basketball player-turned-entrepreneur Magic Johnson, and Sony Pictures Entertainment through a partnership with Sony-Loews Theatres.
A cineplex is a multiplex, a movie theatre with several screens, coming from the words cinema and complex.
Star Theatres was an American movie theatre chain, initially owned and operated by Loeks Star Partners and Loews Cineplex Entertainment, and later by AMC Theatres.
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.
Megabox Joongang is a multiplex cinema chain in South Korea, and the third largest multiplex theater company in the country, after CJ CGV and Lotte Cinema. It is headquartered in Cheongdam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul. It was established in 2000 as a joint venture between Orion Confectionery and Loews Cineplex Entertainment, owned jointly by Sony Pictures and Universal Studios. It later merged with Cinus, owned by JoongAng Group's Media Network, in 2010. Currently, it operates 722 screens at 105 locations nationwide.
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.
Ellis Jacob is a Canadian business executive who serves as the president and chief executive officer of Cineplex Entertainment.
Sobel, Robert (1974). "Marcus Loew: An Artist in Spite of Himself". The entrepreneurs: explorations within the American business tradition. Weybright and Talley. ISBN0-679-40064-8.
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