Multiplex (movie theater)
[citation needed] The Kinepolis-Madrid Ciudad de la Imagen [es] megaplex in Spain, owned by the Belgian Kinepolis Group, is the largest movie theater in the world, with 25 screens and a seating capacity of 9,200, including one 996-seat auditorium.
"[5] In a 2004 book, Ross Melnick and Andreas Fuchs identified five leading candidates: James Edwards, Sumner Redstone, Stanley Durwood, Charles Porter, and Nat Taylor.
[5] In 1915, exhibitor Charles Porter opened the Duplex Theatre in Detroit, Michigan, the first known instance of a dual-auditorium movie theater.
[6] The Duplex Theatre's history is poorly documented and it is unknown why Porter built his theater that way, though it was apparently a bit too advanced for its time.
[7] In about 1915 two adjacent theatres in Moncton, New Brunswick, under the same ownership were converted to share a single entrance on Main Street.
[9] In 1937 James Edwards twinned his Alhambra Theater in the Los Angeles area by converting an adjacent storefront into a second "annex" screen.
It was not until 1957, however, that Taylor decided to run different movies in each theater, when he became annoyed at having to replace films that were still making money with new releases.
[10] Taylor opened dual-screen theaters in 1962 in Place Ville Marie in Montreal, Quebec, and at Yorkdale Plaza in Toronto, Ontario, in 1964.
Also in late 1947, but in Havana, Cuba, the Duplex movie theater was built to share the vestibule and ancillary facilities with the previously existing Rex Cinema (open since 1938); they were both designed by the same architect, Luis Bonich.
In 1963 AMC Theatres opened the two-screen Parkway Twin at the Ward Parkway Shopping Center in Kansas City, a concept which company president Stanley Durwood later claimed to have come up with in 1962, realizing he could double the revenue of a single theater "by adding a second screen and still operate with the same size staff".
According to Melnick and Fuchs, although Durwood was technically not the first person to build a multi-auditorium movie theater, he was "the man perhaps most responsible for driving the industry into 'splitsville'".
Located in East Point, Georgia, it was later converted into a three-screen venue after a fire partially destroyed one of the theaters.
In 1973, Sumner Redstone, as the head of National Amusements, was the first film exhibitor to trademark and regularly use the term "multiplex.
"[18] Opening in April 1979, the 18-screen Cineplex, co-founded by Nat Taylor in Toronto's Eaton Centre, became the world's largest multitheatre complex under one roof.
[16] This coincided with the development of modern big-box stores and warehouse clubs in the United States, and in retrospect can be seen as part of a larger national movement to "grow retail spaces ever bigger.
[29][30] Aging single-screen movie palaces in congested downtown areas simply could not compete against the new suburban megaplexes with their profusion of convenient choices (in terms of films and showtimes), gigantic screens, stadium seating, armrest cup holders, video arcades, spacious parking lots, and state-of-the-art projection and surround sound technology.
[34][35] CGV Cinemas San Francisco 14, is a 14-auditorium[36] movie theater multiplex in a former eight-story Cadillac dealership building on Van Ness Avenue at O'Farrell Street.
It introduced various innovations in visual, audio and conceptual aspects of cinema, such as hosting guests and special events.
In 1999, the 18-screen UCI New York City Center multiplex was opened in Barra da Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro to become the largest in Brazil.
Cineplex Entertainment purchased the theater in 2012, along with several other Canadian AMC megaplexes, bringing the company full circle.
Hungary's first multiplex, the Corvin Budapest Film Palace, opened in September 1996 followed shortly after by Cineplex Odeon's first overseas venture, the six-screen Cinpelex Odeon Polus Center, and a nine-screen multiplex in the Duna plaza run by Village Roadshow and US owned InterCom, that both opened in November 1996.
Multiplexes (multicines) are very popular in Spain and they can be found in or close to most cities, displacing the traditional single-screen theaters.
[46] The Kinepolis-Madrid Ciudad de la Imagen megaplex has been the largest movie theater in the world since 1998, with 25 screens and a seating capacity of 9,200 including a 996-seat auditorium.
[55] The first triplex in the United States was created with the addition of a third screen to the Cheri theater in Boston in June 1967 owned by Ben Sack.
The expansion of multiplexes also concentrated the market with the top ten exhibitors controlling 47% of the nation's screens compared to 27% in 1986.
[63] The building has been divided and reopened in 2012 as a Toby Keith–owned nightclub and a 14-screen first-run movie theater operated by Southern Theatres as the "AmStar 14".
[65] Edwards was furious when he learned that Durwood had beaten him to a deal with Ontario Mills, and later told him, "I had to teach you a lesson".
