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Empire Cinema

Empire Cinemas Limited
Privately held company
Industry Leisure, Entertainment & refreshments
Founded 2005
Headquarters Empire Studios, The Empire, Leicester Square, London, WC2H 7NA.
Number of locations
13
Products Tickets, popcorn, alcohol, drinks & confectionery
Website www.empirecinemas.co.uk

Empire Cinemas Limited is a multiplex cinema chain in the UK. There are 13 Empire Cinemas across the country, with 124 screens in total.

The ultimate beneficial owner of Empire Cinemas Ltd is 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. The CEO of Empire Cinemas, Justin Ribbons, is also an Executive Director of Inspiration Holdings.

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. The cinemas transferred to Cineworld on 12 August 2016.

Empire, in conjunction with cinema chain Showcase, publishes Escape, a bi-monthly customer magazine, distributed free at 50 cinemas. It contains film reviews, interviews and competitions.


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