Greater Union
 |
|
| Event Cinemas Greater Union BCC Cinemas |
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| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Cinema |
| Founded | 1913 |
|
Areas served
|
Australia, New Zealand, Fiji |
| Parent | Event Hospitality & Entertainment Limited |
| Website | www.eventcinemas.com.au |
Greater Union Organisation Pty Ltd, operating as Event Cinemas, Greater Union and Birch Carroll & Coyle (BCC Cinemas), is a group of cinema chains operating in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji under Australian parent company Event Hospitality & Entertainment Limited.
The Event Cinemas cinema chain has greatly impacted the Australian culture and film industry and has a history of mergers and acquisitions and liquidations that span over a century.
From 1906 to 1911, during the silent era, Australia was the most prolific producer of feature films in the world, a period which included the creation of the first feature-length film The Kelly Gang. This creative and fertile period in Australian film history was largely created by competition between West's Pictures, Spencer's Pictures and Amalgamated Pictures. On 4 May 1912 the three joined to form The General Film Company of Australasia. On 4 January 1913 it then merged with The Greater J.D. Williams Amusement Co and restructured to become The Combine, a famous partnership between exhibition wing Union Theatres and the production and distribution wing Australasian Films.
The Combine monopoly was highly influential on the early twentieth century Australian film industry. However, it came under heavy criticism for its low interest in producing Australian films, its preference for imported cinema, and its reluctance to exhibit Australian films by other producers. Film icon and director Raymond Longford, whose independent production company had come under attack by the group, said in 1927 that "had it not been for the activities of that firm in its endeavour to crush it in its infancy, the local picture would now be 10 years at least advanced to the height now attained by the Americans." Historians have traced the sharp decline of the Australian film industry in 1913 to the repercussions of these series of takeovers and mergers. James Sabine has said that "the stranglehold of the combine forced a decline in local production and contributed to many Australian production companies closing their doors."
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Wikipedia