Odeon Cinemas

Odeon Cinemas Limited

Type	Subsidiary
Founded	1930
Founder	Oscar Deutsch
Number of locations	122 (United Kingdom) 11 (Ireland)
Area served	United Kingdom and Ireland
Key people	Mark Way (Group Chief executive officer)
Owner	AMC Theatres
Parent	Odeon Cinemas Group
Website	www.odeon.co.uk www.odeoncinemas.ie

Odeon is a cinema company operating in the United Kingdom and Ireland, which along with UCI Cinemas is part of the Odeon Cinemas Group. It uses the famous name of the Odeon cinema circuit first introduced in Britain in 1930.

The first Odeon cinema was opened by Oscar Deutsch in 1928, in Brierley, Staffordshire, although initially called "Picture House". The first cinema to use the Odeon brand name was Deutsch's cinema at Perry Barr, Birmingham in 1930. Ten years later Odeon was part of the Rank Organisation who continued their ownership of the circuit for a further sixty years. Through a number of sales and acquisitions in the early 2000s the company was purchased by Terra Firma, which merged Odeon and UCI Cinemas to form Odeon UCI Cinemas Group. Most UCI cinemas then took the Odeon brand name in 2006. Terra Firma sold the company to AMC Theatres in November 2016.

In 2016, Odeon was the largest cinema chain in the United Kingdom by market share (although the Irish cinemas were also included within this figure).

Odeon Cinemas was created in 1928 by Oscar Deutsch. Odeon publicists liked to claim that the name of the cinemas was derived from his motto, "Oscar Deutsch Entertains Our Nation", but it had been used for cinemas in France and Italy in the 1920s, and the word is actually Ancient Greek. The name "Nickelodeon" was coined in 1905 and was widely used to describe small cinemas in the United States during that era.

However the company is most associated with J. Arthur Rank, the owner for the longest period in its history.

The first cinema opened by Oscar Deutsch was located in Brierley Hill, Staffordshire, England in 1928. The building has long since been demolished, but as of 2006, the former UCI Cinema (built in the 1980s as an AMC multiplex) at the Merry Hill Shopping Centre in Brierley Hill was refurbished as an Odeon Cinema. However, its style is more functional than that of original Odeon cinemas, ironically, the company is now being managed by the AMC group.