Formerly called
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Founded | 1999 |
Founder | Ellis Jacob and Stephen Brown |
Headquarters | |
Area served
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Canada |
Key people
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Products | |
Revenue | CAN$ 1.010 billion (2010) |
CAN$ 63.0 million (2010) | |
Number of employees
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Over 10,000 |
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Subsidiaries |
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Website | www |
Cineplex Inc. formerly known as Cineplex Galaxy Income Fund and Galaxy Entertainment Inc. is one of Canada’s largest entertainment companies and operates numerous businesses including movie theatres, food services, gaming, alternative programming, and the online sale of home entertainment content. Cineplex is also a joint partner in the Scene loyalty program with Scotiabank.
Through its operating subsidiary Cineplex Entertainment LP, Cineplex operates 162 theatres with 1,640 screens in all 10 Canadian provinces from coast to coast, serving approximately 71 million guests annually through the following theatre brands: Cineplex Cinemas, Cineplex Odeon, SilverCity, Galaxy Cinemas, Cinema City, Famous Players, Scotiabank Theatres and Cineplex VIP Cinemas. Cineplex also owns and operates its own brands for entertainment (such as UltraAVX, Xscape Entertainment Centre, Cineplex Starburst and Brady Starburst) and restaurants (such as OutTakes and Poptopia).
Cineplex currently stakes a partial claim to the history of the Famous Players Film Company (later Paramount Pictures), founded in 1912, as its earliest predecessor, though that company did not have any operations in Canada until 1920, when it bought Nathan Nathanson's Paramount Theatre chain, which Nathanson had established four years earlier. Nathanson, along with being the 5th richest person in the world, became the first president of the resulting entity, Famous Player Canadian Corporation. In 1923, Famous Players bought out rival Allen Theatres, acquiring many buildings in the process .
In 1979, Garth Drabinsky and Nat Taylor, opened its first "Cineplex" theatre complex Toronto Eaton Centre.
The present enterprise, known as Galaxy Entertainment Inc. was established in 1999 by Ellis Jacob, a former Chief Operating Officer of Loews Cineplex Entertainment, and Stephen Brown, a former Cineplex Chief Financial Officer. With investments from Onex Corporation and Famous Players, the new company focused on smaller markets that were usually served by smaller theatres and old equipment, opening large, major chain-style locations under the Galaxy Cinemas banner. In October 2003, Loews Cineplex Entertainment, which was a merger of Cineplex Odeon and Sony's Loews Theatres in 1998, who went bankrupt in 2001 due to the economic recession of the early 2000s, consolidated its Canadian operations with Galaxy Cinemas, forming Cineplex Galaxy Income Fund. Jacob became the chief executive of Cineplex Galaxy Cinemas, and Brown became the CFO. Onex was the controlling shareholder of both Loews Cineplex Theatres and Galaxy Cinemas at the time of the merger, but sold its interest in Loews in June 2004. It maintained control of Cineplex Galaxy.