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Logo For Regal Cinemas
Regal Cinemas, formerly known as Regal Entertainment Group, is an American movie theater chain headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee. The company develops, acquires, and operates multi-screen theatres primarily in mid-sized metropolitan markets and suburban growth areas of larger metropolitan markets. Regal operates the second-largest theater circuit in the United States, with over 7,307 screens in 564 theaters as of May 21, 2016. The three main theatre brands operated by Regal Entertainment Group are Regal Cinemas, Edwards Theatres, and United Artists Theatres.
These chains retain their exterior signage, but most indoor branding (popcorn bags, policy trailers) uses the Regal Entertainment Group name and logo. Where applicable, the REG logo is used alongside the three individual brands. Most new cinema construction uses the Regal Cinemas name, although Regal has built new Edwards locations in California and Idaho. Regal has acquired several smaller chains since this merger; these, however, have been rebranded as Regal Cinemas.
On November 22, 2017, it was officially announced that the UK theater chain Cineworld would acquire Regal for $3.6 billion. On March 8, 2018, the acquisition of Regal by Cineworld was completed, making it the second largest global cinema exhibitor behind AMC.
History[]
The Regal Cinemas At Atlantic Station In Atlanta, Georgia
Before 2002[]
Regal Cinemas[]
Regal Cinemas was established in November 15, 1989 in Knoxville, Tennessee, with Mike Campbell as CEO. Regal began to grow at a rapid pace, opening larger cinemas in suburban areas. Many of these contained a "premium" café (later called Cafe Del Moro) and a more upscale look than typical theaters of the time.
Regal Cinemas embarked on an aggressive expansion throughout the decade, swallowing up smaller chains as well as building new, more modern multiplexes. Its largest acquisition during this original period was the 1998 combination of it and Act III Theatres, although it had acquired some smaller chains as well in the mid-1990s, including the original Cobb Theatres, RC Theatres, and Cleveland-based National Theatre Corp.
The Regal Cinemas In Waterford, Connecticut, Which Opened In 1987
By 2001, Regal was overextended like many other cinema chains, and went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It became the namesake for the theater chain in which it would be merged into with the Edwards and United Artists chains.
The chain's famous "Regal Roller Coaster" policy trailer, which was shown before every movie shown from August 15, 1990 to November 28, 2004, was revived in June 29, 2010 and the current version was made in June 24, 2015, which was animated by The Tombras Group.
United Artists Theatres[]
United Artists Theatres (established in 1924) has its roots in the movie studio of the same name founded by Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, and D. W. Griffith, but legally has always been separate from it. Joseph Schenck was brought in to become UA's president in 1924; as part of the deal, Schenck entered into a partnership with Chaplin and Pickford to buy and construct theatres using UA's name. Over time, the chain became separate from the studio and by the 1970s was part of a larger company, United Artists Communications.
United Artists Theatres was purchased in the late 1940s by the Naify Brothers, who owned theatres in the San Francisco Bay Area. Their company up to this time was called Golden State Theatres. About this time they also acquired the San Francisco Theatres owned by Samuel H Levin. These theatres were the Balboa, Alexandria, Coliseum, Vogue Metro, the Harding, and Coronet, which was opened in 1949. In 1988 UA bought the Philadelphia-based Sameric chain of about 30 locations in PA, NJ, and DE. The UA Theatres main office was in San Francisco until 1988 when it was sold to TCI. Thereafter, it was relocated to Englewood, CO.
UAC was an early pioneer in cable television, and aggressively bought smaller regional systems. By the end of the 1980s, John Malone's Tele-Communications, Inc. was majority owner; on July 10, 1991, it purchased the remainder of the company. Then on June 19, 1992, TCI sold the theatre chain in a leveraged buyout led by Merrill Lynch Capital Partners Inc and UA management.
Edwards Theatres[]
Edwards Theatres was a family-owned chain in California, started in 1930 by William James Edwards Jr. It became one of California's best-known and most popular theater chains, and by Edwards' death in November 4, 1997, operated about 90 locations with 560 screens. Edwards Theatres had its headquarters in Newport Beach, California. His son, W. James Edwards III, became president and announced an ambitious expansion plan that would nearly double the company's screen count. The expansion plan gave Edwards a crushing debt load, and in 2000 it filed for bankruptcy.
After 2002[]
When all three chains went into bankruptcy, investor Philip Anschutz bought substantial investments in all three companies, becoming majority owner. In March 27, 2002, Anschutz announced plans to consolidate all three of his theatre holdings under a new parent company, Regal Entertainment Group. Regal's Mike Campbell and UA's Kurt Hall were named co-CEOs, with Campbell overseeing the theatre operations from Regal Cinemas' headquarters in Knoxville, and Kurt Hall heading up a new subsidiary, Regal CineMedia, from the UA offices in Centennial, Colorado. The Edwards corporate offices were closed.
Regal and United Artists had attempted to merge before in July 28, 1998, using a similar method. Investment firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst announced plans to acquire Regal, then merge it with UA (which would be bought by Hicks, Muse) and Act III (controlled by KKR), with the new company using the Regal Cinemas name. UA eventually dropped out of the merger, but the merger between Regal and Act III went through.
During the late 1990s, the business of operating a chain of movie theaters was fraught with difficulty. To stay ahead of competitors, major chains were borrowing heavily to expand and upgrade their operations. Movie theater chains were expanding at a rapid rate, hoping to drive one another out of business by erecting more screens and designing grander facilities than any other operator. The frenzied trend toward expansion led to overcapacity. Soon, there were not enough patrons to fill the hundreds of thousands of new stadium-style seats that were in existence. Saddled with high-interest payments on the debt accumulated during the expansion spree, the chains became financially distressed. Financial failure replaced frenzied expansion as the new industry trend, resulting in an alarming number of bankruptcies.
As Regal consolidated the three chains, CineMedia began work on a new digital distribution system to provide a new "preshow", replacing the slides and film advertisements with digital content. NBC and Turner Broadcasting were among the first to sign on to provide content for the venture, and the preshow, dubbed "The 2wenty", debuted in February 10, 2004; this pre-film preshow is now known as "Regal FirstLook". The new distribution system was also meant to be used for special events such as concerts. Regal CineMedia merged with AMC Theatres' National Cinema Network in October 6, 2005 to form National CineMedia. In effect, this was a takeover of NCN by Regal CineMedia, as Kurt Hall stayed on as CEO and AMC adopted Regal's preshow. Regal owned 50% of the new company before it went public. In April 29, 2001 alone, six movie theater chains declared bankruptcy. Of those six, there were three companies that attracted Anschutz's attention: Regal Cinemas Inc., United Artists Theatre Company, and Edwards Theatres Circuit Inc. Combined, the three operators had invested approximately $1.9 billion in expansion and upgrades during the last several years of the 1990s. By the beginning of the 21st century, the companies were financially exhausted from the race to drive out competitors.
Since the 2002 formation of REG, it has acquired several smaller chains. In June 24, 2005, Eastern Federal, which was a fairly prominent theatre company in the Southeastern United States, was brought into the Regal family. It acquired San Ramon, California–based Signature Theatres from Phil Harris on February 10, 2004, and took over the US assets of Hoyts Cinemas in June 25, 2004. Unlike the merger with UA and Edwards, Regal has rebranded all of these theatres as Regal Cinemas. In March 22, 2013, Regal agreed to purchase Hollywood Theaters, a nationwide chain of 46 theaters that operated from Portland, Oregon. The sale was closed on November 27, 2013. In June 16, 2017 Regal purchased the $200 million company Warren Theaters based in Wichita, Kansas. The sale included all Warren Theater locations in Wichita KS as well as those in Moore and Broken Arrow OK. The theaters will continue operation under the Warren name.
In September 14, 2007, REG opened its first all digital projection theatre in Henderson, Nevada (a suburb of Las Vegas), the Fiesta Henderson Stadium 12. Fandango was sold by Regal to leading cable company Comcast Corporation in June 27, 2007.
Regal Entertainment Group completed its acquisition of Consolidated Theatres on May 1, 2008. In the transaction, Regal acquired Consolidated's 28 theaters and 400 screens for $210 million. Consolidated's concentrations of theatres in the Mid-Atlantic states of Maryland, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia and North and South Carolina overlapped in some places with Regal's. As of a condition of approval of the merger, the United States Department of Justice required that Regal divest itself of several theaters in areas where it would have a monopoly. Regal agreed to sell off four theaters in the Asheville, Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina markets, but a large number of theaters still remains in all three markets.
On May 18, 2009, Regal signed a deal with Sony Corporation to equip all of its theaters with Sony 4K digital projection over the next three to five years.
In April 2010, Regal launched Regal Premium Experience (RPX), an upgraded theater format. Each RPX theater features a 60-foot screen, dual 30,000 lumen digital projectors, a 7.1 sound system, a Dolby Atmos sound system or an Auro 11.1 sound system with 273 loudspeaker components including eight 21 inch subwoofers. There are reclining leather seats with headrests. Both digital 2D and RealD 3D films can be screened. As of January 2016, there are 87 operating RPX locations.
In June 2011, after posting a loss for the first quarter, Regal began downsizing its theater employees by removing managers from projection and replacing them with lower paid floor staff. This move allowed Regal to lay off part-time managers across the country and forcibly demote many full-time managers to part-time. As theaters converted to all digital automated screens, Regal also removed projectionists altogether. This focus on "cost control" helped the company post better than expected profits for the 3rd quarter of that year.
In December 2015, Regal took over managing operations of Cinebarre, a former joint venture between Regal Entertainment Group and Terrell Braly. There are 8 Cinebarre locations in the Regal Entertainment Group circuit. These locations feature a full bar as well a full made from scratch restaurant menu which is delivered right to the customer's seat.
In January 2016, Regal was issued a temporary injunction by a district court in the state of Texas following complaints by the Houston-based cinema chain iPic Entertainment, which found that Regal had colluded with 20th Century Fox, Sony, and Universal by threatening boycotts of their releases if they did not refuse clearance of their films to smaller cinema chain locations (such as iPic). In 2017, Regal purchased Wichita, Kansas–based Warren Theatres.
In November 22, 2017, Regal began merger talks with the UK theater chain Cineworld. On December 5, it was officially announced that Cineworld would buy Regal for $3.6 billion, forming the world's second-largest cinema group.
The chain adopted a new logo in October 2018, featuring an emblem resembling a camera aperture and crown, and colored in orange in honor of the University of Tennessee (as a reflection of Regal's Knoxville heritage).
Regal Foundation[]
The Regal Foundation was organized in 2003 by Regal Entertainment Group in order to engage in charitable activities directly and by providing funds to other organizations, golf tournaments, and the University of Tennessee. The Regal Foundation holds a large in-theater donation drive during the summer months of the year known as "Stars of Hope". During this event patrons can donate $1 to the Regal Foundation. The names of donors are written on individual stars and posted on a "wall of fame" visible in that patron's respective theater.