Cineworld

Cineworld Group plc

Type	Public (LSE: CINE)
Industry	Leisure, Entertainment & Refreshments
Founded	1995
Headquarters	London, United Kingdom
Key people	Anthony Bloom (Chairman) Stephen Wiener (Chief Executive)
Website	http://www.cineworldplc.com

Cineworld Group plc (LSE: CINE) is a cinema chain operating in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Jersey. The chain consists of 78 cinemas; 76 of which are located in the UK and one each in Ireland and Jersey. It is the second-largest cinema operator in the UK with 801 screens, and the owner of the single largest multiplex by screens and customer base in Ireland. Cineworld Glasgow Renfrew Street is the tallest cinema in the world and the busiest, by customer base, in the UK. Based on the number of screens, the biggest Cineworld cinema is at Valley Centertainment in Sheffield with 20 screens.

History

The first Cineworld opened in Stevenage, Hertfordshire in July 1996, with its second cinema opening up in Shrewsbury, Shropshire in November 1998 which was purpose-built. Since then it has taken over the UK and Ireland operations of the French cinema company UGC. In July 2005 it began integrating the two chains, taking the opportunity to introduce a new company logotype (with a shortened name, "Cineworld Cinemas"). Cineworld retained the UGC Unlimited Card (taken from Virgin Cinemas originally) and the UGC in-house magazine, also called Unlimited. The re-branding process of the former UGC cinemas was completed in September 2005, and as of April 2006 the company's websites and booking lines were merged into one combined service at cineworld.co.uk and the Cineworld Ireland site was completed in late 2007 at cineworld.ie As part of the merger with the former UGC brand the Office of Fair Trading announced that Cineworld must divest itself of six of its locations: Bishop's Stortford, Ealing, Slough, Sunderland, Swindon and Wigan. These have now been sold to and re-branded as Empire Cinemas. The Cineworld Birmingham — Great Park site was also later sold to Empire Cinemas and rebranded by the end of 2006, leaving Cineworld with 71 sites in total.

The Blackstone Group invested in Cineworld in 2004 when it was privately owned, and remained the largest shareholder in Cineworld Group PLC until it sold its entire remaining 20% shareholding in November 2010.

As part of further developments, plans have been made to build more Cineworld sites. In time, older original Cineworld sites will gain the newer logo types (Cineworld Cinemas) as they undergo refurbishment (refurbishment will also be carried out at older former UGC sites as required, although the re-branding is basically already done).

Subscription service

Cineworld offers a subscription service using a membership card - the "Unlimited Card" - which provides subscribers with unlimited entrance for a set price per month. It is the only type of cinema subscription service available in the UK, Ireland and Jersey. The card has a minimum subscription period of 12 months. Admission to 3D features incurs an additional fee of £1.50, and does not include the cost of 3D glasses. Tickets can only be acquired using the unlimited card on the day of the film is to be shown. During the summer of 2011, new customers who signed up to the unlimited card would receive the 13th month of subscription free.

Gallery

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  Cineworld in Glasgow, Scotland. The world's tallest cinema.

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  Cineworld in Middlesbrough, England.

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  Cineworld in Sheffield, England. The largest cinema in the chain with 20 screens.

Current locations

Site	Screens	Origin	Notes
Aberdeen — Queens Links	9	UGC
Aberdeen — Union Square	10	Cineworld	Opened 30 October 2009. All screens use digital projection although 3 screens can facilitate 35mm film also.
Ashford	12	Cineworld
Ashton-under-Lyne	14	Cineworld
Bedford	6	UGC
Birmingham — Broad Street	12	UGC
Bradford	16	Cineworld
Freeport, Braintree	12	Cineworld
Brighton	8	UGC	All screens fully digital although Screen 8 can still facilitate 35mm.
Bristol	14	Cineworld	12 screens operational
Boldon Colliery	11	UGC
Bolton	15	UGC
Burton upon Trent	9	Cineworld
Bury St Edmunds	8	Cineworld
Cardiff	15	UGC
Cambridge	9	Cineworld
Castleford	14	Cineworld
Cheltenham	11	Cineworld
Chester	6	UGC
Chesterfield	10	Cineworld
Chichester	10	Cineworld
Crawley	15	UGC
Didcot	5	Cineworld	Chain's first non-box office site operating with a dual retail-ticket system
Dublin (Ireland)	17	UGC
Dundee	9	UGC
Eastbourne	6	UGC
Edinburgh	13	UGC	Imax
Falkirk	12	Cineworld
Glasgow — Parkhead	7	UGC
Glasgow — Renfrew Street	18	UGC	The world's tallest cinema
Gloucester	6	UGC
Harlow	6	UGC
Haverhill	5	Cineworld	Opened 10 October 2008. Is the first site to use full customer automated ticketing system.
High Wycombe	12	Cineworld
Kingston upon Hull	9	UGC
Huntingdon	10	Cineworld
Ipswich	11	Virgin	Opened 1st May 1998. All 11 screens now have digital projection with 6 also having Real-D 3D. Some screens still have 35 mm. When first opened this had 3 THX screens (sadly nolonger certified).
Leigh	7	Cineworld
Llandudno Junction	9	Cineworld
Liverpool	8	UGC
London — Bexleyheath	9	Cineworld
London — Chelsea	4	UGC
London — Enfield	15	UGC
London — Feltham	14	Cineworld
London — Fulham Road	6	UGC
London — Hammersmith	4	UGC
London — The Haymarket	3	UGC
London — Ilford	11	Cineworld
London — The O2, Greenwich	11	Vue	Cineworld Group Plc won a 25 year contract to operate The O2 multiplex from Friday 25 June 2010
London — Shaftesbury Avenue	7	UGC
London — Staples Corner	6	UGC
London — Wandsworth	14	Cineworld
London — West India Quay	10	UGC
London — Wood Green	12	Cineworld
Luton	11	Cineworld
Manchester Didsbury, Parrs Wood	11	UGC
Middlesbrough	11	UGC
Milton Keynes	16	Cineworld
Newport (Isle Of Wight)	11	Cineworld
Newport	13	UGC
Nottingham	14	UGC
Northampton	9	UGC
Rochester	9	UGC
Rugby	9	Cineworld
Runcorn	9	Cineworld
Sheffield — Valley Centertainment	20	UGC	Cinema with most screens in the chain.
Shrewsbury	8	Cineworld	Opened November 1998.
Solihull	9	Cineworld
Southampton	5	UGC
St. Helens	11	Cineworld
St. Helier (Jersey)	10	Cineworld
Stevenage	16	Cineworld
Stockport - Grand Central Stockport	10	UGC
Swindon	7	UGC
Wakefield	9	Cineworld
Weymouth	9	Cineworld
Witney	5	Cineworld	Opened 30 October 2009. All screens use digital projection although 2 screens can facilitate 35mm film also.
Wolverhampton	14	Cineworld
Yeovil	10	Cineworld

Future Cineworld Cinemas

Site	Screens	Notes
Aldershot	7	Opening 2012.
Hinckley	5	Opening 2014.
London — Wembley City	9	Located adjacent to Wembley Stadium and Wembley Arena, this site is scheduled to open in 2013.
Macclesfield	8	Opening 2012.
Preston	9	To be an anchor tenant of the Preston Tithebarn redevelopment.
St Neots	7	Opening 2013/2014.
Telford	11	Announced as part of the Southwater development.
Trowbridge	8	Announced.

Former Cineworld / UGC locations

The following locations were sold to Empire Cinemas.

Site	Screens	Origin	Notes
Birmingham — Great Park	13	UGC
Bishop's Stortford	6	Cineworld
Ealing	3	UGC	Now closed by Empire Cinemas since early 2009 for "redevelopment"
Sunderland	12	Cineworld
Slough	10	UGC
Swindon — Greenbridge	12	Cineworld	Swindon was the only place to have a UGC & Cine-UK therefore had two Cineworld Cinemas for a brief time.
Wigan	11	UGC

Unlimited Magazine

Unlimited Magazine (formerly known as Cineworld Magazine 2004-2005, Unlimited 2005-2007 & Cineworld Unlimited 2007-2011) is a cinema magazine which was launched in early 2004 to start the cinema magazine generation^{[citation needed]}. It's free in all Cineworlds. A Bollywood spin-off called Cineworld Unlimited Bollywood was launched in mid 2007 and was discontinued in mid 2008 as it did not gain much attention. It returned as a feature in the main Cineworld Unlimited magazine.

Movies for Juniors

Movies for Juniors is a special offer exclusive to Cineworld Cinemas that hosts three selected children's films on Saturday mornings. (Bolton, Falkirk, Ipswich, Liverpool, Northampton, Wandsworth and Wakefield Cineworlds host Movies for Juniors on both Saturday and Sunday mornings.)

A previous sponsor for this offer was Kandoo. The current sponsor is Aquafresh.

On 1 July 2009, it was announced that Woolworths.co.uk would sponsor Movies for Juniors for the rest of 2009. To support this, Woolworths.co.uk advertisements would be shown for all performances at Cineworld Cinemas. Families who regularly attend Movies for Juniors, are able to register as a V.I.F. (Very Important Family), so that they can see selected films for free. The usual cost is £1 per person.

Fun and games are available at selected Cineworlds before the films commence. These usually take place in a bigger auditorium because of popularity ratings.

Criticism

Cineworld is the only cinema chain in the United Kingdom to operate a 'strict no food and drink policy' on items that have been bought elsewhere.

In 2008, a customer was thrown out of a Cineworld cinema after being searched by a security guard who found a bag of sweets. Consequently customers have to buy food and drink at the cinema despite price of food and drink items have been found to be four times higher than elsewhere at Cineworld. Other criticism towards the chain is its unwavering support of 3D technology and in some sites it has been noted that for a whole week there is no option of 2D versions of films, forcing customers who either cannot or don't want to watch 3D films having to avoid screenings. Due to the general public starting to turn their backs on 3D films because of the inflated price of tickets and general poor quality of 3D technology, commentators have voiced concerns that Cineworld jumped on the 3D bandwagon too soon.

External links

• Cineworld Cinemas UK, current chain site
• Cineworld Cinemas Ireland
• Cineworld Cinemas, former UGC Cinemas site now re-directs to new Cineworld website
• old Cineworld website at archive.org
• Cineworld (formerly UGC) Dublin
• Information on cinemas and film in Ireland
• [2] Shopping in Glasgow
• [3] Information on Glasgow Branch