Cineworld

Cineworld Cinemas Ltd

Type	Public
Founded	1995 - 1st site opened 1996
Headquarters	Power Road Studios, Power Road, Chiswick London W4 5PY
Key people	Stephen Wiener (Chief executive) Richard Jones (Chief financial officer)
Industry	Leisure, Entertainment & Refreshments
Products	Tickets, Popcorn, Drinks & Confectionery
Website	http://www.cineworldplc.com

Cineworld Cinemas Ltd, a subsidiary of Cineworld Group Plc, which is majority owned by private equity funds managed by the The Blackstone Group, is a cinema chain operating 77 cinemas in the UK and Ireland—75 in mainland Britain, one in Jersey (in St. Helier), and one in the Republic of Ireland (in Dublin). It is the second largest cinema operator in the UK with 790 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. The biggest cinema in the company's chain based on the number of screens is in Sheffield with 20 screens.^[1][2] It is currently the only cinema chain to have been listed on the London Stock Exchange.

History

The first Cineworld opened in Stevenage in July 1996. 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 rebranding 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 rebranded as Empire Cinemas. The Cineworld Birmingham — Great Park site was also later sold to Empire Cinemas and rebranded by the end of 2006 leaving the company with 71 total sites.

As part of further developments plans have been made to build more Cineworld sites and within 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 rebranding as basically already done so).

Unlimited card

Cineworld is the only multiplex chain in Britain and Ireland to offer a pass for unlimited entrance for a set price per month. It is called the Unlimited Card; it has a minimum subscription period of 12 months. It is worth noting that the card is subject to Terms and Conditions however and that tickets for movies can only be purchased on the day of the showing; any more advance purchasing is not allowed and Unlimited Card holders can find that they are unable to attend some showings as a result of high advance sales.

Lost or stolen cards can be replaced at a fee of £10.00 in the UK or €16.00 in Ireland.

Staff benefit scheme

Cineworld has a staff benefit scheme of a 'cast pass' named simply as 'Cinepass'. This ID card allows hourly paid staff who have worked for the company for longer than 3 months to receive 40% discount on food along with a free admittance of up to 2 tickets per film showing like the Unlimited card (However customers get priority over tickets). Salaried staff members such as managers and technicians also receive the 40% discount plus an additional admittance of 1 bringing their total to 3 free tickets per showing. Cineworld have also honoured the "Guest Pass" issued by UGC, which allowed a member of staff serving more than five years to nominate a person to receive up to 3 tickets per showing, though any staff completing five years with the company after the takeover do not qualify.

Gallery

Cineworld (formerly UGC) in Glasgow, Scotland is the world's tallest cinema.

Cineworld in Middlesbrough, England.

Current locations

Original "Cineworld Multiplex Cinemas"

Former "UGC Cinemas"

Newline (hybrid) "Cineworld Cinemas Ltd"

Forthcoming Cineworld Cinemas

This article may need to be updated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information, and remove this template when finished. Please see the talk page for more information. (10/12/2009)

Former CineUK/ UGC locations

The following locations were sold to Empire Cinemas

Unlimited Magazine

Unlimited Magazine (formerly known as Cineworld Magazine 2004-2005, Unlimited 2005-2007 & Cineworld Unlimited 2007-2009) is a cinema magazine which was launched on early 2004 to start the cinema magazine generation. Its 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.

Movies for Juniors

Movies for Juniors is a special offer exclusive to Cineworld Cinemas that hosts three selected films on Saturday mornings.

A previous sponsor for this offer was Kandoo.

On 1st 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.

Bolton, Liverpool, Wandsworth, Falkirk and Northampton Cineworlds host Movies for Juniors on both Saturday and Sunday mornings.

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

All Movies for Juniors films start at 10am.

On 23rd October 2009, a special Halloween-themed Movies for Juniors screening would take place. This was announced in the First News childrens newspaper. Films on 31st October include The Spiderwick Chronicles, Ice Age 3: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs 2D and Night At The Museum 2.

References

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
• [1]Information on Glasgow Branch