42 Movie theatre chains in the United States

Act III Theatres was an American company that owned movie theater multiplexes and screens principally located in the U.S. states of Texas, Oregon and Washington. The company was in business from 1986 to 1997, when it was sold to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR). Television producer Norman Lear owned a controlling stake in Act III Theatres through his company Act III Communications. At the time of sale in 1997, Act III Theaters consisted of 124 multiplex theaters operating 793 screens located primarily in San Antonio and Austin, Texas and Portland, Oregon, and was the tenth-largest chain of cinemas in the United States.

The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema is an American cinema chain founded in 1997 in Austin, Texas that is famous for serving dinner and drinks during the movie, as well as its strict policy of requiring its audiences to maintain proper cinema-going etiquette.

AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. is an American movie theater chain headquartered in Leawood, Kansas, and the largest movie theater chain in the world. Founded in 1920, AMC has the largest share of the U.S. theater market ahead of Regal and Cinemark Theatres.

American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres, Inc. was the post-merger parent company of the American Broadcasting Company and United Paramount Theatres.

Angelika Film Center is a movie theater chain in the United States that features independent and foreign films. It operates theaters in New York City, Texas, Washington, D.C., California and Virginia. Its headquarters are in New York City.

The ArcLight Hollywood was a 15-screen multiplex located at 6360 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California. All 15 screens featured stadium seating, and carried a THX certification for optimal sound and picture presentation. The building is located adjacent to the Cinerama Dome, which was part of the ArcLight complex.

The B. F. Keith Circuit was a chain of vaudeville theaters in the United States and Canada owned by Benjamin Franklin Keith for the acts that he booked. Known for a time as the United Booking Office, and under various other names, the circuit was managed by Edward Franklin Albee, who gained control of it in 1918, following the death of Keith's son Andrew Paul Keith.

Bow Tie Cinemas is an American movie theater chain, with 38 locations in Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Virginia. As of 2013, it is the eighth-largest movie theater chain in the United States and is the oldest, having been founded in 1900. Bow Tie Cinemas is family-owned and has been for four generations.

Caribbean Cinemas is a chain of movie theaters in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. It is the only major chain in Puerto Rico following CineVista's bankruptcy. The chain has expanded into Dominican Republic, Panama, St. Thomas, St. Croix, St. Maarten, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, Antigua, Aruba, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Guadeloupe.

Carmike Cinemas was a motion picture exhibitor headquartered in Columbus, Georgia. As of March 2016, the company had 276 theaters with 2,954 screens in 41 states, and was the fourth largest movie theater in the United States. The company billed itself as "America's Hometown Theatre" and Carmike theaters were largely positioned in rural or suburban areas with populations under 200,000. The company's theaters operated under various names and generally had a name followed by the number of auditoriums at that location; for example, "Carmike 15".

Celebration Cinema is a movie theater chain owned and operated by Studio C with headquarters in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA. Its theaters serve the cities and surrounding areas of Grand Rapids, Lansing, Muskegon, Benton Harbor/St. Joseph, Portage/Kalamazoo, and Mount Pleasant. An average of 5.5 million customers see movies annually through Studio C's Celebration Cinemas locations.

Century Theatres is a movie theater chain that operates many multiplexes in the western United States, primarily in California, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona. In its later years, it had expanded into the inter-mountain states, the Pacific Northwest, Texas, Alaska and parts of the Midwest. Founded in 1941, the chain was headquartered in San Rafael, California until it was acquired by Cinemark Theatres from Plano, Texas in 2006. Many now-Cinemark-owned theaters continue to operate under the Century brand.

Cineplex Odeon Corporation was one of North America's largest movie theatre operators and live theatre, with theatres in its home country of Canada and the United States. The Cineplex Odeon brand is still being used by Cineplex Entertainment at some theatres that were once owned by the Cineplex Odeon Corporation, with newer theatres using the Cineplex Cinemas brand. The company was the result of Cineplex Corporation purchasing and merging with Canadian Odeon Theatres, which was the result of a merger between Canadian Theatres and Odeon Theatres of Canada in 1978, in 1984.

Classic Cinemas is the largest Illinois based movie theatre chain. Headquartered in Downers Grove, Illinois, it operates 15 locations with 131 screens in Illinois and Wisconsin under Tivoli Enterprises ownership. Its first theatre and company namesake is the restored Tivoli, which has over 1000 seats in the original auditorium, in Downers Grove, Illinois. A second auditorium, with 33 seats, was completed in 2021.

Clearview Cinemas was a chain of movie theatres within the New York metropolitan area. Most of the Clearview Cinema locations were purchased by Bow Tie Cinemas in April 2013.

Consolidated Theaters was a movie theater chain based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The company owned over 28 theaters and 400 movie screens in 6 states along the East Coast. Most of its theaters are now operated by several other theater chains. Its first theater was the Park Terrace in Charlotte, North Carolina. Founded by Herman Stone, it was once part of The Stone Group. The theaters usually had upwards of 10 auditoriums, which in some cases, drove older competitors with fewer screens out of business. Consolidated Theaters was acquired by Regal Entertainment Group on May 1, 2008. As a condition of approval of the acquisition, the United States Department of Justice required that Regal sell 4 theaters in the Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina markets to Cinemark Theaters to ensure continued competition.

Dickinson Theatres was a privately-owned American movie theater chain based in Overland Park, Kansas. It operated 15 theaters with 169 screens in seven states: Arkansas, Arizona, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas. In October 2014, the chain was purchased by B&B Theatres.

Fox Theatres was a large chain of movie theaters in the United States dating from the 1920s either built by Fox Film studio owner William Fox, or subsequently merged in 1929 by Fox with the West Coast Theatres chain, to form the Fox West Coast Theatres chain. Fox West Coast went into bankruptcy and was sold to The National Theatres Corporation, led by Charles Skouras, on November 20, 1933, for $17,000,000.00. Eugene V. Klein later became CEO of National, and turned it into the conglomerate National General. Mann Theatres bought National General's theatres in 1973.

General Cinema Corporation, also known as General Cinema, GCC, or General Cinema Theatres, was a chain of movie theaters in the United States. At its peak, the company operated approximately 621 screens, some of which were among the first cinemas certified by THX. The company operated for approximately 67 years, from 1935 until 2002.

Kerasotes Showplace Theatres, LLC is a movie theatre operator in the United States. Based in Chicago, Kerasotes Showplace Theatres, LLC was the sixth-largest movie-theatre company in North America with 957 screens in 95 locations in California, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, and Wisconsin.

Laemmle Theatres is a group of family-run arthouse movie theaters in the Los Angeles area. It was established in 1938 and is owned and operated by Robert Laemmle and his son Greg Laemmle.

Loews Cineplex Entertainment, also known as Loews Incorporated, founded on June 23, 1904, by Marcus Loew, was the oldest theater chain operating in North America. From 1924 until 1959, it was also the parent company of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM).

Malco Theatres, Inc. is a movie theatre chain that has remained family owned and operated for over one hundred years. It has been led by four generations of the Lightman family. The company has 36 theatre locations with over 371 screens in six states. Malco also operates three bowling centers and a family entertainment center in southern Louisiana and a family entertainment center in Oxford, MS.

Mann Theatres was a movie theater chain that predominantly operated in the western United States, with a heavy concentration of theaters in Southern California.

The Marcus Corporation is an American publicly held company headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The company operates two principal divisions: Marcus Theatres and Marcus Hotels and Resorts.

Marquee Cinemas is a chain of movie theaters in the Eastern United States. Currently, the chain consists of theaters in these cities:

Megaplex Theatres is a chain of movie theaters headquartered in Sandy, Utah. The chain was founded in 1999 by Utah Jazz owner Larry H. Miller and is owned by the Larry H. Miller Group of Companies. Megaplex Theatres currently operates 16 locations in Utah and Nevada.

Muvico Theaters was a movie theater chain headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Muvico had seven complexes in Florida, one in the Chicago metropolitan area (Rosemont), and one in Thousand Oaks, California. Muvico's theaters were known for the use of decorative themes at several theaters, such as the Egyptian, 1950s drive-in, French opera house, Mediterranean palace, and 1920s grand movie palace themes.

The Orpheum Circuit was a chain of vaudeville and movie theaters. It was founded in 1886, and operated through 1927 when it was merged into the Keith-Albee-Orpheum corporation, ultimately becoming part of the Radio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO) corporation.

Pacific Theatres was an American chain of movie theaters in the Los Angeles metropolitan area of California. Pacific Theatres was owned by The Decurion Corporation which also owned and operated ArcLight Cinemas. In 2008, it sold its store locations in San Diego to Reading Cinemas. In April of 2021, Pacific Theatres announced they would not be reopening any of their theater locations after being closed since March of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and said in a statement to the Los Angeles Times that, “After shutting our doors more than a year ago, today we must share the difficult and sad news that Pacific will not be reopening its ArcLight Cinemas and Pacific Theatres locations,” Pacific Theatres said in a statement. “This was not the outcome anyone wanted, but despite a huge effort that exhausted all potential options, the company does not have a viable way forward.” In June 2021, the company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Premiere Cinemas, officially known as Premiere Cinema Corporation., headquartered in Big Spring, Texas, is a privately held motion picture exhibitor. It is among the largest independently owned motion picture exhibitors in the U.S. and is ranked by Box Office magazine and the National Association of Theatre Owners Encyclopedia of Exhibition among the top 12 circuits in the U.S. Premiere is owned by Gary Moore, who bought his first theater in 1985 and incorporated Premiere in 1993.

Rave Cinemas, formerly known as "Rave Motion Pictures", is a movie theater brand founded in 1999 and owned by Cinemark Theatres. It previously was headed by Thomas W. Stephenson, Jr., former CEO of Hollywood Theaters, and Rolando B. Rodriguez, former Vice President and Regional General Manager for Walmart in Illinois and northern Indiana. The chain was headquartered in Dallas, Texas until it was acquired by Plano-based Cinemark Theatres.

Reel Theatres is a movie theater chain in the United States owned by Casper Management—an Idaho corporation—that features independent and foreign films. It operates theaters in Idaho, Oregon and Utah.

Regal Cinemas is an American movie theater chain headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee. A division of Cineworld, Regal operates the second-largest theater circuit in the United States, with over 7,200 screens in 549 theaters as of October 2019. The three main theatre brands operated by Regal Entertainment Group are Regal Cinemas, Edwards Theatres, and United Artists Theatres.

Star Theatres was a movie theatre chain owned and operated by Loews Cineplex Entertainment and AMC Theatres. Based solely in Michigan, Star was known for having extravagant interior designs, many screens, and in some cases, stadium-style seating. The chain made the Summer 1990 Entertainment Weekly Honor Roll for movie theaters with the late Detroit Free Press critic Kathy Huffhines declaring, "IT'S FRIENDLY, kicky, and cute and looks like a bright red-and-white jukebox from the outside."

Starplex Cinemas was a Dallas-based American movie theater chain which at one point had 34 locations across the United States. Showbiz Cinemas acquired the Starplex location in Kingwood, Texas, in 2012. Later, Starplex merged with Showplex Cinemas. Starplex was among the major theatres to pull The Interview after threats were made. On July 14, 2015, it was announced that Starplex would be acquired by AMC Theatres with many operating now as AMC Classic as of mid-2017.

UltraStar Cinemas is a movie chain with theaters in California and Arizona, and also the first movie chain to have all pure digital movies showings in every theater. UltraStar Cinemas is headquartered in San Diego County and operates 147 screens at 15 sites throughout Southern California and Arizona. Recognized for pioneering the digital age of cinema, UltraStar was the first theater group in the world to be fully equipped with Pure Digital Cinema powered by DLP Cinema technology in all of its locations. In 2009, the company also became the first to offer D-BOX motion seats, which use motion effects specifically programmed for each film to create an immersive experience for movie goers.

American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres, Inc. was the post-merger parent company of the American Broadcasting Company and United Paramount Theatres.

Warren Theatres was a movie theater chain based in Wichita, Kansas, United States. While the company was founded by Bill Warren, he sold ownership of most of the Warren Theatres locations to Regal Entertainment Group in 2017. The sale excluded two theaters that were in development and the Palace Theatre in Springfield, Missouri.

Wehrenberg Theatres was a movie theater chain in America. It operated 15 movie theaters with 213 screens in the states of Missouri, Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota, including nine theaters with 131 screens in the St. Louis metropolitan area. It was a member of the National Association of Theatre Owners. On November 21, 2016 it was announced that the Wehrenberg Theater chain would be acquired by Marcus Theatres. The acquisition was completed in December 2016.