Live in USA
Regal Entertainment Group, abbreviated REG, is a movie theater chain
headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee.1 Regal operates the largest and most
geographically diverse theater circuit in the United States, consisting of 7,334
screens in 588 locations in 44 states along with Guam, Saipan, American Samoa,
Grand Cayman and the District of Columbia as of September 26, 2013. 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.2 Regal has acquired several smaller chains since this
merger; these, however, have been rebranded as Regal Cinemas.
Regal Cinemas
was established in 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" caf¨¦ (later called Cafe Del Moro) and a more
upscale look than 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 Cinemas, 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.
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 the mid-1990s to the Fall of 2003, was revived in 2011.
United
Artists Theaters (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 Theaters 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. 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 June 8, 1991, it purchased the remainder of the company. Then on
February 19, 1992, TCI sold the theatre chain in a leveraged buyout led by
Merrill Lynch Capital Partners Inc and UA management.
Download