my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home

» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Operations   » Ground Level   » History of Cinemark (Page 1)

This topic comprises 4 pages: 1  2  3  4

Author Topic: History of Cinemark Stephen Jones 1 Film Handler Posts: 62 From: Tulsa, OK, USA Registered: Aug 1999 posted 04-03-2003 12:39 AM                        I wasn't sure how many of us reside in Cinemarkland. I have managed two Cinemark theatres that are older than most of my employees. Does anyone know the first theatre that Cinemark built and if it's still around? I'd be interested to see which theatres are considered the first generation. Does anyone know the correlation of the theatre numbers? I know it's not totally by date. Back when they used to have District Offices, were these inside existing theatres and are those old offices still there? Just curious...  |  IP: Logged Darryl Spicer Film God Posts: 3250 From: Lexington, KY, USA Registered: Dec 2000 posted 04-03-2003 01:12 AM                    Alright, I have been with Cinemark since May of 1992. As we know the majority of cinemark locations are in Texas. I do not know what the first actual cinemark build was under that name or if it still exists. Brad may know. From what I understand the company used to primarily consist of discount theaters. It seems to me that I remember reading that Mr. Mitchell's father had the company prior to 1984 and sold off the theaters, but Leroy retained the name or something along those lines. The company got one of its big breaks when it bought out premier cinemas from Regal founder Mike Cambell. The rest of the growth has been pretty much from building. As far as the number structure it doesn't really have a distinct order. We have two theaters here that were opened at the same time back in 1990 and one is number 25 and the other is 122. As for district offices. They were pretty much located in theaters. Prior to getting rid of the district leader offices the region office for the southeast was not located in a theater. Now since the region offices are all there is it is located in a theater.  |  IP: Logged Mark Lensenmayer Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1605 From: Upper Arlington, OH Registered: Sep 1999 posted 04-03-2003 06:11 AM                     Does anyone know the status of the Cinemark theatres that were spun off into some quasi-independent status a few years ago? There were no changes done to the theatres except to remove all references to the Cinemark name?  |  IP: Logged Darryl Spicer Film God Posts: 3250 From: Lexington, KY, USA Registered: Dec 2000 posted 04-03-2003 09:53 AM                    They are still Cinemark theaters but they are opperated under the Charlie Funk Name. THere is a lot of reasons going around why this is but since I am totally not sure why myself I am not going to post those reasons. I do believe that the northeast region office is located in one of those sites.  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 04-03-2003 10:51 AM                        Cinemark built a 12-screen (#116) here in 1990, to great publicity and fanfare. It was a big deal then for this market. Then in 1999 Cinemark built a new 17-screener (#235) in the same mall and turned the 12-screener into a discount theatre. The 17-plex is *very* nice and a big improvement. Both locations seem to do very well.  |  IP: Logged Stephen Jones 1 Film Handler Posts: 62 From: Tulsa, OK, USA Registered: Aug 1999 posted 04-03-2003 01:51 PM                        In regard to the Funk theatres: From what I understand, they are still owned by Cinemark and by Charlie Funk. The deal was made because some of these "Funk" theatres were not turning a profit. A deal was set up and many of the non-profitable theatres along with some profitable theatres we put under the Funk "Interstate Theatres" name. I know they still receive paychecks from Cinemark. These theatres generally run on the tight side, focusing on lower payroll costs. Some of the theatres are nice. I know they have their own corporate structure with District Leaders, Region Leaders, Booth techs, and other operational members that are seperate from Cinemark. I've heard that this was supposed to be a temporary deal set up when so many other chains were folding. I don't know if they'll be "reunited" with the other Cinemarks.  |  IP: Logged Scott D. Neff Theatre Dork Posts: 919 From: San Francisco, CA Registered: Oct 1999 posted 04-09-2003 01:11 PM                        Brad? Adam? Any guesses as to Cinemark's first location? I'm darn curious to know. Also -- what about Starplex Cinemas -- aren't they a Cinemark Spin-off? That one in Irving sure did look EXACTLY like a Movies 10. Being from California I know very little of Cinemark's history.  |  IP: Logged Jason Burroughs Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 654 From: Allen, TX Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-09-2003 01:23 PM                     My understanding of the number of the theater is determined when the land or building was purchaced/leased.  |  IP: Logged Darryl Spicer Film God Posts: 3250 From: Lexington, KY, USA Registered: Dec 2000 posted 04-09-2003 06:01 PM                    the land for the 2 theaters here in town that I mentioned above was purchased at the same time by the same developers at the time. I have never heard the starplex theatres name mentioned within our company.  |  IP: Logged Bill Mantz Film Handler Posts: 91 From: Plano, TX Registered: Feb 2001 posted 04-09-2003 11:55 PM                     The reason starplex theaters look the same is because Leeroy Mitchell daughter owns and run those theater that is the only link to Cinemark. Cinemark has no share in that theater the only link they have is the daughter.  |  IP: Logged Nicholas Roznovsky Expert Film Handler Posts: 156 From: College Station, TX, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 04-10-2003 12:03 AM                        Although I'm sure she's a very nice lady, Leroy's daughter has nada to do with Starplex. Her uncle does though. Starplex Cinemas is owned by J.C. Mitchell, brother of Leroy "Mr. Cinemark" Mitchell. The Irving location (our first one) was built by Starplex, but "drew heavily" on the designs established by Cinemark. All of our theaters since then have also sported a pseudo-Cinemark design scheme. Our newest theater, slated to open this winter, is designed to be our first break away from that copycat design. Most of our interior equipment is also amazingly similar to that found inside a lot of Cinemark joints. We've rented some of Cinemark's locations and sold other ones to them. Coincidence? I think not! So, to answer the question, Starplex is not a Cinemark spin-off. More just like an underappreciated little brother. Kind of a Bobby Brady living in the shadow of Greg Brady kind of thing.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 04-10-2003 05:15 PM                     Wasn't Hollywood Theaters originally a Cinemark offshoot (before it went bankrupt and got acquired by the slumlord Wallace chain)? The Hollywood Spotlight 14 in Norman, OK looks very much like a 1990's Cinemark build --but just with a few corners cut here and there. It still has the same cartoony look.  |  IP: Logged Don Sneed Master Film Handler Posts: 451 From: Texas City, TX, USA Registered: Aug 2001 posted 04-11-2003 01:35 AM                        Cinemark theatres in Houston was not well known in the mid 1980's, I forgot the name of the theatre chain, in the early 80's a local company with about 5-7 theatres, they was going under due to they built these theatres too fast & too many with little money, with at that time the projection equipment was Cinema Film System, Raven sound systems, Cinecita projectors, although the equipment was new out of the box it was still junk !! Always off the screen & crappy mono sound that kept burning up the speakers, since people stop coming to the theatres they were going under, Cinemark with their new name brought these theatres in 1984 & started building like crazy in the 90's...Now I only know about the Houston area only, several of their theratres were name Hollywood, I know of at lease 4-theatres in Houston with the same name, then something happen & they started naming the theatres Cinemark, Leroy had a shares in a now defunk Dollar Cinemas in Houston & Las Vegas, sold his shares & started the mega-theatres... The Hollywood theatre in Norman Oklahoma has nothing to do with Cinemark, it was own by a local company in Dallas that did the same thing, built too many too fast & went under & Wallace brought them out...Hollywood theatres was the name of the company in Dallas...  |  IP: Logged Darryl Spicer Film God Posts: 3250 From: Lexington, KY, USA Registered: Dec 2000 posted 04-11-2003 03:00 AM                    Cinemark started calling there theaters different things to get away from using the generic term Movies this Movies that. First they came up with the Hollywood term then they switched to Tinseltown then Legacy was going to be the new term but building started slowing down and they don't build the massive plexes right now so they are back to using Tinseltown. As far as the look that some theaters have that can look like Cinemarks is because they probably took there ideas from Cinemark. Regal had a big habbit of doing that at one time.  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 04-11-2003 11:36 AM                        Cinemark 17 here (#235) was originally announced as "Tinseltown 17" and that's what the "Under Construction" sign said. At some point, they must have decided to go with the newer art-deco theme and it eventually opened under the name "Cinemark 17". Everything in the place has the new art-deco style, except in the auditoriums, there's a mix of the older Tinseltown look along with the new art-deco look -- kind of a hybrid.  |  IP: Logged

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

This topic comprises 4 pages: 1  2  3  4

Printer-friendly view of this topic

Hop To: Select a Forum: Category: Operations -------------------- Digital Cinema Forum Film Handlers' Forum Large Format Forum Ground Level Feature Info, Trailer Attachments & REAL Credit Offsets Category: Community -------------------- Film-Yak Film Handlers' Movie Reviews The Afterlife Bob Maar's Joke-A-Thon Category: Classified -------------------- Equipment and Supplies Wanted/For Sale Help Wanted/Seeking Employment Category: System -------------------- Software Beta Testing Forum

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.