Loews Cineplex Entertainment
Encyclopedia
Loews Theatres, aka Loews Incorporated (originally Loew's), founded in 1904 by Marcus Loew
and Brantford Schwartz, was the oldest theater chain operating in North America
until it merged with AMC Theatres
on January 26, 2006. From 1924 until 1959, it was also the parent company of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios
. The Loews name is still used by AMC in many markets. Its slogan was "Thank you for coming to Loews, sit back and relax, enjoy the show!!!", which was used in the chain's theater policy ads from the 1980s through the 1990s, when Sony
rebranded the chain.
The company was originally called "Loew's", after the founder, Marcus Loew. In 1969 when the Tisch brothers acquired the company it became known as "Loews".
, by entrepreneur Marcus Loew. Loew founded a chain of nickelodeon theaters which showed short silent films in storefront locations. Soon the successful enterprise grew to include deluxe vaudeville
houses and finally lavish movie palace
s. Loew's theaters were found in cities from coast-to-coast, but primarily in East Coast and Midwest states.
To provide quality films for his theaters, Loew founded Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Pictures (MGM) in 1924, by merging the earlier firms Metro Pictures
, Goldwyn Pictures
and Louis B. Mayer Productions
. Loew's Incorporated served as distribution arm and parent company for the studio until the two were forced to separate by the 1948 U.S. Supreme Court ruling "United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc.
". The two companies officially split in 1959.
In 1985, when federal regulations had been relaxed, Tri-Star Pictures (then a joint venture co-owned by Coca-Cola
, also owners of Columbia Pictures
at the time, CBS
, and Time Inc.
) acquired the Loews theater chain from Loews Corporation
, the successor company to the original firm founded by Marcus Loew. Loews Corporation
by this time was a holding company owned by brothers Robert
and Laurence Tisch
highly diversified in non-entertainment business interests ranging from hotels to insurance. CBS left Tri-Star in 1985, and HBO left the venture in 1987, and Tri-Star merged with Columbia Pictures in 1988, resulting in the formation of Columbia Pictures Entertainment
.
Upon the full acquisition of Tri-Star to Columbia Pictures
, and when Columbia was bought from Coca-Cola by Sony
in 1989, Sony inherited the theaters as well. For a while, Loews operated under the Sony Theaters banner. Coincidentally, a Sony-led partnership would later acquire MGM in 2005.
In 1994, Sony partnered with Magic Johnson
to form Magic Johnson Theaters, a mini-chain of theaters specifically geared toward the inner cities, particularly in Los Angeles. A year before, Sony Dynamic Digital Sound was installed in several theaters since the parent company used it as a marketing ploy to promote Sony's cinema sound division, which shut down in 2002.
In 1998, Cineplex Odeon Corporation merged with Loews Theaters to form Loews Cineplex Entertainment. The combined company was one of the largest movie exhibitors in the world, with theaters in the United States
, Canada
, Mexico
, South Korea
, and Spain
. In 2001, though, the company declared Chapter 11 as a result of absorbing Cineplex's financial woes.
In 2002, Onex Corporation and Oaktree Capital Management
acquired Loews Cineplex. In 2004, they sold it, minus its Canadian assets, to a private group of investors which included the Carlyle Group
.
In 2005, AMC Theatres
announced that it would merge with Loews Cineplex Entertainment and that the merged company would adopt the AMC name. The Loews name would remain a brand under the new company. At the time of the merger, Loews operated 198 theaters with 2,235 screens. It is not affiliated with its former parent, the Loews Corporation
.
Before the movie is played at Loews Cineplex Entertainment, there were policy trailer shorts, especially the ones that featured the Muppets
of Sesame Street
. The first of them is a policy trailer short entitled Don't Forget to Watch the Movie that probably dated back to 1996 where in song, the Muppets of Sesame Street sing out the rules of the movie theater. The second of the policy trailer shorts was the one that provides a synopsis of the developments in film making from silent movies to present day by the Muppets of Sesame Street. Cookie Monster
gives a lecture on the history of motion pictures, with examples on film featuring Marshall Grover and Fred the Wonder Horse. They demonstrate how, after a "not too interesting" period with no picture and no sound, moving pictures were invented; followed by moving pictures with sound ("This town ain't big enough for the two of us!"), which resulted in the invention of the musical. An all-star Sesame Street cast, with Prairie Dawn
as the director, joins Grover and Fred in a big musical number called "This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Two Of Us," as the movie turns to color and widescreen. Finally, the Special Effects are introduced: a rolling boulder, a shark, and an enormous Muppet twister chase all of the singers out of the studio. The clip ends with Cookie Monster eating the sled called Rosebud from Citizen Kane
, and Big Bird
telling the viewers to "Enjoy the movie!" as some of the musical cast runs by. This short accompanied all prints on the theatrical release of The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland
and accompanied Muppets from Space
on a smaller number of prints.
Marcus Loew
Marcus Loew was an American business magnate and a pioneer of the motion picture industry who formed Loews Theatres and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer .-Biography:...
and Brantford Schwartz, was the oldest theater chain operating in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
until it merged with AMC Theatres
AMC Theatres
AMC Theatres , officially known as AMC Entertainment, Inc., is the second largest movie theater chain in North America with 5,325 screens, second only to Regal Entertainment Group, and one of the United States's four national cinema chains AMC Theatres (American Multi-Cinema), officially known as...
on January 26, 2006. From 1924 until 1959, it was also the parent company of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
. The Loews name is still used by AMC in many markets. Its slogan was "Thank you for coming to Loews, sit back and relax, enjoy the show!!!", which was used in the chain's theater policy ads from the 1980s through the 1990s, when Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
rebranded the chain.
The company was originally called "Loew's", after the founder, Marcus Loew. In 1969 when the Tisch brothers acquired the company it became known as "Loews".
History
Loew's Theatres Incorporated was founded in 1904 in Cincinnati, OhioCincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
, by entrepreneur Marcus Loew. Loew founded a chain of nickelodeon theaters which showed short silent films in storefront locations. Soon the successful enterprise grew to include deluxe vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
houses and finally lavish movie palace
Movie palace
A movie palace is a term used to refer to the large, elaborately decorated movie theaters built between the 1910s and the 1940s. The late 1920s saw the peak of the movie palace, with hundreds opened every year between 1925 and 1930.There are three building types in particular which can be subsumed...
s. Loew's theaters were found in cities from coast-to-coast, but primarily in East Coast and Midwest states.
To provide quality films for his theaters, Loew founded Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
Pictures (MGM) in 1924, by merging the earlier firms Metro Pictures
Metro Pictures
Metro Pictures Corporation was an American motion picture production company founded in late 1915 by Richard A. Rowland . Louis B. Mayer who worked for Metro Pictures Corporation early on. It is not to be confused with MGM which is a much later franchise concerning itself, Goldwyn and Louis B....
, Goldwyn Pictures
Goldwyn Pictures
Goldwyn Pictures Corporation was an American motion picture production company founded in 1916 by Samuel Goldfish in partnership with Broadway producers Edgar and Archibald Selwyn using an amalgamation of both last names to create the name...
and Louis B. Mayer Productions
Louis B. Mayer
Louis Burt Mayer born Lazar Meir was an American film producer. He is generally cited as the creator of the "star system" within Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in its golden years. Known always as Louis B...
. Loew's Incorporated served as distribution arm and parent company for the studio until the two were forced to separate by the 1948 U.S. Supreme Court ruling "United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc.
United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc.
United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc., 334 US 131 was a landmark United States Supreme Court anti-trust case that decided the fate of movie studios owning their own theatres and holding exclusivity rights on which theatres would...
". The two companies officially split in 1959.
In 1985, when federal regulations had been relaxed, Tri-Star Pictures (then a joint venture co-owned by Coca-Cola
The Coca-Cola Company
The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational beverage corporation and manufacturer, retailer and marketer of non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups. The company is best known for its flagship product Coca-Cola, invented in 1886 by pharmacist John Stith Pemberton in Columbus, Georgia...
, also owners of Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
at the time, CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
, and Time Inc.
Time Inc.
Time Inc. is a subsidiary of the media conglomerate Time Warner, the company formed by the 1990 merger of the original Time Inc. and Warner Communications. It publishes 130 magazines, most notably its namesake, Time...
) acquired the Loews theater chain from Loews Corporation
Loews Corporation
Loews Corporation is a holding company run by the Tisch Family whose subsidiaries are engaged in the following lines of business:*property and casualty insurance...
, the successor company to the original firm founded by Marcus Loew. Loews Corporation
Loews Corporation
Loews Corporation is a holding company run by the Tisch Family whose subsidiaries are engaged in the following lines of business:*property and casualty insurance...
by this time was a holding company owned by brothers Robert
Preston Robert Tisch
Preston Robert "Bob" Tisch was the chairman, and, with his brother Laurence, part owner of the Loews Corporation. Tisch was born in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn in 1926. On August 16, 1986, he was appointed Postmaster General of the United States Postal Service, serving until February 1988...
and Laurence Tisch
Laurence Tisch
Laurence Alan "Larry" Tisch was an American businessman, Wall Street investor and self-made billionaire. He was the CEO of CBS television network from 1986 to 1995...
highly diversified in non-entertainment business interests ranging from hotels to insurance. CBS left Tri-Star in 1985, and HBO left the venture in 1987, and Tri-Star merged with Columbia Pictures in 1988, resulting in the formation of Columbia Pictures Entertainment
Sony Pictures Entertainment
Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc. is the television and film production/distribution unit of Japanese multinational technology and media conglomerate Sony...
.
Upon the full acquisition of Tri-Star to Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
, and when Columbia was bought from Coca-Cola by Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
in 1989, Sony inherited the theaters as well. For a while, Loews operated under the Sony Theaters banner. Coincidentally, a Sony-led partnership would later acquire MGM in 2005.
In 1994, Sony partnered with Magic Johnson
Magic Johnson
Earvin "Magic" Johnson Jr. is a retired American professional basketball player who played point guard for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association . After winning championships in high school and college, Johnson was selected first overall in the 1979 NBA Draft by the Lakers...
to form Magic Johnson Theaters, a mini-chain of theaters specifically geared toward the inner cities, particularly in Los Angeles. A year before, Sony Dynamic Digital Sound was installed in several theaters since the parent company used it as a marketing ploy to promote Sony's cinema sound division, which shut down in 2002.
In 1998, Cineplex Odeon Corporation merged with Loews Theaters to form Loews Cineplex Entertainment. The combined company was one of the largest movie exhibitors in the world, with theaters in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
, and Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. In 2001, though, the company declared Chapter 11 as a result of absorbing Cineplex's financial woes.
In 2002, Onex Corporation and Oaktree Capital Management
Oaktree Capital Management
Oaktree Capital Management, L.P. is a global investment management corporation with about US$82.4 billion of assets under management. Oaktree's mission is to provide management with a primary emphasis on risk control in a limited number of sophisticated investment specialties...
acquired Loews Cineplex. In 2004, they sold it, minus its Canadian assets, to a private group of investors which included the Carlyle Group
Carlyle Group
The Carlyle Group is an American-based global asset management firm, specializing in private equity, based in Washington, D.C. The Carlyle Group operates in four business areas: corporate private equity, real assets, market strategies and fund-of-funds, through its AlpInvest subsidiary...
.
In 2005, AMC Theatres
AMC Theatres
AMC Theatres , officially known as AMC Entertainment, Inc., is the second largest movie theater chain in North America with 5,325 screens, second only to Regal Entertainment Group, and one of the United States's four national cinema chains AMC Theatres (American Multi-Cinema), officially known as...
announced that it would merge with Loews Cineplex Entertainment and that the merged company would adopt the AMC name. The Loews name would remain a brand under the new company. At the time of the merger, Loews operated 198 theaters with 2,235 screens. It is not affiliated with its former parent, the Loews Corporation
Loews Corporation
Loews Corporation is a holding company run by the Tisch Family whose subsidiaries are engaged in the following lines of business:*property and casualty insurance...
.
Trailers
The Muppets
The Muppets are a group of puppet characters created by Jim Henson starting in 1954–55. Although the term is often used to refer to any puppet that resembles the distinctive style of The Muppet Show, the term is both an informal name and legal trademark owned by the Walt Disney Company in reference...
of Sesame Street
Sesame Street
Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
. The first of them is a policy trailer short entitled Don't Forget to Watch the Movie that probably dated back to 1996 where in song, the Muppets of Sesame Street sing out the rules of the movie theater. The second of the policy trailer shorts was the one that provides a synopsis of the developments in film making from silent movies to present day by the Muppets of Sesame Street. Cookie Monster
Cookie Monster
Cookie Monster is a Muppet on the children's television show Sesame Street. He is best known for his voracious appetite and his famous eating phrases: "Me want cookie!", "Me eat cookie!", and "Om nom nom nom" . He often eats anything and everything, including danishes, donuts, lettuce, apples,...
gives a lecture on the history of motion pictures, with examples on film featuring Marshall Grover and Fred the Wonder Horse. They demonstrate how, after a "not too interesting" period with no picture and no sound, moving pictures were invented; followed by moving pictures with sound ("This town ain't big enough for the two of us!"), which resulted in the invention of the musical. An all-star Sesame Street cast, with Prairie Dawn
Prairie Dawn
Prairie Dawn is a fictional character, a rather mature seven-year-old Muppet girl on the children's television program Sesame Street. She is similar in appearance to a character from the Anything Muppets. She is famous for writing school pageants for her friends, mostly Ernie and Bert, Herry,...
as the director, joins Grover and Fred in a big musical number called "This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Two Of Us," as the movie turns to color and widescreen. Finally, the Special Effects are introduced: a rolling boulder, a shark, and an enormous Muppet twister chase all of the singers out of the studio. The clip ends with Cookie Monster eating the sled called Rosebud from Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane is a 1941 American drama film, directed by and starring Orson Welles. Many critics consider it the greatest American film of all time, especially for its innovative cinematography, music and narrative structure. Citizen Kane was Welles' first feature film...
, and Big Bird
Big Bird
Big Bird is a protagonist of the children's television show Sesame Street. Big Bird, like many of the other Sesame Street characters, is a Muppet character. He is sometimes referred to simply as "Bird" by his friends....
telling the viewers to "Enjoy the movie!" as some of the musical cast runs by. This short accompanied all prints on the theatrical release of The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland
The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland
The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland is the second theatrical feature-length film starring the cast of the popular U.S. children's series Sesame Street...
and accompanied Muppets from Space
Muppets from Space
Muppets from Space is a 1999 science fiction comedy film and the sixth feature film to star The Muppets, and the first since the death of Muppets creator Jim Henson to have an original Muppet-focused plot. The film was directed by Tim Hill, produced by Jim Henson Pictures, and released to theaters...
on a smaller number of prints.
See also
- Loew's Wonder TheatersLoew's Wonder TheatersThe Loew's Wonder Theatres were the five flagship movie palaces of the Loew's Theatres chain in New York City. These five lavishly designed theaters were built by Loew's to establish its preeminence in film exhibition in the metropolitan New York City area. All five theaters are still standing...
- United States v. Loew's Inc.United States v. Loew's Inc.United States v. Loew's Inc., 371 U.S. 38 , was an antitrust case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that block booking of movies—the offer of only a combined assortment of movies to an exhibitor—violates the Sherman Antitrust Act....
, a 1962 Supreme Court decision on block bookingBlock bookingBlock booking is a system of selling multiple films to a theater as a unit. Block booking was the prevailing practice among Hollywood's major studios from the turn of the 1930s until it was outlawed by the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc....
Further reading
- Robert SobelRobert SobelRobert Sobel was an American professor of history at Hofstra University, and a well-known and prolific writer of business histories.- Biography :...
The Entrepreneurs: Explorations Within the American Business Tradition (Weybright & Talley 1974), luca 7, Marcus Loew: An Artist in Spite of Himself ISBN 0-679-40064-8.
External links
- AMC Theatres Official Site
- Don't Forget to Watch the Movie on YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....