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Cineamercia Theaters: What became of this chain???
posted by
ThomasRossi007
on
March 11, 2010 at 7:45 am
What ever happened years back with Warner Brothers join theater chain venture with Gulf and Western known as Cineamerica? Did it ever get off the ground?
Comments (8)
Cineamerica was the official corporate moniker of the WB/Paramount venture. Through this moniker, they operated Mann Theatres.
Warner Bros. and Paramount owned the Mann Chain from 1986 to 1997. Before that Ted Mann owned it and sold it to Warner/Paramount. In 1999 they reformed to buy Mann Theatres circuit out of bankruptcy from WestStar Cinemas Inc. which filed Chapter 11 protection from creditors Sept. 17th 1999, their debts exceeded 100 million and owed $3.3 million to the major studios. The losses were growing to $40-50 million as of Jan. 1999. Part of the plan was to have WB/Para buy the chain back and have Warner Bros. distribution chief Barry Reardon help restructure the circuit. Part of the plan too was to sell underperforming theatres and keep the Chinese and the main Westwood houses.
Gone are the days of Fox West Coast Theatres, a great movie chain.
I am not sure if this Cineamerica East referenced in this web item is the same Cineamerica (or is/was related to it) about which information is being sought, but according to the item, Cineamerica East assets were acquired by Crown Theatres. Crown Theatres apparently became or was acquired by Bow Tie Cinemas. Item here: View link
Cineamerica East was another company. In the Cineamerica original form it was Mann Theatres plus screens from the Festival and TrasLux chains.
What were some of the TransLux locations that Cinamerica operated?
Isn’t Trans Lux Theatres a subsidary of United Artists?
I know they operated a chain of theatres under the UA logo.
Trans-Lux had 1 theatre in the Philadelphia area. They sold this theatre to the Sameric chain in 1974, and renamed that theatre as “Eric’s Place Theatre”