What Country has the Most Movie Theaters
From LoveToKnow Movies
It is no secret that the film industry is big money all over the world, but what country has the most movie theaters?
Definition of a Movie Theater
When trying to figure out what country has the most movie theaters you have to decide what you want to count and what you want to leave off. But what exactly is a movie theater? In simplest terms a movie theater is a place where movies are shown, but it can be more complicated than that.
- Do we also include places that only show genre films like art house theaters that only cater to independent art films?
- Do we include movie theaters that only show adult-oriented material?
- Are drive-ins also considered movie theaters since they’re not actually inside a building?
- And what about “theaters” where a sheet is tacked to a wall and a projector shows a movie like you would see at summer camp?
- Are free theaters included and not just commercial entities like Regal Cinemas or AMC Theaters?
For the purpose of deciding what country has the most theaters, only commercial theaters in the classic sense will be considered. This means that they cater to the entire family and not just a niche group.
What Country has the Most Movie Theaters
It is fairly difficult to discern what country has the most movie theaters because there are many chains that are constantly closing up theaters. Breaking the list down by chain is usually the easiest way to figure out actual theater count.
As of 2007 the largest chains in America include:
- AMC Entertainment Inc. is the 2nd largest chain in North America with 304 theaters that have a total of 4,437 screens.
- Carmike Cinemas is considered to be the 4th largest chain with 276 theaters with 2,399 screens.
- National Amusements is the 6th largest chain in America with several “local” theaters under their umbrella company that includes Showcase, Multiplex, The Bridge: Cinema De Lux and Cinema De Lux with a total of 1,500 screens.
- Rave Motion Pictures comes in at number 10 with 27 theaters containing 427 screens. Rave is a company on the move with several new theaters being built containing over a dozen screens in each.
- Regal Entertainment Group is the largest chain of theaters in the United States with 525 theaters and 6,385 screens in 39 states. Regal acquired several chains of other theaters since 2002.
- Regal Cinemas (part of the 2002 consolidation; 1 of 3)
- United Artists Theatres (part of the 2002 consolidation; 2 of 3)
- Edwards Theatres (part of the 2002 consolidation; 3 of 3)
- Hoyt’s Cinemas (acquired in 2003 and rebranded as Regal Cinemas but still exists as an independent chain in Australia and New Zealand)
- Eastern Federal Theatres (bought in 2005 and rebranded as Regal Cinemas)
- Consolidated Theatres (bought for $210 million in cash in 2008 and rebranded as Regal Cinemas)
- and many more local theaters with a handful of locations…
Statistically speaking, Regal Entertainment operates about 20 percent of all movie theaters in the United States. You can deduce that there are over 18,000 theaters in the United States, which tops the list of operating classic movie theaters.
The following list represents countries that have 20 or more operating movie theaters:
- United Kingdom: 1,852
- Canada: 650
- China: 180
- Australia: 131
- Spain: 94
- France: 93
- Italy: 91
- Brazil: 73
- Belgium: 69
- Puerto Rico: 57
- Germany: 54
- New Zealand: 44
- Mexico: 42
- Morocco: 36
- Venezuela: 34
- South Africa: 32
- Ireland: 30
- Malta: 29
- India: 28
- Denmark: 27
- Chili: 26
- Netherlands: 24
- Philippines: 24
- Malaysia: 23
- Egypt: 21
- Cuba: 20
Even though Russia hits the list with 18 movie theaters, the country itself has claimed to have over 150,000 operating within its borders. This number is undocumented and can’t be considered as fact by industry statisticians like Cinema Treasures, which is an organization geared toward the movie theater industry.
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