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91-546: Dolby Stereo —also known as Dolby MP ( Motion Picture ) or Dolby SVA ( stereo variable-area )—was developed by Dolby in 1976 for analog cinema sound systems. The format was adapted for home use in 1982 as Dolby Surround when HiFi capable consumer VCRs were introduced. It was further improved with the Dolby Pro Logic decoding system after 1987. The Dolby MP Matrix was the professional system that encoded four channels of film sound into two. This track used by

182-415: A digital cinema format that uses dual 2K resolution projectors and a screen with a 1.90:1 aspect ratio; this system is designed primarily for use in retrofitted multiplexes, using screens significantly smaller than those normally associated with IMAX. In 2015, IMAX introduced an updated "IMAX with Laser" format, using 4K resolution laser projectors. The term " premium large format " ( PLF ) emerged in

273-412: A movie house , cinema hall , picture house , picture theater , the pictures , or simply theater , is a business that contains auditoriums for viewing films for public entertainment. Most are commercial operations catering to the general public, who attend by purchasing tickets . The film is projected with a movie projector onto a large projection screen at the front of the auditorium while

364-651: A movie house , film house , film theater , cinema or picture house . In the US, theater has long been the preferred spelling, while in the UK, Australia, Canada and elsewhere it is theatre . However, some US theaters opt to use the British spelling in their own names, a practice supported by the National Association of Theatre Owners , while apart from Anglophone North America most English-speaking countries use

455-573: A better view. Many modern theaters have accessible seating areas for patrons in wheelchairs. See also luxury screens below. Canada was the first country in the world to have a two-screen theater. The Elgin Theatre in Ottawa, Ontario became the first venue to offer two film programs on different screens in 1957 when Canadian theater-owner Nat Taylor converted the dual screen theater into one capable of showing two different movies simultaneously. Taylor

546-537: A break in between. Separate admission for a short subject is rare; it is either an extra before a feature film or part of a series of short films sold as one admission (this mainly occurs at film festivals). (See also anthology film .) In the early decades of "talkie" films, many movie theaters presented a number of shorter items in addition to the feature film. This might include a newsreel , live-action comedy short films, documentary short films, musical short films, or cartoon shorts (many classic cartoons series such as

637-563: A center channel for dialog and center focused on-screen action. Later on in 1987, the Pro Logic decoding system was released to consumers. It featured virtually the same type of four-channel decoding as the Dolby Stereo theater processor with active steering logic and much better channel separation (up to 30 dB) as well as including a dedicated center channel output for the first time. Many standalone Pro Logic decoders also included

728-414: A full restaurant menu instead of general movie theater concessions such as popcorn or candy. In certain countries, there are also Bed Cinemas where the audience sits or lays in beds instead of chairs. 3D film is a system of presenting film images so that they appear to the viewer to be three-dimensional. Visitors usually borrow or keep special glasses to wear while watching the movie. Depending on

819-464: A graveyard and ruins, formed an ideal location for his ghostraising spectacle. When it opened in 1838, The Royal Polytechnic Institution in London became a very popular and influential venue with all kinds of magic lantern shows as an important part of its program. At the main theatre, with 500 seats, lanternists would make good use of a battery of six large lanterns running on tracked tables to project

910-620: A mode designed specifically for video games which is used in games for PlayStation 2 , GameCube , and Wii as an alternative to digital surround formats such as Dolby Digital or DTS . Game mode is similar to Movie mode, except it redirects more bass to the LFE channel. The Dolby Pro Logic IIx system, available since 2003, can take two-channel stereo, Dolby Surround (sometimes called Dolby Stereo Surround) and Dolby Digital 5.1 source material and up-convert it to 6.1 or 7.1 channel surround sound . Dolby Pro Logic IIz expands on Pro Logic IIx with

1001-563: A phantom center option for compatibility with earlier non-Pro Logic Dolby Surround equipped home theaters to split the center channel signal to the L/R speakers for legacy phantom center reproduction. Dolby Surround Pro Logic is the full name that refers to the matrix surround format and decoding system in one. When a Dolby Surround soundtrack is created in post-production ( Dolby MP Matrix ), four channels of sound are matrix-encoded into an ordinary stereo (two-channel) soundtrack. The center channel

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1092-506: A result, offers an exceptionally stable sound field that simulates five-channel surround sound. Because of the limited nature of the original Dolby Pro Logic encoding, many consumer electronics manufacturers introduced their own processing circuitry, such as the "Jazz", "Hall", and "Stadium" modes found on most common home audio receivers. DPL II forgoes this type of processing and replaces it with simple servo ( negative feedback ) circuits used to derive five channels. The extra channel content

1183-417: A result, the customer geography area of multiplexes and megaplexes typically overlaps with smaller theaters, which face threat of having their audience siphoned by bigger theaters that cut a wider swath in the movie-going landscape. In most markets, nearly all single-screen theaters (sometimes referred to as a "Uniplex") have gone out of business; the ones remaining are generally used for arthouse films, e.g.

1274-409: A screen in front of the stage and adding a projector; this conversion may be permanent, or temporary for purposes such as showing arthouse fare to an audience accustomed to plays. The familiar characteristics of relatively low admission and open seating can be traced to Samuel Roxy Rothafel , an early movie theater impresario . Many of these early theaters contain a balcony , an elevated level across

1365-663: A single viewing room with a single screen. In the 2010s, most movie theaters had multiple screens. The largest theater complexes, which are called multiplexes —a concept developed in Canada in the 1950s—have up to thirty screens. The audience members often sit on padded seats, which in most theaters are set on a sloped floor, with the highest part at the rear of the theater. Movie theaters often sell soft drinks , popcorn and candy , and some theaters sell hot fast food . In some jurisdictions, movie theaters can be licensed to sell alcoholic drinks. A movie theater might also be referred to as

1456-584: A system is used that requires inexpensive 3D glasses, they can sometimes be kept by the patron. Most theaters have a fixed cost for 3D, while others charge for the glasses, but the latter is uncommon (at least in the United States). For example, in Pathé theaters in the Netherlands the extra fee for watching a 3D film consists of a fixed fee of €1.50, and an optional fee of €1 for the glasses. Holders of

1547-414: A total of over 500,000 visitors, with programs including Pauvre Pierrot and Autour d'une cabine . Thomas Edison initially believed film screening would not be as viable commercially as presenting films in peep boxes, hence the film apparatus that his company would first exploit became the kinetoscope . A few public demonstrations occurred since 9 May 1893, before a first public Kinetoscope parlor

1638-407: A −90-degree phase shift to the right channel). The surround channel was often used for ambient background sounds in the original recording, music scores and effects. A Dolby Pro Logic decoder/processor "unfolds" the soundtrack back into its original 4.0 surround—left and right, center , and a single limited frequency-range (7 kHz low-pass filtered ) mono rear channel—while systems lacking

1729-575: Is arguably the first cinema in the world. Claimants for the title of the earliest movie theatre include the Eden Theater in La Ciotat , where L'Arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat was screened on 21 March 1899. The theatre closed in 1995 but re-opened in 2013. L'Idéal Cinéma in Aniche (France), built in 1901 as l'Hôtel du Syndicat CGT, showed its first film on 23 November 1905. The cinema

1820-511: Is considered the most important channel for film production. The need for a center speaker to locate screen-centered sounds has been recognized since the Bell Labs experiments in stereo sound from the 1930s, and multi-channel cinema sound systems, starting with the first commercial stereophonic film ( Fantasia -1941) have always included one. Post-war stereo sound in theaters initially came from separate magnetic film reproducers synchronized to

1911-641: Is credited by Canadian sources as the inventor of the multiplex or cineplex; he later founded the Cineplex Odeon Corporation , opening the 18-screen Toronto Eaton Centre Cineplex, the world's largest at the time, in Toronto, Ontario. In the United States, Stanley Durwood of American Multi-Cinema (now AMC Theatres ) is credited as pioneering the multiplex in 1963 after realizing that he could operate several attached auditoriums with

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2002-424: Is extracted using the difference between the spatial audio content between two individual channels of stereo tracks or Dolby Digital encoded 5.1 channel tracks and outputs it appropriately. In addition to five full-range playback channels, Pro Logic II introduced a Music mode that includes optimized channel delays and adds user controls to—for example—adjust apparent sound stage width. Pro Logic II systems also have

2093-458: Is increasing. The RealD company expects 15,000 screens worldwide in 2010. The availability of 3D movies encourages exhibitors to adopt digital cinema and provides a way for theaters to compete with home theaters . One incentive for theaters to show 3D films is that although ticket sales have declined, revenues from 3D tickets have grown. In the 2010s, 3D films became popular again. The IMAX 3D system and digital 3D systems are used (the latter

2184-503: Is mentioned in the 2010 Guinness World Records . The World's smallest solar-powered mobile cinema is Sol Cinema in the UK. Touring since 2010 the cinema is actually a converted 1972 caravan. It seats 8–10 at a time. In 2015 it featured in a Lenovo advert for the launch of a new tablet. The Bell Museum of Natural History in Minneapolis , Minnesota has recently begun summer "bike-ins", inviting only pedestrians or people on bicycles onto

2275-413: Is reduced in level by 3 dB and summed to the left and right channels; the surround channel is attenuated by 3 dB, passes through a band-pass filter (cutting frequencies under 100 Hz and above 7 kHz), passes through Dolby B noise reduction and is encoded on the left and right channels with opposite polarity (this is achieved by applying a +90-degree phase shift to the left channel and

2366-576: Is still inconvenient and disturbing to find and claim it during the commercials and trailers, unless it is near an aisle. Some movie theaters have some kind of break during the presentation, particularly for very long films. There may also be a break between the introductory material and the feature. Some countries such as the Netherlands have a tradition of incorporating an intermission in regular feature presentations, though many theaters have now abandoned that tradition, while in North America, this

2457-516: Is the oldest known movie theater still in continuous operation. Traditionally a movie theater, like a stage theater , consists of a single auditorium with rows of comfortable padded seats, as well as a foyer area containing a box office for buying tickets. Movie theaters also often have a concession stand for buying snacks and drinks within the theater's lobby. Other features included are film posters , arcade games and washrooms. Stage theaters are sometimes converted into movie theaters by placing

2548-411: Is unaffected by the operation of the channel steering. Additionally, the response time of the system to changes in sound direction is important as too fast a response results in a twitchy feel, while too slow a response leaves sounds coming from an inappropriate direction. In addition to 5 dB of noise reduction, the surround channel is slightly delayed, so that any front channel sounds that leak into

2639-474: Is used in the animated movies of Disney / Pixar ). The RealD 3D system works by using a single digital projector that swaps back and forth between the images for eyes. A filter is placed in front of the projector that changes the polarization of the light coming from the projector. A silver screen is used to reflect this light back at the audience and reduce loss of brightness. There are four other systems available: Volfoni, Master Image, XpanD and Dolby 3D . When

2730-806: Is usually called a " megaplex ". However, in the United Kingdom, this was a brand name for Virgin Cinema (later UGC). The first megaplex is generally considered to be the Kinepolis in Brussels, Belgium, which opened in 1988 with 25 screens and a seating capacity of 7,500. The first theater in the U.S. built from the ground up as a megaplex was the AMC Grand 24 in Dallas, Texas , which opened in May 1995, while

2821-424: Is very rare and usually limited to special circumstances involving extremely long movies. During the closing credits many people leave, but some stay until the end. Usually the lights are switched on after the credits, sometimes already during them. Some films show mid-credits scenes while the credits are rolling, which in comedy films are often bloopers and outtakes, or post-credits scenes , which typically set up

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2912-640: The Looney Tunes and Mickey Mouse shorts were created for this purpose). Examples of this kind of programming are available on certain DVD releases of two of the most famous films starring Errol Flynn as a special feature arrangement designed to recreate that kind of filmgoing experience while the PBS series, Matinee at the Bijou , presented the equivalent content. Some theaters ran on continuous showings , where

3003-536: The Digital Cinema Package for the film. Control data is encoded in a monoaural WAV file on Sound Track channel 13, labelled as "Motion Data". Motion Data tracks are unencrypted and not watermarked. Movie theaters may be classified by the type of movies they show or when in a film's release process they are shown: Usually in the 2020s, an admission is for one feature film. Sometimes two feature films are sold as one admission ( double feature ), with

3094-525: The Digital Command Component System . Dolby Surround is the earliest consumer version of Dolby's surround sound decoding technology. It was introduced to the public in 1982 during the time home video recording formats (such as Betamax and VHS ) were introducing Stereo and HiFi capability. The name Dolby Surround described the consumer passive matrix decoding technology; the professional, active-matrix cinema technology bore

3185-462: The Dolby Stereo theater system on a 35mm optical stereo print and decoded back to the original 4.0 Surround. The same four-channel encoded stereo track was largely left unchanged and made available to consumers as "Dolby Surround" on home video. However, the original Dolby Surround decoders in 1982 were a simple passive matrix three-channel decoder: L/R and mono Surround . The surround channel

3276-508: The Dolby Surround terminology in 2014. The term now refers to a new upmixer whose purpose is to enable Dolby Atmos receivers and speaker configurations to serve non-Atmos signals. Dolby Surround is a complete replacement for Pro Logic that upmixes stereo and multi-channel inputs to play over Atmos configurations. Movie theater A movie theater ( American English ) or cinema ( Commonwealth English ), also known as

3367-754: The Latham family, was demonstrated for members of the press on 21 April 1895 and opened to the paying public on 20 May, in a lower Broadway store with films of the Griffo-Barnett prize boxing fight, taken from Madison Square Garden 's roof on 4 May. Max Skladanowsky and his brother Emil demonstrated their motion pictures with the Bioscop in July 1895 at the Gasthaus Sello in Pankow (Berlin). This venue

3458-468: The Ministry of Technology campaign to raise standards. Using a very futuristic look, these 27-seat cinema vehicles were designed to attract attention. They were built on a Bedford SB 3 chassis with a custom Coventry Steel Caravan extruded aluminum body. Movies are also commonly shown on airliners in flight, using large screens in each cabin or smaller screens for each group of rows or each individual seat;

3549-522: The Pathé Unlimited Gold pass (see also below) are supposed to bring along their own glasses; one pair, supplied yearly, more robust than the regular type, is included in the price. IMAX is a system using 70 mm film with more than ten times the frame size of a 35 mm film . IMAX theaters use an oversized screen as well as special projectors. The first permanent IMAX theater was at Ontario Place in Toronto, Canada. Until 2016, visitors to

3640-604: The 1570s in the English language. Movie theatres stand in a long tradition of theaters that could house all kinds of entertainment. Some forms of theatrical entertainment would involve the screening of moving images and can be regarded as precursors of film . In 1799, Étienne-Gaspard "Robertson" Robert moved his Phantasmagorie show to an abandoned cloister near the Place Vendôme in Paris. The eerie surroundings, with

3731-511: The 1980s the introduction of VHS cassettes made possible video-salons, small rooms where visitors viewed movies on a large TV. These establishments were especially popular in the Soviet Union , where official distribution companies were slow to adapt to changing demand, and so movie theaters could not show popular Hollywood and Asian films . In 1967, the British government launched seven custom-built mobile cinema units for use as part of

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3822-467: The Crest Theatre in downtown Sacramento, California , small-scale productions, film festivals or other presentations. Because of the late development of multiplexes, the term "cinema" or "theater" may refer either to the whole complex or a single auditorium, and sometimes "screen" is used to refer to an auditorium. A popular film may be shown on multiple screens at the same multiplex, which reduces

3913-615: The Dark and Warner Bros. House of Wax , the first 3D feature with stereophonic sound. For many years, most 3D movies were shown in amusement parks and even "4D" techniques have been used when certain effects such as spraying of water, movement of seats, and other effects are used to simulate actions seen on the screen. The first decline in the theatrical 3D craze started in August and September 1953. In 2009, movie exhibitors became more interested in 3D film. The number of 3D screens in theaters

4004-722: The IMAX cinema attached to the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford , West Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom, could observe the IMAX projection booth via a glass rear wall and watch the large format films being loaded and projected. The largest permanent IMAX cinema screen measures 38.80 m × 21.00 m (127.30 ft × 68.90 ft) and was achieved by Traumplast Leonberg (Germany) in Leonberg, Germany , verified on 6 December 2022. IMAX also refers to

4095-512: The Old French word "theatre", from the 12th century and "...directly from Latin theatrum [which meant] 'play-house, theater; stage; spectators in a theater'", which in turn came from the Greek word "theatron", which meant "theater; the people in the theater; a show, a spectacle", [or] literally "place for viewing". The use of the word "theatre" to mean a "building where plays are shown" dates from

4186-430: The addition of a height component, creating front height channels above the front left and right speakers, expanding a 5.1 or 7.1 system to 7.1 Height or 9.1. It identifies spatial cues in low-level, uncorrelated information, such as ambience and effects like rain or wind in the side and rear surround channels, and directs it to the front height speakers. The channels it adds are matrixed, not discrete. Dolby reintroduced

4277-613: The airline company sometimes charges a fee for the headphones needed to hear the movie's sound. In a similar fashion, movies are sometimes also shown on trains, such as the Auto Train . The smallest purpose-built cinema is the Cabiria Cine-Cafe which measures 24 m (260 sq ft) and has a seating capacity of 18. It was built by Renata Carneiro Agostinho da Silva (Brazil) in Brasília DF, Brazil in 2008. It

4368-417: The audience for a sequel. Center channel Center channel refers to an audio channel common to many surround sound formats. It is the channel that is mostly, or fully, dedicated to the reproduction of the dialogue of an audiovisual program. The speaker (s) connected to the center channel are placed in the center of and behind the perforated projection screen, to give the effect that sounds from

4459-407: The audience sits upon chairs, blankets or even in hot tubs , and watch the movie on a temporary screen, or even the wall of a building. Colleges and universities have often sponsored movie screenings in lecture halls. The formats of these screenings include 35 mm, 16 mm, DVD , VHS, and even 70 mm in rare cases. Some alternative methods of showing movies have been popular in the past. In

4550-409: The auditorium above the theater's rearmost seats. The rearward main floor "loge" seats were sometimes larger, softer, and more widely spaced and sold for a higher price. In conventional low pitch viewing floors, the preferred seating arrangement is to use staggered rows. While a less efficient use of floor space this allows a somewhat improved sight line between the patrons seated in the next row toward

4641-470: The car's stereo system. Because of their outdoor nature, drive-ins usually only operate seasonally, and after sunset. Drive-in movie theaters are mainly found in the United States, where they were especially popular in the 1950s and 1960s. Once numbering in the thousands, about 400 remain in the U.S. today. In some cases, multiplex or megaplex theaters were built on the sites of former drive-in theaters. Some outdoor movie theaters are just grassy areas where

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4732-428: The center and front channels, mapping some vocals to the front channels, and some non-vocal audio content to the center channel. It may also simply raise the volume level of the center channel. DTS:X processing may include dialog control , the ability to isolate and control dialog levels independent of other ambient noises. 6.1 channel surround systems such as Dolby Pro Logic IIx , Dolby Digital EX and DTS-ES use

4823-428: The center channel are coming from the screen. In many home surround sound units, the center channel is positioned above or below the video screen. In the post-production process of filmmaking and video production sound editing, dialogue can be mapped to other speakers when story action and direction require it, such as when the person talking is off-screen. In material without accompanying visuals (e.g. music),

4914-477: The center channel simply reproduces sound intended to come from immediately in front of the listener, which usually includes the lead vocals . The center channel also anchors the sound field , eliminating phantom images such as those that plagued quadraphonic sound if the speakers were not precisely placed. The center channel eliminates the need to create a phantom center with left and right stereo speakers. The center channel provides image stabling effects and

5005-436: The choice of other films but offers more choice of viewing times or a greater number of seats to accommodate patrons. Two or three screens may be created by dividing up an existing cinema (as Durwood did with his Roxy in 1964), but newly built multiplexes usually have at least six to eight screens, and often as many as twelve, fourteen, sixteen or even eighteen. Although definitions vary, a large multiplex with 20 or more screens

5096-406: The current dominant sound direction. For example, while a mono signal is played, the strong correlation to the center channel triggers the output volume of the left, right and surround channels to be lowered. This increases the channel separation achievable to around 30 decibels between channels. By careful tuning of the response of the amplifiers, the total amount of signal energy remains constant and

5187-434: The dark. Since the advent of stadium theaters with stepped aisles, each step in the aisles may be outlined with small lights to prevent patrons from tripping in the darkened theater. In movie theaters, the auditorium may also have lights that go to a low level, when the movie is going to begin. Theaters often have booster seats for children and other people of short stature to place on the seats to allow them to sit higher, for

5278-473: The decoder play back the audio as standard stereo. Although Dolby Surround was introduced as an analog format, all Dolby Digital decoders incorporate a digitally implemented Dolby Surround Pro Logic decoder for digital stereo signals that carry matrix-encoded Dolby Surround. One of the first was the MSP400 surround sound receiver and amplifier by RCA for their high-end Dimensia brand. It was released in 1987 for

5369-405: The decoding technology was updated and renamed Dolby Pro Logic . A Pro Logic decoder/processor "unfolds" the sound into the original 4.0 surround—left and right, center , and a single limited frequency-range (7 kHz low-pass filtered ) mono rear channel. A Pro Logic decoder also uses 'Steering Logic', which drives amplifiers to raise or lower the output volume of each channel based on

5460-482: The dialogue, sounds and music are played through a number of wall-mounted speakers. Since the 1970s, subwoofers have been used for low-pitched sounds. Since the 2010s, the majority of movie theaters have been equipped for digital cinema projection , removing the need to create and transport a physical film print on a heavy reel. A great variety of films are shown at cinemas, ranging from animated films to blockbusters to documentaries. The smallest movie theaters have

5551-529: The early 1950s with the release of the first color stereoscopic feature, Bwana Devil . The film starred Robert Stack , Barbara Britton and Nigel Bruce . James Mage was an early pioneer in the 3D craze. Using his 16 mm 3D Bolex system, he premiered his Triorama program in February 1953 with his four shorts: Sunday In Stereo , Indian Summer , American Life , and This is Bolex Stereo . 1953 saw two groundbreaking features in 3D: Columbia's Man in

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5642-559: The existing matrix-type quadraphonic systems, allowed the audio for left, center and right speakers, plus a single surround channel to be carried by the two tracks. Thus Dolby Stereo provided a similar stereo performance to that previously only available in the cinema by the magnetic tracks on 4-track Cinemascope or 6-track Todd-AO 70 mm formats, but at far lower cost. In recent years digital multi-channel sound systems, such as Dolby Digital and DTS , have become available which provide 6 or 8 discrete audio channels providing for not only

5733-415: The feature film. Advertised start times are usually for the entire program or session, not the feature itself; thus people who want to avoid commercials and trailers would opt to enter later. This is easiest and causes the least inconvenience when it is not crowded or one is not very choosy about where one wants to sit. If one has a ticket for a specific seat (see below) one is formally assured of that, but it

5824-400: The finely detailed images of extra large slides on the 648 square feet screen. The magic lantern was used to illustrate lectures, concerts, pantomimes and other forms of theatre. Popular magic lantern presentations included phantasmagoria, mechanical slides, Henry Langdon Childe 's dissolving views and his chromatrope. The earliest known public screening of projected stroboscopic animation

5915-552: The first decade of motion pictures, the demand for movies, the amount of new productions, and the average runtime of movies, kept increasing, and at some stage it was viable to have theaters that would no longer program live acts, but only movies. The first building built for the dedicated purpose of showing motion pictures was built to demonstrate The Phantoscope , a device created by Jenkins & Armat, as part of The Cotton State Exposition on September 25, 1895 in Atlanta, GA. This

6006-546: The first megaplex in the U.S.-based on an expansion of an existing facility was Studio 28 in Grand Rapids, Michigan , which reopened in November 1988 with 20 screens and a seating capacity of 6,000. A drive-in movie theater is an outdoor parking area with a screen—sometimes an inflatable screen —at one end and a projection booth at the other. Moviegoers drive into the parking spaces which are sometimes sloped upwards at

6097-409: The front to give a more direct view of the movie screen. Movies are usually viewed through the car windscreen (windshield) although some people prefer to sit on the bonnet (hood) of the car. Some may also sit in the trunk (back) of their car if space permits. Sound is either provided through portable loudspeakers located by each parking space, or is broadcast on an FM radio frequency, to be played through

6188-510: The grounds for both live music and movies. In various Canadian cities, including Toronto , Calgary, Ottawa and Halifax , al-fresco movies projected on the walls of buildings or temporarily erected screens in parks operate during the Summer and cater to a pedestrian audience. The New Parkway Museum in Oakland, California replaces general seating with couches and coffee tables, as well as having

6279-427: The industry preferring to stay with the tried, tested, and economical mono optical track. Dolby Stereo was introduced by Dolby Laboratories in 1975. It divided the existing soundtrack area of a 35 mm film print into two, allowing a two-channel recording. Each of these two channels used Dolby A-type noise reduction (later replaced by Dolby SR type). In addition a matrix, similar in principle to those used for

6370-946: The mid-2010s to refer to auditoriums with high-end amenities. PLF does not refer to a single format in general, but combinations of non-proprietary amenities such as larger "wall-to-wall" screens, 4K projectors, 7.1 and/or positional surround sound systems (including Dolby Atmos ), and higher-quality seating (such as leather recliners). Cinemas typically brand PLF auditoriums with chain-specific trademarks , such as "Prime" ( AMC ), "Grand Screen” ( B&B Theatres ), "BTX" ( Bow Tie ), "Superscreen" ( Cineworld ), "BigD" ( Carmike , now owned by AMC), "UltraAVX" ( Cineplex ), "Macro XE" ( Cinépolis ), "XD" ( Cinemark ), "BigPix" ( INOX ), "Laser Ultra" ( Kinepolis and Landmark Cinemas ), "RPX" ( Regal Cinemas ), "Superscreen DLX"/"Ultrascreen DLX" ( Marcus ), "Titan" ( Reading Cinemas ), "VueXtreme" ( Vue International ), and "X-land" ( Wanda Cinemas ). PLFs compete primarily with formats such as digital IMAX;

6461-505: The name Dolby Stereo . It was capable of decoding Dolby Stereo four-channel soundtracks to three output channels (Left, Right, Surround). The Center channel was fed equally to the Left and Right speakers. The Surround channel was limited to a 100 Hz to 7 kHz frequency bandwidth, as dialog from the center channel could leak into the surround channel—there was as little as 3 dB of separation between LCR and Surround channels. In 1987

6552-424: The picture, but in the 1950s systems using magnetic stripes on the film itself came into use. Cinemascope used four such tracks (left, center, right and surround), and the subsequent Todd-AO 70 mm system used six (left, left-center, center, right-center and right, plus a single surround channel). Unfortunately, these magnetic systems were not only very expensive but were also unreliable and so were little used,

6643-512: The popularity of such shows in France. The earliest public film screenings took place in existing (vaudeville) theatres and other venues that could be darkened and comfortably house an audience. Émile Reynaud screened his Pantomimes Lumineuses animated movies from 28 October 1892 to March 1900 at the Musée Grévin in Paris, with his Théâtre Optique system. He gave over 12,800 shows to

6734-405: The production of motion pictures or in a large private residence. The etymology of the term "movie theater" involves the term "movie", which is a "shortened form of moving picture in the cinematographic sense" that was first used in 1896 and "theater", which originated in the "...late 14c., [meaning an] open air place in ancient times for viewing spectacles and plays". The term "theater" comes from

6825-554: The same items would repeat throughout the day, with patrons arriving and departing at any time rather than having distinct entrance and exit cycles. Newsreels gradually became obsolete by the 1960s with the rise of television news, and most material now shown prior to a feature film is of a commercial or promotional nature (which usually include " trailers ", which are advertisements for films and commercials for other consumer products or services). A typical modern theater presents commercial advertising shorts , then movie trailers, and then

6916-590: The same staff needed for one through careful management of the start times for each movie. Ward Parkway Center in Kansas City, Missouri had the first multiplex cinema in the United States. Since the 1960s, multiple-screen theaters have become the norm, and many existing venues have been retrofitted so that they have multiple auditoriums. A single foyer area is shared among them. In the 1970s, many large 1920s movie palaces were converted into multiple screen venues by dividing their large auditoriums, and sometimes even

7007-477: The screen, provided they do not lean toward one another. " Stadium seating ", popular in modern multiplexes, actually dates back to the 1920s. The 1922 Princess Theatre in Honolulu, Hawaii featured "stadium seating", sharply raked rows of seats extending from in front of the screen back towards the ceiling. It gives patrons a clear sight line over the heads of those seated in front of them. Modern "stadium seating"

7098-399: The silver screen (formerly sometimes sheet ) and the big screen (contrasted with the smaller screen of a television set). Specific to North American term is the movies , while specific terms in the UK are the pictures , the flicks and for the facility itself the flea pit (or fleapit ). A screening room is a small theater, often a private one, such as for the use of those involved in

7189-414: The stage space, into smaller theaters. Because of their size, and amenities like plush seating and extensive food/beverage service, multiplexes and megaplexes draw from a larger geographic area than smaller theaters. As a rule of thumb, they pull audiences from an eight to 12-mile radius, versus a three to five-mile radius for smaller theaters (though the size of this radius depends on population density). As

7280-1090: The surround channel arrive at the listener after the front channels. This takes advantage of the Haas effect —audio that is present in the front speakers but delayed in the surround speakers will have the psychoacoustic effect of emanating from the front of the sound stage. Dolby Surround and Dolby Pro Logic decoders are similar in principle, as both use matrix technology to extract extra channels from Dolby Stereo stereo-encoded audio. The terms Dolby Stereo, Dolby Surround and Lt/Rt are all used to describe soundtracks that are matrix-encoded using this technique. In 2000, Dolby introduced Dolby Pro Logic II (DPL II), an improved implementation of Dolby Pro Logic created by Jim Fosgate . DPL II processes any high-quality stereo signal source into five separate full frequency channels (right front, center, left front, right rear and left rear), while also decoding five channels from stereo signals encoded in traditional four-channel Dolby Surround. DPL II implements greatly enhanced steering compared to DPL, and as

7371-402: The system used, these are typically polarized glasses . Three-dimensional movies use two images channeled, respectively, to the right and left eyes to simulate depth by using 3D glasses with red and blue lenses (anaglyph), polarized (linear and circular), and other techniques. 3D glasses deliver the proper image to the proper eye and make the image appear to "pop-out" at the viewer and even follow

7462-528: The term cinema / ˈ s ɪ n ɪ m ə / , alternatively spelled and pronounced kinema / ˈ k ɪ n ɪ m ə / . The latter terms, as well as their derivative adjectives "cinematic" and "kinematic", ultimately derive from Greek κίνημα, κινήματος ( kinema , kinematos )—"movement, motion". In the countries where those terms are used, the word "theatre" is usually reserved for live performance venues. Colloquial expressions, mostly applied to motion pictures and motion picture theaters collectively, include

7553-572: The use of common " off-the-shelf " components and an in-house brand removes the need to pay licensing fees to a third-party for a proprietary large format. Although the term is synonymous with exhibitor-specific brands, some PLFs are franchised. Dolby franchises Dolby Cinema , which is based on technologies such as Atmos and Dolby Vision . CJ CGV franchises the 4DX and ScreenX formats. In some theaters, seating can be dynamically moved via haptic motion technology called D-BOX . In digital cinema , D-BOX codes for motion control are stored in

7644-473: The usual three screen speakers but also 2 or 4 groups of surround speakers and a sub-woofer. Many AV receivers have a center focus or dialog enhancement option that provides options for dialogue reproduction, as well as the overall content mapped to the center and front channels. Common settings include modes that map dialogue strictly to the center channel (to the best ability of the decoder), modes that emphasize vocals for clear dialogue, and modes that mix

7735-470: The viewer when he/she moves so viewers relatively see the same image. The earliest 3D movies were presented in the 1920s. There have been several prior "waves" of 3D movie distribution, most notably in the 1950s when they were promoted as a way to offer audiences something that they could not see at home on television. Still the process faded quickly and as yet has never been more than a periodic novelty in movie presentation. The "golden era" of 3D film began in

7826-646: Was closed in 1977 and the building was demolished in 1993. The "Centre Culturel Claude Berri" was built in 1995; it integrates a new movie theater (the Idéal Cinéma Jacques Tati). In the United States, many small and simple theaters were set up, usually in converted storefronts. They typically charged five cents for admission, and thus became known as nickelodeons . This type of theatre flourished from about 1905 to circa 1915. The Korsør Biograf Teater, in Korsør , Denmark, opened in August 1908 and

7917-650: Was later, at least since 1918, exploited as the full-time movie theatre Pankower Lichtspiele and between 1925 and 1994 as Tivoli. The first certain commercial screenings by the Skladanowsky brothers took place at the Wintergarten in Berlin from 1 to 31 November 1895. The first commercial, public screening of films made with Louis and Auguste Lumière 's Cinématographe took place in the basement of Salon Indien du Grand Café in Paris on 28 December 1895. During

8008-479: Was limited to 7 kHz. It also had Dolby Noise Reduction and an adjustable delay, for improved channel separation and to prevent dialog leaking and arriving to listeners' ears first. The front center channel was equally split between the left and right channels for phantom center reproduction. This differed from the Cinema Dolby Stereo system which used active steering and other processing to decode

8099-620: Was opened on 14 April 1894, by the Holland Bros. in New York City at 1155 Broadway, on the corner of 27th Street. This can be regarded as the first commercial motion picture house. The venue had ten machines, set up in parallel rows of five, each showing a different movie. For 25 cents a viewer could see all the films in either row; half a dollar gave access to the entire bill. The Eidoloscope , devised by Eugene Augustin Lauste for

8190-536: Was presented by Austrian magician Ludwig Döbler on 15 January 1847 at the Josephstadt Theatre in Vienna , with his patented Phantaskop. The animated spectacle was part of a well-received show that sold out in several European cities during a tour that lasted until the spring of 1848. The famous Parisian entertainment venue Le Chat Noir opened in 1881 and is remembered for its shadow plays , renewing

8281-508: Was utilized in IMAX theaters, which have very tall screens, beginning in the early 1970s. Rows of seats are divided by one or more aisles so that there are seldom more than 20 seats in a row. This allows easier access to seating, as the space between rows is very narrow. Depending on the angle of rake of the seats, the aisles have steps. In older theaters, aisle lights were often built into the end seats of each row to help patrons find their way in

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