Stadium seating or theater seating is a characteristic seating arrangement that is most commonly associated with performing-arts venues, and derives its name from stadiums , which typically use this arrangement.
58-512: Rivoli Cinemas (also known as Rivoli Theatre and New Rivoli Theatre ) is an eight-screen multiplex in the Hawthorn East suburb of Melbourne . Noted for its Art Deco architecture, the cinema was first built in 1940, and reopened as a multiplex in 2000 following a renovation and expansion. Located at 200 Camberwell Road, Rivoli Cinemas opened on 11 October 1940, with a showing of French Without Tears , starring Ray Milland . It had
116-524: A seating capacity of 6,000. Studio 28 closed in November 2008. By 1994, building of multiplexes with 14-24 screens with 2,500 to 3,500 seats was the norm. The expansion of multiplexes also concentrated the market with the top ten exhibitors controlling 47% of the nation's screens compared to 27% in 1986. The AMC Grand 24 opened in Dallas, Texas , on May 19, 1995, as the first 24-screen megaplex built from
174-562: A ballroom. In about 1915 two adjacent theatres in Moncton, New Brunswick , under the same ownership were converted to share a single entrance on Main Street. After patrons entered the door, there were separate ticket booths for each theatre, and different programs were shown. The arrangement was so unusual that it was featured by Robert Ripley in his Believe It or Not! comic strip. Before multiplexes, some cinemas did show different films at
232-521: A capacity of 1,644 (Stalls 1004; Circle 640). It replaced a 1921 theatre of the same name, that had been located in Burke Road and designed by Frank Richardson. Robert McGleish, a notable figure in the Melbourne cinema scene of the time and manager of the first Rivoli, was responsible for the new cinema's construction and it was designed by architects H. Vivian Taylor & Soilleux . In 1968, it
290-1213: A common box office. The main screen remained the Patricia Theatre and the Patricia Annex became known as the Little Patricia. In December 1947 Nat Taylor, the operator of the Elgin Theatre in Ottawa, Canada, opened a smaller second theater ("Little Elgin") next door to his first theater. It was not until 1957, however, that Taylor decided to run different movies in each theater, when he became annoyed at having to replace films that were still making money with new releases. Taylor opened dual-screen theaters in 1962 in Place Ville Marie in Montreal, Quebec , and at Yorkdale Plaza in Toronto, Ontario , in 1964. Also in late 1947, but in Havana, Cuba,
348-429: A concert held in a sports arena . Because the increased angle of stadium seating, seats are typically (but not universally) installed on a stepped floor surface which also functions as a staircase in the aisles. This is as opposed to the common usage of a flat, often slightly sloped, floor used in many standard seating venues (such as many stage theaters ). There has been some criticism of stadium seating because, due to
406-607: A former eight-story Cadillac dealership building on Van Ness Avenue at O'Farrell Street. It opened on 10 July 1998, as the AMC 1000 Van Ness with 3,146 seats listed. The largest megaplex in the Southern Hemisphere is the 26-screen Marion MEGAPLEX in Adelaide , South Australia . The megaplex was originally a 30-screen megaplex branded as Greater Union but was modified to accommodate Gold Class and V-Max screens and
464-616: A large addition on the west side of the building to incorporate six new screens. In 2005, the Rivoli was added to the Victorian Heritage Register . The Rivoli Cinemas is an excellent example of Streamline Moderne , also known as Art Moderne, the late 1930s version of Art Deco architecture. It is the only intact surviving example in Victoria of the work of cinema specialist architects H. Vivian Taylor and Soilleaux,
522-468: A larger national movement to "grow retail spaces ever bigger." On December 13, 1996, AMC Ontario Mills 30, a 30-screen theater, opened in Ontario, California , and became the theater with the most screens in the world. This was eventually tied by other AMC 30-screen theaters. During the 1980s and 1990s, AMC Theatres was at the forefront of a massive boom in multiplex and megaplex construction across
580-452: A lot of other multiplexes are being set up, but so far none of them have surpassed Pathé ArenA's capacity. Multiplexes ( multicines ) are very popular in Spain and they can be found in or close to most cities, displacing the traditional single-screen theaters. Many middle-sized and large cities have several of them, and they are also common in malls . The average number of screens per theater
638-454: A man in Row P of Cinema One. 37°49′50″S 145°03′19″E / 37.83052°S 145.05534°E / -37.83052; 145.05534 Multiplex (movie theater) A multiplex is a movie theater complex with multiple screens or auditoriums within a single complex. They are usually housed in a specially designed building. Sometimes, an existing venue undergoes a renovation where
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#1732765063815696-489: A megaplex, while others say that at least 24 screens are required. Megaplex theaters may have stadium seating or normal seating, and may have other amenities often not found at smaller movie theaters; multiplex theatres often feature regular seating. The Kinepolis - Madrid Ciudad de la Imagen [ es ] megaplex in Spain, owned by the Belgian Kinepolis Group, is the largest movie theater in
754-493: A much harder time finding a broad theatrical audience in earlier eras, such as the 1999 hit Being John Malkovich . However, after the turn of the 21st century, as multiplex and megaplex owners came to realize they could screen large-budget blockbuster films all day by staggering showtimes across multiple screens, movie studios jumped onto the blockbuster bandwagon and shifted their film slates towards blockbuster films based on existing media franchises . On 17 September 1998,
812-460: A nine-screen multiplex in the Duna plaza run by Village Roadshow and US owned InterCom, that both opened in November 1996. In India , the mushrooming of multiplexes started since the mid-1990s. Cinema chains such as PVR INOX , Mukta A2 Cinemas , Miraj Cinemas , Asian Cinemas , Cinepolis , MovieTime Cinemas , AGS Cinemas , MovieMAX, Rajhans Multiplex and Wave Cinemas operate multiplexes across
870-482: A practice responsible for the architecture or acoustics of more than 500 cinemas and theatres in Australia. The citation notes its impressive external brickwork and internal plasterwork. The exterior façade features distinctive horizontal banded brickwork in shades of pink and oatmeal and a vertical fin. To the east is a curved-walled balcony, and the west angle incorporates a roof garden. The ground level walls around
928-413: A result of this hasty development process. Among the few that were able to avoid bankruptcy were AMC Theatres and Cinemark Theatres . The boom in new screens in the U.S. in the late 1990s and early 2000s led to multiple changes to Hollywood's distribution model. During the 1990s, American film studios experimented with distributing quirky indie films and art films to megaplexes which would have had
986-569: Is Village Rentis , that features 18 mainstream screens, two comfort (special type of a mainstream screen, better seating and less auditorium), three RealD 3D screens and one summer screen. In total it features 21 screens. Hungary's first multiplex, the Corvin Budapest Film Palace, opened in September 1996 followed shortly after by Cineplex Odeon 's first overseas venture, the six-screen Cinpelex Odeon Polus Center, and
1044-403: Is to place the focal area at a higher level than the audience, so that the audience may look above those people in front of them to see, (like the green circle in the illustration, right), avoiding blocked sight-lines . One example of this is floor seating of a music venue which has a raised stage; seats are commonly all at an equal height on the actual floor of a venue, such as the floor seats at
1102-501: The "AmStar 14". This theatre is now the Studio Movie Grill Northwest Highway as of 2013 . AMC has since opened many megaplexes with up to 30 screens, beginning with AMC Ontario Mills 30, which was billed by AMC in its advertising as the "world's largest theater" when it opened on December 13, 1996. Three months after AMC Ontario Mills 30 opened, Edwards Theaters opened their largest theater across
1160-491: The "twilight of his prolific career at AMC", began a transition from his traditional pattern of squeezing "as many screens as possible ... into small multiplexes" to building megaplexes which were truly gigantic in scale: a "new supersized movie house for a supersized nation". This coincided with the development of modern big-box stores and warehouse clubs in the United States, and in retrospect can be seen as part of
1218-536: The 18-screen Cineplex , co-founded by Nat Taylor in Toronto's Eaton Centre , became the world's largest multitheatre complex under one roof. It was expanded to 21 screens by at least 1981. In November 1988, Kinepolis Brussels , was opened by Kinepolis , the Belgian chain, with 25 screens and 7,600 seats, and is often credited as being the first "megaplex". Meanwhile, during the 1980s, an elderly Durwood, in
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#17327650638151276-565: The 18-screen UCI New York City Center multiplex was opened in Barra da Tijuca , Rio de Janeiro to become the largest in Brazil. Canada's largest movie theaters over the years have been located in Toronto . As mentioned above the 18- (later 21-) screen Cineplex was the movie theater with the most screens in the world until the late 1980s, but remained the largest movie theater in Canada until it
1334-559: The 1960s and 1970s are now regarded as relatively small by 21st century standards. According to Melnick and Fuchs, although Durwood was technically not the first person to build a multi-auditorium movie theater, he was "the man perhaps most responsible for driving the industry into 'splitsville'". In 1965 Martin's Westgate Cinemas became one of the first indoor two-screen theaters in Atlanta, Georgia. Located in East Point, Georgia , it
1392-528: The Duplex Theatre in Detroit, Michigan, the first known instance of a dual-auditorium movie theater. It had twin 750-seat auditoriums in a single building, sharing a common box office and entrance. The Duplex Theatre's history is poorly documented and it is unknown why Porter built his theater that way, though it was apparently a bit too advanced for its time. It closed in 1922 and was remodeled into
1450-462: The Duplex movie theater was built to share the vestibule and ancillary facilities with the previously existing Rex Cinema (open since 1938); they were both designed by the same architect, Luis Bonich. The programming was coordinated, so that one of them showed documentary and news reels. while the other was showing feature films. They were in use at least until the 1990s. In 1963 AMC Theatres opened
1508-688: The UK was the ABC Cinema in Lothian Road , Edinburgh which opened 29 November 1969. The Regal Twins were converted in 1972 to a five screen complex (Studios 1 to 5) by Star Group, as the first five-cinema complex in Britain. In 1985, AMC Cinemas opened a ten-screen cinema at The Point in Milton Keynes . This was AMC's first multiplex outside of the United States and saw a turnaround in
1566-920: The United States, only 10% of the 16,712 indoor movie theaters in 1981 had more than one screen, with 80% of the 10% only having two screens. The largest had 7 screens. In 1982, the 14-screen Cineplex in the Beverly Center mall in Los Angeles became the country's largest upon opening. The Beverly Center Cinemas closed in June 2010. Cineplex joined with Universal Studios to build an 18-screen multiplex in Universal City, California (now part of Universal CityWalk Hollywood ), which opened July 4, 1987. In December 1988, Studio 28 in Grand Rapids, Michigan , expanded from 12 to 20 screens with
1624-429: The United States. From 1988 to 2000, the number of screens in the United States exploded from roughly 23,000 to 37,000. By the end of 1997, the United States was home to 149 megaplexes with over 2,800 screens. The newer venues, especially the megaplexes, often wiped out smaller theaters and led to market consolidation. Aging single-screen movie palaces in congested downtown areas simply could not compete against
1682-493: The cinema, restoration was undertaken in consultation with Heritage Victoria and the Melbourne-based Art Deco & Modernism Society (ADMS) to ensure the fabric and quality of the original architecture was maintained. Rivoli Cinemas was cited in an ABC science feature in 2003 on research into the existence or otherwise of ghosts. According to cinema staff, several spirits inhabited the building, including
1740-673: The company full circle. After that, some more were closed or sold to Empire Theatres . AMC exited Canada by closing the AMC Interchange 30 in 2014. France's largest movie theaters are: 27-screen UGC Ciné Cité Les Halles (3,913 seats) in Paris , 23-screen Kinépolis - Château du Cinéma in Lomme (7,286 seats), 22-screen UGC Ciné Cité Strasbourg (5,275 seats) and 20-screen MK2 Bibliothèque in Paris (3,500 seats). Greece' s largest multiplex
1798-620: The country also reduced the importance of London from a revenue standpoint. Non-multiplex cinemas are now rare in the UK. In July 2000, Star City, Birmingham opened with a 30-screen Warner Village Cinemas (now a 25-screen Vue Cinemas with 5,079 seats), at the time the largest cinema in Europe. The first triplex in the United States was created with the addition of a third screen to the Cheri theater in Boston in June 1967 owned by Ben Sack. In
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1856-665: The country. The largest multiplex in India is the 16-screen multiplex Mayajaal in Chennai . The first multiplex in Japan was built by Warner Bros. in 1993 but the multiplexes were outside Japan's nine largest cities until Shochiku built Cinema World to the west of Tokyo in 1995. By 2000, multiplexes accounted for 44% of the market with the number of screens in Japan increasing rapidly from less than 2,000 in 1998 to nearly 3,000 in 2001. The expansion in screens and multiplexes also reduced
1914-681: The decline of the UK cinema industry. Cannon followed it with an eight-screen cinema in Salford Quays in 1986. The success of the cinema at Milton Keynes led to further expansion by AMC in the UK to the MetroCentre in Gateshead and then to Dudley, Telford, Warrington and by royal appointment to London, before it eventually sold its UK division to a joint venture which it had formed with United Artists and Cinema International Corporation , which later became UCI Cinemas in 1989. By
1972-542: The doors originally featured cream and orange ceramic tiles, lost during succeeding alterations but reinstated in 1999–2000, along with the Art Deco-style signage on the fin. The interior of the cinema was the height of luxury when it opened, featuring a circular ticket hall on the lower level and dramatic circular staircase up to a lounge above, also an access point for the roof garden. The two-level auditorium had plaster walls and ceiling, constructed independently of
2030-404: The end of 1992, the 5 major exhibitors (UCI, MGM , Warner , National Amusements and Odeon Cinemas ) had built 525 multiplex screens in the last eight years in the UK, with cinema admissions increasing from an all-time low of 54 million in 1984 to over 100 million. The increase in multiplexes led to 77% of the UK's screens being owned by the 5 major exhibitors. The increase in multiplexes around
2088-420: The existing auditoriums are split into smaller ones, or more auditoriums are added in an extension or expansion of the building. The largest of these complexes can sit thousands of people and are sometimes referred to as a megaplex . The difference between a multiplex and a megaplex is related to the number of screens, but the dividing line is not well-defined. Some say that 16 screens and stadium seating make
2146-632: The ground up in the United States and the largest theater complex in the U.S. A 21-screen Edwards Theater opened at the Irvine Spectrum Center in Irvine, California , the same year. After a lease renewal dispute with the property owner, the AMC Grand 24 closed in November 2010. The building has been divided and reopened in 2012 as a Toby Keith –owned nightclub and a 14-screen first-run movie theater operated by Southern Theatres as
2204-433: The new suburban megaplexes with their profusion of convenient choices (in terms of films and showtimes), gigantic screens, stadium seating, armrest cup holders, video arcades, spacious parking lots, and state-of-the-art projection and surround sound technology. In some areas, "megaplexes became not just another option for moviegoers, but soon the only one, having driven all other theaters out of business". From 1995 to 2004,
2262-490: The occupants of further-back seats have less of their views blocked by those further forward. This is especially necessary in stadiums where the subject matter is typically best observed from above, rather than in-line or from below. In addition to sports venues and performing arts venues, many other venues that require clear audience views of a single area use stadium seating, including religious institutions, lecture halls, and movie theaters . An alternative to stadium seating
2320-416: The problem with stadium-size movie theaters is that they share the same flawed business model as stadiums : high fixed operating costs, combined with the fact that very few films in any given year can actually fill all those seats. Average occupancy is around 10-15%—meaning that the majority of films are being shown to empty seats. Nearly all major U.S. movie theater companies ultimately went bankrupt as
2378-584: The reliance on the grosses from the nine key cities, with over half of a film's Japanese gross now coming from outside those markets. In the Netherlands there weren't many multiplexes until the millennial change. In April 2000 Pathé ArenA opened its doors in the ArenAPoort area in Amsterdam . It is the largest multiplex in the Netherlands and features 14 screens and 3250 seats in total. Nowadays
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2436-556: The same feature movie, one would also offer a double bill . It did not convert to showing different movies on both screens until some time after Nat Taylor (see below). On February 25, 1940, the Patricia Theater in Aiken, South Carolina made news by becoming what is believed to be the first two-screen theater in the United States showing different movies when operator H. Bert Ram added a screen to an adjoining building and shared
2494-634: The same film. In 1965, the first triplex was opened in Burnaby , Canada by Taylor Twentieth Century Theaters. AMC followed up on the Parkway Twin with a four-screen theater in Kansas City, the Metro Plaza, in 1966 and a six-screen theater in 1969. Durwood's insight was that one box office and one concession stand could easily serve two (or more) attached auditoriums. Another AMC innovation
2552-750: The same time in one auditorium, such as in Cairo , Egypt, reported in 1926. In 1930, the Regal Twins in Manchester , England became the world's first multiplex followed by Studio 1 and 2 in Oxford Street in London in 1936. In 1937 James Edwards twinned his Alhambra Theater in the Los Angeles area by converting an adjacent storefront into a second "annex" screen. While both screens would show
2610-440: The stepped layout, it is usually not possible for disabled people in wheelchairs to move about. Venues with stadium seating generally place handicapped seating among the row which is at the level of the concourse which feeds the seating area, leaving more space than rows above or below it, and leaving chair-less space(s) for wheelchairs. The trains on some roller coasters are also configured in tiers; this seating configuration
2668-693: The street with 22 screens, the Edwards Ontario Palace 22. If the two adjacent parking lots were counted as one, this meant the city of Ontario, California had 52 screens on one parking lot, more than anywhere else in the United States. The construction of these two adjacent megaplexes in the Inland Empire was the culmination of a "bitter lifelong rivalry" between the elderly chief executives of these two leading movie theater operators: AMC's Stanley Durwood (who died in 1999) and Edwards Theaters's James Edwards (who died in 1997). Edwards
2726-418: The structure and considered to be an innovation. Grilles were added for decoration and to house acoustics, with lighting largely concealed behind plasterwork. Renovation work in 1999–2000, while adding substantial new areas to the building, retained original plasterwork in the largely untouched upper auditorium. The foyers, circular staircase and upper lounge are also largely original. Due to the significance of
2784-406: The total number of theaters in the United States fell from 7,151 to 5,629. Multiplexes and megaplexes supposedly have two major advantages over traditional single-screen movie theaters: they can share common infrastructure and staff across multiple auditoriums, and variations in auditorium size enable them to better match capacity to demand. However, movie theater operators eventually discovered
2842-694: The two-screen Parkway Twin at the Ward Parkway Shopping Center in Kansas City , a concept which company president Stanley Durwood later claimed to have come up with in 1962, realizing he could double the revenue of a single theater "by adding a second screen and still operate with the same size staff". Also, the shopping center structure where the Parkway was located could not support a large theater, so two small theaters were built to avoid that issue, and at first both theaters played
2900-568: The world's largest cinema multiplex, Kinepolis Madrid , opened in Spain, with 25 screens and 9,200 seats, each seating between 211 and 996 people. Europes's tallest cinema multiplex is the Cineworld Glasgow Renfrew Street in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom at 203 feet. Opened in 2001, it has 18 screens and seats 4,300 people. CGV Cinemas San Francisco 14, is a 14-auditorium movie theater multiplex in
2958-437: The world, with 25 screens and a seating capacity of 9,200, including one 996-seat auditorium. The question of who was the inventor of the multiplex is "one of the longest-running debates in movie theater history." In a 2004 book, Ross Melnick and Andreas Fuchs identified five leading candidates: James Edwards, Sumner Redstone , Stanley Durwood , Charles Porter, and Nat Taylor . In 1915, exhibitor Charles Porter opened
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#17327650638153016-470: Was 5.2 in 2016. The Kinepolis - Madrid Ciudad de la Imagen megaplex has been the largest movie theater in the world since 1998, with 25 screens and a seating capacity of 9,200 including a 996-seat auditorium. Kinepolis- Valencia , built in 2001, boasts 24 screens and 8,000 seats. As noted above, the world's first multiplex, the Regal Twins , opened in Manchester in 1930. The first triplex in
3074-478: Was closed at the turn of the 21st century. In 1998, AMC expanded to Canada, building large movie theatres with as many as 24 screens before opening a 30-plex there in 1999, which is the AMC Interchange 30. Then in 2008, the 24-screen AMC Yonge Dundas 24, adjacent to the Eaton Centre, was completed. Cineplex Entertainment purchased the theater in 2012, along with several other Canadian AMC megaplexes, bringing
3132-410: Was furious when he learned that Durwood had beaten him to a deal with Ontario Mills, and later told him, "I had to teach you a lesson". By 2004, only 25% of movie theaters in the United States had one screen and there were over 500 multiplexes with more than 16 screens. Stadium seating In stadium seating, most or all seats are placed higher than the seats immediately in front of them so that
3190-522: Was later converted into a three-screen venue after a fire partially destroyed one of the theaters. The Disney family film Those Calloways had its world premiere at the Westgate, the only film to have been so honored at that theater. In 1973, Sumner Redstone, as the head of National Amusements , was the first film exhibitor to trademark and regularly use the term "multiplex." Opening in April 1979,
3248-574: Was re-branded as Event Cinemas . The auditoriums sit on top of Westfield Marion , which is the largest shopping complex in Adelaide. Kinepolis Brussels, the first cinema to carry the Kinepolis brand, was the biggest and a pioneer in the megaplex industry when it opened in 1988. It introduced various innovations in visual, audio and conceptual aspects of cinema, such as hosting guests and special events. It now has 28 screens and 6270 seats. In 1999,
3306-504: Was the first cinema in Australia to be converted to twin auditoriums, enabling cinema goers to choose which movie to watch. The main auditorium was split with the balcony becoming the main cinema, retaining the elaborate plasterwork, while the smaller cinema created in the stalls area did not. This action may have allowed the cinema to weather the post-war decline into the 1990s when cinema going regained popularity. An extensive $ 16 million restoration and expansion began in 1999, including
3364-421: Was to offset the starting times of films, so that staff members who previously had downtime while films were playing at a single-auditorium theater would now be kept continuously busy servicing other auditoriums. Over the next two decades, AMC Theatres under Durwood's leadership continued to innovate as it built one multiplex after another with more screens across the United States, though its early multiplexes from
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