Odeon Cinemas

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Odeon Cinemas is the largest chain of cinemas in Europe. It is owned by Terra Firma Capital Partners.

1 History
2 Twenty-first century
3 Current locations
4 References
5 External links

[edit] History

Odeon Cinema in Harrogate, showing the logo used from mid 1990s

Odeon Cinemas was created in 1928 by Oscar Deutsch. Odeon publicists have claimed that the name of the cinemas was derived from his motto, "Oscar Deutsch Entertains Our Nation", but it had been used for cinemas in France and Italy in the 1920s, and the name is ultimately derived from Ancient Greek. The name "Nickelodeon" was coined in 1905 and was widely used to describe small theatres in the United States during that era.

The Odeon company is also associated with J. Arthur Rank, the owner for the longest period in its history.

The first cinema opened by Oscar Deutsch was located in Brierley Hill, West Midlands in 1928.^[1] The building has long since been demolished, but as of 2006, the former UCI Cinema (built in the 1980s) at the Merry Hill Shopping Centre in Brierley Hill has been recently refurbished as an Odeon Cinema. The first cinema opened under the "Odeon" brand was located in Perry Barr, Birmingham.^[2]^[3] It was designed by Harry Weedon. The frontage was remodelled following damage sustained in World War II and, having been a bingo hall, has since been converted into a conference venue.

Odeon Cinema (1936), Leicester in the Art Deco style. Now operating as Athena.

Odeon Cinema (1937), Dudley, in the Art deco style.

By 1930, "Odeon" was a household name and the cinemas known for their maritime-inspired Art Deco architecture. This style was first used in 1930 on the cinema at Perry Barr in Birmingham, which was bought by Deutsch to expand the chain. He liked the style so much that he commissioned the architect, Harry Weedon, to design his future buildings.^[4] George Coles was also one of their principal architects, remodelling a partially complete assembly hall in Portslade and designing his first purpose-built cinema in Upper Wickham Lane, Welling, Kent which opened on 22 October 1934 and closed on 22 October 1960. It is presently a bingo club in the Mecca chain. It featured central linear lighting, a feature that became characteristic of his work.

In 1935, Oscar Deutsch commissioned John Maltby (1910-80), a professional photographer, to photograph every cinema in the Odeon chain at that time. The resulting collection, of internal and external photographs, is held by the National Monuments Record, in the public archive of English Heritage and can be seen online.

Deutsch sold the chain to the business interests of J. Arthur Rank, who was in the process of forming the Rank Organisation.

In just 10 years between the first of the cinemas and Deutsch's death in 1941, 258 Odeons opened throughout Britain.^[5] After the sale to J. Arthur Rank Corporation, Odeon also operated a wholly owned Canadian subsidiary, Odeon Theatres (Canada) Ltd., with more than a hundred cinemas in Canada, coast-to-coast. The head office of Odeon Canada was in Toronto, Ontario, and later, the north Toronto suburb of Willowdale, Ontario. This business was sold in 1978 to the Canadian Theatres chain and became Canadian Odeon Theatres, then was sold again in 1984 to Cineplex, forming Cineplex Odeon (now, once again, Cineplex).

Each Odeon cinema had a different character to most other cinemas in the UK, often having unique and spectacular interiors. They also ran their own advertising company, called Rank Screen Advertising, in competition with the UK market leader Pearl & Dean, which it eventually overtook.

A smaller number of Odeon cinemas opened in the post-war years (Odeon Marble Arch and Odeon Elephant & Castle being notable instances), but many single-screen cinemas either closed, sub-divided into smaller screens or were converted into other uses, such as bingo.

The flagship cinema, The Odeon Leicester Square, is the largest cinema in Great Britain and host to most of London's West End film premières, retaining its large screen and circle & stalls layout.

[edit] Twenty-first century

Since the turn of the century, the company has undergone a series of sales, firstly to Cinven in 2000, which merged Odeon with Cinven's ABC chain and then to a group of private investors in 2003. In 2004, the chain was purchased by Terra Firma and merged with United Cinemas International to produce the largest cinema chain in Europe^[6]. As a condition of this merger (imposed by the Office of Fair Trading), Odeon Newcastle upon Tyne, Sutton Coldfield, Poole, Quinton, Hemel Hempstead and London Bromley have been sold to Empire Cinemas. Many smaller, older cinemas such as Odeon Grimsby on Freeman Street were closed down to keep market-share within legal limits. The remaining UCI cinemas, including thefilmworks brands, were rebranded as Odeons from the November 4, 2005.

On 14 August 2006, ODEON announced that it will open its first cinema in Northern Ireland, in Belfast city centre, as part of Belfast's Victoria Square development.^[7]

The Republic of Ireland cinemas of UCI have also become part of the Odeon chain, and while they will be retaining the UCI brand name, some evidence of the merger has appeared in Ireland, for example when booking tickets by credit card, the name "Odeon" appears, as well as some dual branded campaigns. The Odeon inhouse film review magazine, "Onscreen", is now also distributed in UCI cinemas in Ireland, retaining the Odeon logo font throughout. In August 2007, UCI launched a new Irish website with an identical layout to odeon.co.uk. This website states that the Irish cinemas were sold to an Irish group, Entertainment Enterprises, in September 2006. This transaction went unreported in the Irish media. It also states that the cinemas remain part of the Odeon chain under a management contract. Rank/Odeon previously ran cinemas in Ireland (including the flagship, the Savoy Cinema in O'Connell Street) until 1982, when they were purchased by Ward Anderson. In April 2008, Entertainment Enterprises announced that it purchased the Republic of Ireland assets of Storm Cinemas (the entire chain with the exception of the Belfast cinema), and as with the existing UCI chain, would be contracting the running of the cinemas to Odeon. [1]

Odeon has now acquired at least ten cinemas in Italy making Odeon officially the largest cinema chain in Europe and third in the world.

In 2007, Odeon announced the award of the number 1 Odeon staff member awards. Being the first receiver of the award, Gary McLean from the Dunfermline cinema received the award along with a large cash sum. Another member of staff from one of many UK cinemas will be badged as the winner early next year.