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AMC Theatres (often referred to as just AMC and known in some countries as AMC Cinemas) is an American movie theater chain owned and operated by AMC Entertainment Inc., which is itself owned by AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc., a majority-owned subsidiary of Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group. Founded in 1920, AMC has the second-largest share of the American market, behind Regal Entertainment Group (with whom they co-own Open Road Films) and ahead of Cinemark Theatres. The chain has 346 locations mostly in North America,〔(NATO | Statistics | Top 10 U.S. & Canadian Circuits )〕 along with 86 more locations in mainland China, home of its corporate parent.〔(Home Page ). ''AMC Cinemas'' (United Kingdom homepage). Accessed September 22, 2008.〕〔(Home Page ). ''AMC 20 Dunkerque''. Accessed September 21, 2008.〕〔(). ''Bloomberg''. Accessed March 29, 2013.〕〔"(AMC, Loews Cineplex to merge )." ''USA Today''. June 21, 2005.〕 The company's headquarters is in Leawood, Kansas. ==History== AMC Theatres was founded in 1920 by the Dubinsky Brothers – Maurice, Edward and Barney – who had been traveling the Midwest performing melodramas and tent shows with actress Jeanne Eagels. They purchased the Regent Theatre on 12th Street between Walnut and Grand in downtown Kansas City, Missouri.〔(The Dubinsky Brothers - Kansas City Public Library - Retrieved March 21, 2008 )〕 The Dubinskys eventually changed their name to Durwood and the company they formed was called Durwood Theatres. In 1961, Edward's son, Stanley, took control of Durwood Theatres when his father died. Stanley had attended Harvard University and served as a navigator in the U.S. Air Force during World War II. He renamed Durwood Theatres to American Royal Cinema on 1 October 1968.〔"Gerety Will Join Cinema Theaters." Dallas Morning News, 28 October 1948, p. 4.〕 During the incorporation process, the name was changed quickly thereafter to American Multi-Cinema, Inc. (AMC), and Stanley Durwood began to apply military management and the insights of management science to revolutionize the movie theatre industry.〔La Franco, Robert. "Coming soon: a megaplex near you." ''Forbes'', August 12, 1996, p. 133.〕 As he later explained to ''Variety'' magazine, "We needed to define what our company was doing in the (exhibition) business. My dad wasn't that organized."〔Anonymous. "Durwood legacy packs 'em in." ''Variety'', March 16, 1998, p. 42.〕 It was structured under the belief that every customer was a "guest". Under the new name, AMC opened the two-screen Parkway Twin in a shopping center on Kansas City's Ward Parkway in 1963. This marked the company's first foray using the multiplex model. According to ''Variety'', Stanley Durwood later claimed "in 1962 he was standing in the lobby of his 600-seat Roxy in Kansas City mulling over its poor grosses when he realized he could double his box office by adding a second screen and still operate with the same size staff."〔Klady, Leonard. "(AMC founder dies of cancer at 78 )." ''Variety'', July 19, 1999, p. 40.〕 The industry quickly embraced the concept of the multiplex, where additional screens meant very little difference in staff and operating costs but resulted in a significant increase in profits. The concept also provided more movie choices at one location drawing bigger crowds. It gave owners the flexibility to show big hits on more screens and less reliance on any individual film that could turn out as a bust.〔Nan Robertson, ("Multiplexes Add 2,300 Movie Screens in 5 Years" )", ''The New York Times'', November 7, 1983, C13.〕 By the 1980s, the company was experiencing strong growth. AMC had built and was operating a number of ten-screen multiplex cinemas in the UK, including sites at locations such as Dudley and Tamworth. These were subsequently bought and taken over by UCI. In 1995, AMC pioneered the first North American megaplex, a theater that can accommodate thousands, when it opened the AMC Grand 24 in Dallas, Texas – the first megaplex in the world had been built by European chain Kinepolis in 1988. AMC continued to open other megaplex theaters, such as the AMC Hampton Towne Center 24 in Hampton, Virginia, and the chain's busiest theater in the country, the AMC Empire 25 theater in New York City, New York, near Times Square. The largest theaters in the AMC chain have 30 screens, including the AMC Ontario Mills 30 in Ontario, California, AMC Orange 30 in Orange, California, and AMC Forum 30 in Sterling Heights, Michigan. AMC's megaplexes were a success overseas as well. On December 20, 1996, AMC opened AMC Arrábida 20 in Portugal. In January 2002, the 16-screen Great Northern was opened in Manchester, which was later supplemented by the opening of a 12-screen cinema on the Broadway Plaza site in Birmingham in October 2003. United Kingdom outlets typically serve a dual function, where in addition to the normal cinema functions, they also cater to companies' business conferences which can make use of their projectors for displaying presentations. The company was acquired by Marquee Holdings Inc. in 2004. At the time, AMC was publicly traded on AMEX under the code AEN.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=AMC Theatres, Form 8-K, Current Report, Filing Date Jul 22, 2004 )〕 Marquee is an investment vehicle controlled by affiliates of J.P. Morgan Partners, LLC, the private equity arm of JPMorgan Chase, and Apollo Global Management, a private investment firm.〔(Acquisition of AMC Entertainment by Affiliates of J.P. Morgan Partners and Apollo Global Management is Completed - amctheatres.com - December 23, 2004 )〕 The company continues to officially be headquartered in Kansas City although it has sold its headquarters building at Ten Main Center where it now leases space.〔(HQ Building For AMC Sells - Kansas City Business Journal - December 16-22, 2005 )〕 In 2006, the company announced a new IPO, which was expected to be worth approximately $789 million;〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=AMC Theatres, Form S-1, Filing Date May 9, 2006 )〕 however, adverse market conditions convinced the company's management to withdraw from such an offering on May 3, 2007.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=AMC Theatres, Form 8-K, Current Report, Filing Date May 4, 2007 )〕 The company filed for a $450 million IPO, in its third such filing since 2006, on 14 July 2010.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=AMC Theatres, Form 8-K, Current Report, Filing Date Jul 14, 2010 )〕〔(AMC IPO information )〕 The company replaced its long time CEO Peter Brown in February 2009. Gerardo I. Lopez was named CEO and President effective 2 March 2009.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=AMC Theatres, Form 8-K, Current Report, Filing Date Feb 24, 2009 )〕 Previously, Lopez was the Executive Vice President and President Consumer Products Group, Seattle's Best Coffee and Foodservice at Starbucks. Under new leadership, one of the first major announcements came in March of the same year. The company announced that it would equip 1,500 of its screens with Real D projectors. In the same month, AMC announced that it closed on a $315 million deal with Sony to replace all of its movie projectors with digital cinema projectors starting in the second quarter of 2009 and completing in 2012. The company was previously headquartered in downtown Kansas City. In September 2011, AMC announced plans to move its headquarters to a new $30 million four-story building designed by 360 Architecture in the Park Place development at 117th Street and Nall Avenue in Leawood, Kansas in suburban Kansas City. The state of Kansas had offered $47 million in incentives to get the 400 jobs to move. After reaching a settlement with the state of Illinois in April 2012 regarding complaints from a disability rights organization, AMC pledged to equip all of its theaters in the state with captioning and description services by 2014. The disability rights group had accused the company of only providing closed captioning or audio description systems at some of its locations in the state. 〔(Madigan: Settlement with AMC Theatres to provide unprecedented access to movies for people with disabilities | The Rock River Times )〕〔()〕 AMC was acquired by Dalian Wanda Group, a Chinese conglomerate headquartered in Dalian, in May 2012. Wanda group paid $2.6 billion to acquire AMC's 5,048 screens in 347 theaters in the U.S. and Canada.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=AMC Theatres, Form 8-K, Current Report, Filing Date May 21, 2012 )〕 The deal was finalized on 4 September 2012 The acquisition made Wanda the world's largest cinema chain. Wang Jianlin, CEO of Dalian Wanda Group, announced that the company would plan to spend $500 million renovating AMC Theatres.〔 AMC had eight movie theatres in Canada: six (Courtney Park 16, Interchange 30, Kennedy Commons 20, Whitby 24, Winston Churchill 24 and Yonge and Dundas 24) in the Toronto region, one (Kanata 24) in Ottawa and one (Forum 22) in the Montréal region. In July 2012, four locations were sold to Cineplex Entertainment and two more locations (Kanata 24 and Whitby 24) were sold to Empire Theatres and later acquired by Landmark Cinemas. AMC continued to operate the two remaining locations (Kennedy Commons 20 and Interchange 30) until the Kennedy Commons location was demolished in February 2013 and the Interchange 30 was closed in May 2014. Gerry Lopez announced his resignation as CEO of AMC in August 2015. Craig Ramsey was appointed as the interim CEO by the company board.〔(【引用サイトリンク】website=LA Biz )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「AMC Theatres」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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