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AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. is an American entertainment company headquartered in Leawood, Kansas, and is the largest movie theater chain in the world. Founded in 1920, AMC has the largest share of the U.S. theater market ahead of Regal Entertainment Group and Cinemark Theatres. AMC Theatres was founded in 1920 by Maurice, Edward, and Barney Dubinsky, who had been traveling the Midwest performing melodramas and tent shows with their family. They purchased the Regent Theatre in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, in order to present their own melodramas on the stage. The Dubinskys eventually changed their name to Durwood and the company to Durwood Theatres. In 1961, Edward Durwood took control of the company and then expanded it rapidly throughout the 1960s and 1970s, opening multiplexes in suburban areas of major cities. By the 1970s, AMC was the largest theater chain in the country.
In the early 1980s, AMC was facing competition from newer multiplexes that were built with stadium-style seating and more amenities. To keep up with the competition, AMC began to renovate its theaters to offer a more upscale experience. In 1984, AMC launched its first multiplex in Dallas, Texas. The multiplex was a huge success, and AMC soon began to build more multiplexes across the country. Today, AMC operates more than 600 theaters in the United States and Canada.AMC Entertainment is the largest movie theater chain in the world, with over 850 locations in the United States alone. Founded in 1920, AMC has been entertaining moviegoers for nearly a century. Today, AMC offers a wide variety of films, from the latest blockbusters to independent and foreign films. AMC also offers a variety of amenities, including spacious auditoriums, state-of-the-art projection and sound, and comfortable seating. In addition, AMC provides a variety of concessions, including traditional favorites like popcorn and candy, as well as healthier options like fruit and yogurt.AMC Entertainment is a movie theater chain headquartered in Leawood, Kansas, United States. Founded in 1920, AMC has the largest share of the American theater market ahead of Regal Entertainment Group and Cinemark Theatres. AMC Theatres was founded in 1920 as Durwood Theatres by Edward Durwood. In 1961, the United States Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. that movie studios could not own theaters outright, as they had since the silent film era, so Durwood eventually sold his chain of theaters to the Kinney National Company. Kinney combined the Durwood chain with the firm Wometco Enterprises, itself formed by the merger of the Fox-West Coast Theatres chain and the Paramount-Publix chain. The new company was called National Kinney Corporation. In 1966, the company changed its name to National General Corporation after the merger of National Kinney and the General Cinema Corporation. In 1968, National General was acquired by the Taft Broadcasting Company. In 1976, National General was spun off from Taft as National General Theatres. The company began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the stock symbol NG. Robert Dowdell purchased a controlling interest in National General Theatres in 1980. In 1988, Patrick Corcoran was appointed CEO of National General Theatres, and he began to refocus the company on its core business of movie theaters. In 1993, National General Theatres was acquired by the Carmike Cinemas chain, and the company was renamed Carmike Cinemas, Inc. In 2001, Carmike Cinemas was acquired by AMC Theatres.
AMC Theatres is headquartered in Leawood, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri. As of December 2016, AMC Theatres operates 346 locations in North America, including 276 locations in the United States, and 70 locations in Canada. On October 5, 2012, AMC Theatres announced plans to build up to 150 “AMC Dine-In Theatres” locations, a new concept the company was touting as a premium offering for its guests. The first location opened on August 1, 2014, in Victorville, California. In November 2014, AMC Theatres announced it would build a further 115 “AMC Dine-In Theatres” locations over the following three years, bringing the total number of planned locations to 265.
AMC Theatres operates the largest theatre circuit in the United States, and is the largest shareholder of Carmike Cinemas, the fourth largest theatre chain in the United States. As of December 2016, AMC Theatres has 346 locations in North America, including 276 in the United States and 70 in Canada. In December 2015, AMC Theatres announced that it would acquire Carmike Cinemas, making it the largest movie theatre chain in the world, with a total of 8,380 screens across 600 locations in 45 states. The merger was completed on December 21, 2016.
