Cineplex

Cineplex traces its origins to 1979, when entrepreneur Garth Drabinsky opened an 18-screen theatre at the Eaton Centre in downtown Toronto, at the time the largest multiplex movie theatre in the world and a genuinely new format for Canadian moviegoing, which had previously relied on single-screen theatres. The Eaton Centre Cineplex proved the multiplex concept could work at scale, and the company expanded rapidly across Canada through the 1980s.

Consolidating Canadian movie theatres

Cineplex merged with rival chain Odeon in 1998 to form Cineplex Odeon, and later combined with Galaxy Entertainment in 2003 to create the modern Cineplex Entertainment, headquartered in Toronto and operating the large majority of movie screens across the country. The company expanded beyond traditional exhibition into premium formats, entertainment venues and digital media over the following decades, remaining Canada's dominant movie theatre operator and tracing its identity directly back to that first Eaton Centre multiplex.

Sources

• The Canadian Encyclopedia — Cineplex
• Wikipedia — Cineplex Entertainment

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