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Cineworld

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New Company Logo, following 2005 rebrand.
New Company Logo, following 2005 rebrand.
Old company logo, prior to 2005 rebranding
Old company logo, prior to 2005 rebranding
Cineworld Middlesbrough
Cineworld Middlesbrough

Cineworld Cinemas is a multiplex cinema chain in the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland and Jersey. It is a subsidiary of The Blackstone Group. The first Cineworld opened in Stevenage in July 1996. The chain now operates 72 cinemas in the UK, one in the Republic of Ireland (in Dublin) and one in Jersey (in St. Helier) as a result of its takeover of the UK and Ireland operations of the French cinema company, UGC. It is the second largest cinema operator in the UK with over 800 screens, and the owner of the single largest multiplex by screens in Ireland (though the Vue cinema in Liffey Valley Shopping Centre is larger by customer base). Glasgow Renfrew Street cinema is the tallest in the world.

In July 2005 it began integrating the two chains, taking the opportunity to introduce a new company logotype (with a shortened name, "Cineworld Cinemas"). Cineworld will retain the UGC Unlimited Card (taken from Virgin Cinemas originally) and the UGC in-house magazine, also called Unlimited. The rebranding process of the former UGC cinemas was completed in September 2005, and as of April 2006 the companies websites and booking lines were merged into one combined service at cineworld.co.uk although the Cineworld Ireland site is still under development. Cineworld has now also taken on the staff benefit scheme of a 'cast pass' named simply as 'Cinepass.' This ID card allows hourly paid staff who have worked for the company for longer than 3 months to receive 40% discount on food along with a free admittance of plus one admittance at a time. Salaried staff members such as managers and technicians (who work in and run the projection booth) also receive the 40% discount plus an additional admittance of 1 bringing their total to 3 permitted free tickets.

As part of the merger with the former UGC brand the Office of Fair Trading announced that Cineworld must divest itself of six of its locations: Bishop's Stortford, Ealing, Slough, Sunderland, Swindon and Wigan. These have now been sold to and rebranded as Empire Cinemas. The Cineworld Birmingham — Great Park site was also later sold to Empire Cinemas and rebranded by the end of 2006 leaving the company with 71 total sites.

As part of further developments plans have been made to build more Cineworld sites which means that this is an exciting time for the company as they continue develop as an already well established multiplex cinema chain within the UK and maybe an expansion within the RoI using their Dublin site as their Irish 'Flagship' site. within time older original Cineworld sites will gain the newer logo types (cineworld cinemas) as they undergo refurbishment (refurbishment will also be carried out at older former UGC sites as required, although the rebranding as basically already done so).

Current locations

Original Cineworld cinemas

Former UGC cinemas

Newline (highbread) Cineworld cinemas


Forthcoming Cineworld cinemas

  • Haverhill - Completion date est. Spring 2008 (It will have over 980 seats and 5 auditoria costing a total of £9.2million - and now officially announced as a cineworld site)
  • High Wycombe - Completion date est. late 2007-early 2008 (It will be located in the 'EDEN' centre a shopping development with 12 auditoria and a VIP bar area all on the second floor)


Former Cineworld locations

The following location have recently been sold to Empire Cinemas

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