Vue Cinemas can trace it’s history back to the late 1980s with the founding of Warner Bros. Cinemas, a chain of cinemas operated by Warner Bros. In November 1996, a joint venture was established between Warner Bros. International and Village Roadshow Australia, becoming Warner Village Cinemas. In 1999, a former United Artists Theatres executive and a former Warner Bros. International Theatres executive founded Spean Bridge Cinemas. The company was later renamed SBC International Cinemas. Their first cinema was opened in Livingston, Scotland.
In May 2003, SBC bought Warner Village Cinemas from Warner Bros. for £250 Million. In 2004 the chain was rebranded as Vue. The company’s original slogan was ‘Enjoy the Vue’ until 2010 when they adopted the slogan ‘The Future of Cinema’.
In June 2006, Vue’s executive team completed a management buyout of the company. Also during 2006, Vue completed a rollout of Vista Entertainment Solutions to all sites. Vue was then acquired by Doughty Hanson & Co. in 2010.
In May 2012, Vue bought the Apollo cinema chain, making it the third largest cinema chain in the UK behind Odeon and Cineworld. In May 2013, Vue acquired Multikino; a Polish cinema operating company with nearly 250 screens across Poland and the Baltics.
In June 2013, Canadian pension funds OMERS, and AIMCo bought Vue from Doughty Hanson & Co for over £900 Million. Between November 2014 and August 2015, Vue made further acquisitions; including JT Bioscopen; a cinema operator based in the Netherlands.
In 2015, Vue underwent a brand makeover which included the new slogan: ‘Big Screen Entertainment’. In 2015, Vue built the UK’s first Esports arena with Gfinity. During 2015, Vue released a new ident which visualized the performance of Dolby Atmos and Sony Digital 4K.
In May 2017, Vue took over the Printworks cinema in Manchester. During 2017 they also launched a new promo video with the title ‘This Is Not A Cinema’.
To date; Vue owns over 227 cinemas in 10 different countries; including the UK, Ireland, Taiwan, Italy and Lithuania to name but a few.
I hope you enjoyed this mini brief history of my favourite cinema chain.
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