General Cinema Corporation, also known as General Cinema, GCC, or General Cinema Theatres, was a chain of

movie theater A movie theater (American English) or cinema (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), also known as a movie house, cinema hall, picture house, picture theater, the movies, the pictures, or simply theater, is a business ...

s in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. At its peak, the company operated about 1,500 screens, some of which were among the first theaters certified by

THX THX Ltd. is an American audio company based in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is known for its suite of digital high fidelity audiovisual reproduction standards for movie theaters, screening rooms, home theaters, computer speakers, video game c ...

. The company operated for approximately 67 years, from 1935 until 2002.

History

General Cinema Corporation was founded as a

drive-in theater A drive-in theater/theatre or drive-in cinema is a form of movie theater, cinema structure consisting of a large outdoor movie screen, a projection booth, a concession stand, and a large parking area for automobiles. Within this enclosed area, c ...

in 1935 by Philip Smith, who had previously owned a small chain of silent film theaters. Smith had chosen to open the chain after noticing the increasing sales of local

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

theatres, and the introduction of films that were able to accommodate a synchronized sound and voice track into their reels. Originally, Smith planned to open indoor theatres, but had decided to open a small number of outdoor theatres instead, and later decided to open some indoor theatres as well. The company did not see much growth until 1939, when

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

started, due to heavy sales of news printed on film. After the war ended, the company had assumed new leadership under Richard A. Smith, who had decided on pushing the company towards indoor movie theaters for all future expansions and had opened the country's first shopping-center theater, in 1951 at Shoppers World, Framingham, Massachusetts. Starting in the 1960s General Cinema diversified into other businesses. At times they owned the department store

Neiman Marcus Neiman Marcus is an American department store chain founded in 1907 in Dallas, Texas by Herbert Marcus, his sister Carrie Marcus Neiman, and her husband Abraham Lincoln Neiman. It has been owned by Saks Global, a Corporate spin-off, spin-o ...

, the publisher

Harcourt Brace Harcourt () was an American publishing firm with a long history of publishing fiction and nonfiction for adults and children. It was known at different stages in its history as Harcourt Brace, & Co. and Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. From 1919 to 1 ...

, radio stations in several major markets (notably WEFM in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

KRBE KRBE (104.1 FM broadcasting, FM) is a radio station in Houston, Texas. It is owned by Cumulus Media and broadcasts a contemporary hit radio format. The studios are located in Suite 700 at 9801 Westheimer Road in western Houston. KRBE has an ...

in Houston,

WZGC WZGC (92.9 FM) – branded ''92.9 The Game'' – is a commercial sports radio station licensed to serve Atlanta, Georgia, covering the Atlanta metropolitan area. Owned by Audacy, Inc., WZGC is the Atlanta affiliate for Infinity Sports Network; ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

, WGCL in

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

, and

WIFI Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for Wireless LAN, local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

), and TV station

WCIX WCIX (channel 49) is a television station licensed to Springfield, Illinois, United States, serving the Central Illinois region as an affiliate of MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Champaign-licensed CBS affiliate WCIA ...

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

. For a time General Cinema was Pepsi-Cola's largest bottler and also distributed 7-Up, Dr Pepper and other soft drink brands. They formed a joint venture theater chain with

Hoyts The HOYTS Group of companies in Australia and New Zealand includes HOYTS Cinemas, a cinema chain, and Val Morgan, which sells advertising on cinema screens and digital billboards. The company was established by dentist Arthur Russell in Melbo ...

, known as Hoyts General Cinema, that had locations throughout South America. In 1976, the company teamed up with

Lew Grade Lew Grade, Baron Grade, (born Lev Winogradsky; 25 December 1906 – 13 December 1998) was a Ukrainian-born British media proprietor and impresario. Originally a dancer, and later a talent agent, Grade's interest in television production ...

Associated Communications Corporation ATV Network Limited, originally Associated TeleVision (ATV), was a British broadcaster, part of the ITV (Independent Television) network. It provided a service to London at weekends from 1955 to 1968, to the Midlands on weekdays from 1956 to ...

to form Associated General Films, which produced films including ''

Voyage of the Damned ''Voyage of the Damned'' is a 1976 drama (film and television), drama film directed by Stuart Rosenberg, with an Ensemble cast, all-star cast featuring Faye Dunaway, Oskar Werner, Lee Grant, Max von Sydow, James Mason, Lynne Frederick and Malco ...

'' and ''

Capricorn One ''Capricorn One'' is a 1977 thriller film in which a reporter discovers that a supposed Mars landing by a crewed mission to the planet has been faked via a conspiracy involving the government and—under duress—the crew themselves. It was wri ...

''; the partnership ended the following year and ATV's ITC Entertainment subsidiary started financing films on its own. In 1986, General Cinema collaborated with

Industrial Light & Magic Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) is an American Film, motion picture visual effects, computer animation and stereo conversion digital studio founded by George Lucas on May 26, 1975. It is a division of the film production company Lucasfilm, which Lu ...

(ILM) to create the first of brand new policy trailers. In 1992, the company collaborated with

Lucasfilm Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC is an American film and television production company founded by filmmaker George Lucas in December 10, 1971 in San Rafael, California, and later moved to San Francisco in 2005. It is best known for creating and producing th ...

to create new mascots for the company. Within less than a year, the then-iconic Candy Band was created. Soon after, two more mascots were developed and named Popcorn Bob, and Pepsi Sue. All three developments were used in pre-show reels from 1993 to 2002. In 1993, General Cinema's holding company, by then named

Harcourt General Harcourt () was an American publishing firm with a long history of publishing fiction and nonfiction for adults and children. It was known at different stages in its history as Harcourt Brace, & Co. and Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. From 1919 to 1 ...

, spun-off General Cinema as a separate company. General Cinema faced severe competition by the late 90s as multiplexes rose in popularity and began to outperform smaller theaters; most General Cinema locations were smaller theaters with fewer screens than these multiplexes. General Cinema abruptly closed 24 theaters and stopped all operations in the state of Florida on September 28, 2000, with 29 additional theaters being closed throughout October 2000. General Cinema filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on October 11, 2000. On December 7, 2001, AMC Theatres agreed to buy GC Companies, Inc. as part of GC's Chapter 11 reorganization plan. The acquisition was completed on March 29, 2002. With the acquisition, the Credits

loyalty program A loyalty program or rewards program is a marketing strategy designed to encourage customers to continue to shop at or use the services of one or more businesses associated with the program. Single-company vs. coalition programs Loyalty progr ...

merged into the MovieWatcher network. The General Cinema Corp. trademark was placed up for auction on December 8, 2010.Racebrook Trademark Auction
/ref> In December 2011, this trademark was published for opposition by

JTE Multimedia JTE Multimedia, LLC is a publishing company located in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania that was founded in 2007. It publishes three peer-reviewed medical journals: '' Hospital Practice'', '' Postgraduate Medicine'', and '' The Physician and Sportsmedicin ...

.U.S. Trademark Info on General Cinema
/ref> On March 11, 2014, the

USPTO The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is an agency in the U.S. Department of Commerce that serves as the national patent office and trademark registration authority for the United States. The USPTO's headquarters are in Ale ...

declared the trademark "General Cinema" abandoned.USPTO Trademark Status & Document Retrieval (TSDR) on "General Cinema"
/ref>

References

* {{Cite book , last=Pruitt , first=Bettye Hobbs , year=1994 , title=The Making of Harcourt General: A History of Growth Through Diversification 1922–1992 , location=Boston , publisher=Harvard Business School Press , isbn=9780875845098 , oclc=29595433 , url-access=registration , url=https://archive.org/details/makingofharcourt00prui 2002 disestablishments in the United States Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange AMC Theatres American companies established in 1935 Entertainment companies disestablished in 2002 Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2000 Companies that filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2001 Companies that have filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy Conglomerate companies of the United States Defunct movie theatre chains in the United States Entertainment companies established in 1935 Movie theatre chains in the United States Defunct companies based in Massachusetts Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts 2002 mergers and acquisitions Smith family (theaters)