Movie theater
A movie theater or cinema, also known as a movie house, cinema hall, picture house, picture theater, the movies, the pictures, the big screen, or simply theater, is a business that contains auditoriums for viewing films and occasionally a series premiere, special episode or a series finale of a hugely popular television series for public entertainment. Most are commercial operations catering to the general public, who attend by purchasing tickets.
The film is projected with a movie projector onto a large projection screen at the front of the auditorium while the dialogue, sounds and music are played through a number of wall-mounted speakers. Since the 1970s, subwoofers have been used for low-pitched sounds. Since the 2010s, the majority of movie theaters have been equipped for digital cinema projection, removing the need to create and transport a physical film print on a heavy reel.
A great variety of films are shown at theaters, ranging from animated films to blockbusters to documentaries. The smallest movie theaters have a single viewing room with a single screen. In the 2010s, most movie theaters had multiple screens. The largest theater complexes, which are called multiplexes—a concept developed in Canada in the 1950s—have up to thirty screens. The audience members often sit on padded seats, which in most theaters are set on a sloped floor, with the highest part at the rear of the theater. Movie theaters often sell soft drinks, popcorn and candy, and some theaters sell hot fast food. In some jurisdictions, movie theaters can be licensed to sell alcoholic drinks.
Terminology
A movie theater is usually called cinema in Anglophone countries outside North America. Other terms for the venue include movie house, film house, film theater, or picture house. In the US, theater has long been the preferred spelling, while in the UK, Australia, Canada, and elsewhere it is theatre.However, some American theaters opt to use the British spelling in their own names, a practice supported by Cinema United, while apart from Anglophone North America most English-speaking countries use the term cinema, alternatively spelled and pronounced kinema. The latter terms, as well as their derivative adjectives "cinematic" and "kinematic", ultimately derive from Greek κίνημα, κινήματος —"movement, motion". The word "cinema" is borrowed from the French cinéma, an abbreviation of cinématographe, a term coined by the Lumière brothers in the 1890s, from Ancient Greek meaning "recording movement". Apart from the usage discussed in this article, the word is also used to refer to the film industry, the overall art form; or filmmaking. In the countries where "cinema" is used to refer to the venue, the word "theatre" is usually reserved for live performance venues.
The etymology of the term "movie theater" involves the term "movie", which is a "shortened form of moving picture in the cinematographic sense" that was first used in 1896 and "theater", which originated in the "...late 14c., open air place in ancient times for viewing spectacles and plays". The term "theater" comes from the Old French word "theatre", from the 12th century and "...directly from Latin theatrum 'play-house, theater; stage; spectators in a theater'", which in turn came from the Greek word "theatron", which meant "theater; the people in the theater; a show, a spectacle", literally "place for viewing". The use of the word "theatre" to mean a "building where plays are shown" dates from the 1570s in the English language.
Colloquial expressions, mostly applied to motion pictures and motion picture theaters collectively, include the silver screen and the big screen. Specific to North American term is the movies, while specific terms in the UK are the pictures, the flicks, and for the facility itself the flea pit. A "screening room" is a small theater, often a private one, such as for the use of those involved in the production of motion pictures or in a large private residence.
History
Precursors
Movie theaters stand in a long tradition of theaters that could house all kinds of entertainment. Some forms of theatrical entertainment would involve the screening of moving images and can be regarded as precursors of film.In 1799, Étienne-Gaspard "Robertson" Robert moved his Phantasmagorie show to an abandoned cloister near the Place Vendôme in Paris. The eerie surroundings, with a graveyard and ruins, formed an ideal location for his ghoulish spectacle.
When it opened in 1838, The Royal Polytechnic Institution in London became a very popular and influential venue with all kinds of magic lantern shows as an important part of its program. At the main theatre, with 500 seats, lanternists would make good use of a battery of six large lanterns running on tracked tables to project the finely detailed images of extra-large slides on the 648 square feet screen. The magic lantern was used to illustrate lectures, concerts, pantomimes and other forms of theater. Popular magic lantern presentations included phantasmagoria, mechanical slides, Henry Langdon Childe's dissolving views and his chromatrope.
The earliest known public screening of projected stroboscopic animation was presented by Austrian magician Ludwig Döbler on 15 January 1847 at the Josephstadt Theatre in Vienna, with his patented Phantaskop. The animated spectacle was part of a well-received show that sold out in several European cities during a tour that lasted until the spring of 1848.
The famous Parisian entertainment venue Le Chat Noir opened in 1881 and is remembered for its shadow plays, renewing the popularity of such shows in France.
Earliest motion picture screening venues
The earliest public film screenings took place in existing theatres and other venues that could be darkened and comfortably house an audience.File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1988-035-15, Berlin, Wintergarten.jpg|thumb|The Berlin Wintergarten theatre was the site of the Skladanowsky brothers's first film presentation from 1 to 31 November 1895
Émile Reynaud screened his Pantomimes Lumineuses animated movies from 28 October 1892 to March 1900 at the Musée Grévin in Paris, with his Théâtre Optique system. He gave over 12,800 shows to a total of over 500,000 visitors, with programs including Pauvre Pierrot and Autour d'une cabine.
Thomas Edison initially believed film screening would not be as viable commercially as presenting films in a single-viewer apparatus with a viewing peephole. His company developed and marketed such a device, the Kinetoscope. A few public demonstrations occurred beginning 9 May 1893, before a first public Kinetoscope parlor was opened on 14 April 1894, by the Holland Bros. in New York City at 1155 Broadway, on the corner of 27th Street. This can be regarded as the first commercial motion picture house. The venue had ten machines, set up in parallel rows of five, each showing a different movie. For 25 cents, a viewer could see all the films in either row, one at a time; half a dollar gave access to the entire bill.
The Eidoloscope, devised by Eugene Augustin Lauste for the Latham family, was demonstrated for members of the press on 21 April 1895 and opened to the paying public on 20 May, in a lower Broadway store with films of the Griffo-Barnett prize boxing fight, taken from Madison Square Garden's roof on 4 May.
Max Skladanowsky and his brother Emil demonstrated their motion pictures with the Bioscop in July 1895 at the Gasthaus Sello in Pankow. This venue was later, at least since 1918, exploited as the full-time movie theatre Pankower Lichtspiele and between 1925 and 1994 as Tivoli. The first certain commercial screenings by the Skladanowsky brothers took place at the Wintergarten in Berlin from 1 to 31 November 1895.
The first commercial, public screening of films made with Louis and Auguste Lumière's Cinématographe took place in the basement of Salon Indien du Grand Café in Paris on 28 December 1895.
Early dedicated movie theatres
During the first decade of motion pictures, the demand for movies, the amount of new productions, and the average runtime of movies, kept increasing, and at some stage it was viable to have theaters that would no longer program live acts, but only movies.The first building built for the dedicated purpose of showing motion pictures was built to demonstrate the Phantoscope, a device created by Jenkins & Armat, as part of The Cotton State Exposition on September 25, 1895 in Atlanta, Georgia. This is arguably the first cinema in the world.
Ptuj City Cinema, had its first commercial public screening on 3 March 1897 and still operates which makes it the oldest still active commercial movie theater in the world.
Claimants for the title of the earliest movie theatre include the Eden Theater in La Ciotat, where L'Arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat was screened on 21 March 1899. The theatre closed in 1995 but re-opened in 2013.
L'Idéal Cinéma in Aniche, built in 1901 as l'Hôtel du Syndicat CGT, showed its first film on 23 November 1905. The cinema was closed in 1977 and the building was demolished in 1993. The "Centre Culturel Claude Berri" was built in 1995; it integrates a new movie theater.
In the United States, many small and simple theaters were set up, usually in converted storefronts. They typically charged five cents for admission, and thus became known as nickelodeons. This type of theatre flourished from about 1905 to 1915.
The Korsør Biograf Teater, in Korsør, Denmark, opened in August 1908 and is the oldest known movie theater still in continuous operation.
Design
Traditionally a movie theater, like a stage theater, consists of a single auditorium with rows of comfortable padded seats, as well as a foyer area containing a box office for buying tickets. Movie theaters also often have a concession stand for buying snacks and drinks within the theater's lobby. Other features included are film posters, arcade games and washrooms. Stage theaters are sometimes converted into movie theaters by placing a screen in front of the stage and adding a projector; this conversion may be permanent, or temporary for purposes such as showing arthouse fare to an audience accustomed to plays. The familiar characteristics of relatively low admission and open seating can be traced to Samuel Roxy Rothafel, an early movie theater impresario. Many of these early theaters contain a balcony, an elevated level across the auditorium above the theater's rearmost seats. The rearward main floor "loge" seats were sometimes larger, softer, and more widely spaced and sold for a higher price. In conventional low-pitch viewing floors, the preferred seating arrangement is to use staggered rows. While a less efficient use of floor space this allows a somewhat improved sight line between the patrons seated in the next row toward the screen, provided they do not lean toward one another."Stadium seating", popular in modern multiplexes, actually dates back to the 1920s. The 1922 Princess Theatre in Honolulu, Hawaii featured "stadium seating", sharply raked rows of seats extending from in front of the screen back towards the ceiling. It gives patrons a clear sight line over the heads of those seated in front of them. Modern "stadium seating" was utilized in IMAX theaters, which have very tall screens, beginning in the early 1970s.
Rows of seats are divided by one or more aisles so that there are seldom more than 20 seats in a row. This allows easier access to seating, as the space between rows is very narrow. Depending on the angle of rake of the seats, the aisles have steps. In older theaters, aisle lights were often built into the end seats of each row to help patrons find their way in the dark. Since the advent of stadium theaters with stepped aisles, each step in the aisles may be outlined with small lights to prevent patrons from tripping in the darkened theater. In movie theaters, the auditorium may also have lights that go to a low level, when the movie is going to begin. Theaters often have booster seats for children and other people of short stature to place on the seats to allow them to sit higher, for a better view. Many modern theaters have accessible seating areas for patrons in wheelchairs. See also [|luxury screens] below.