Successors AMC Theatres Website www.showplaceicon.com Successor AMC Theatres | Key people Gus Kerasotes, founder Founded 1909 Parent organization AMC Theatres | |
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Industry Entertainment (movie theatres) Headquarters Chicago, Illinois, United States | ||
Kerasotes Showplace Theatres, LLC is a movie theatre operator primarily in the Midwestern United States. Based in Chicago, Kerasotes Showplace Theatres, LLC was the sixth-largest movie-theatre company in North America with 957 screens in 95 locations in California, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, and Wisconsin. The chain was sold to AMC Theatres in 2010, except for its Icon Theatre locations and one location in New Jersey.
The company was founded in 1909, when Gus Kerasotes, a Greek immigrant, opened a storefront nickelodeon movie theatre in Springfield, Illinois. He and his brother, Louis G. Kerasotes operated the theater business together for over fifty years. His four sons, George, Louis, John, and Nicholas, joined him in the business and by the 1930s, the company had one theatre.
The chain undertook a major expansion program during the 1990s and 2000s adding several hundred screens to the circuit.
In January 2008, Kerasotes acquired AGT Enterprise's Star Cinema brand. The purchase includes four theatres in Wisconsin and two in Iowa. The theatres retained the Star Cinema name and honored gift cards until the AMC acquisition.
Kerasotes Showplace Theatres, LLC remains a family business. It is currently managed by the third generation of family with Tony Kerasotes as chief executive officer and Dean Kerasotes as chief operating officer.
On Tuesday, January 19, 2010, Kerasotes Showplace Theatres, LLC announced that they signed a definitive agreement to sell most of the assets to AMC Entertainment, Inc., combining the nation's second and sixth largest movie theatre chains.
On Tuesday, May 25, 2010, the $275 million sale between Kerasotes Theatres and AMC Entertainment, Inc. was completed.
The sale left Kerasotes with three theatre sites, in Chicago, Illinois, St. Louis Park, Minnesota (the Icon Theatre sites) and Secaucus, New Jersey, their last remaining standard theatre.