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Profiles | ||
Premiere cinemas
Premiere Cinemas, officially known as Premiere Cinema Corp., headquartered in Big Spring, Texas, is a privately held motion picture exhibitor. It is among the largest independently owned motion picture exhibitors in the U.S. and is ranked by Box Office magazine and the National Association of Theatre Owners Encyclopedia of Exhibition among the top 20 largest cinema companies in North America. Premiere is owned by Gary Moore, who bought his first theater in 1985 and incorporated Premiere in 1993.
Contents
- Premiere cinemas
- Digital projection conversion
- New direction
- Development of theaters
- D BOX motion technology
- IMAX
- References
As of 2016 Premiere owned 282 screens in 25 locations in five U.S. states: Texas, New Mexico, Alabama, Florida and South Carolina. Flagship megaplex Premiere Cinema locations are operated in Lubbock, Bryan-College Station, El Paso, Houston, and Temple, Texas, Orlando, Florida, Gadsden, Spanish Fort, Bessemer and Rio Rancho, New Mexico. The Premiere in Rio Rancho was honored in 2012 by the New Mexico NOIAP as Outstanding Retail Development of the Year for the state. The City of Rio Rancho honored Premiere by naming a street after the company, Premiere Parkway.
Digital projection conversion
In 2008 Premiere Cinemas became one of the few cinema companies in the U.S. to begin the process of converting all of its 35mm film cinemas to all-digital projection. The company used digital projection technology pioneered by Texas Instruments through the invention of the DLP chip, and manufactured by Belgium-based Barco (Belgium-American Radio Company). By 2010 Premiere had completed the conversion of its stadium multiplexes to all digital.
New direction
Premiere is recognized as the first company to successfully design, build and operate mezzanine-less multiplexes without traditional projection booths, by incorporating the digital projectors directly into the theatre architecture. Premiere accomplishes this by means of what it calls its Digital Command Centers, typically glass-enclosed rooms off the theatre lobbies and displaying racks of digital terabyte GDC or Do-Re-Mi servers, processors, and monitors in public view. Motion picture content is delivered to Premiere Cinemas on hard drives or via satellite and stored on its library management servers, where it is managed and transmitted to the auditoriums throughout the complex.
Development of theaters
Premiere’s equipment division, Premiere Projection Technologies, manufactures theatrical drapes, 3-D silver screens, light fixtures, poster cases and other equipment used in Premiere's theaters, and its general contracting division, Premiere Development Corp., provides turn-key design and construction for company locations.
In 2009 Premiere Cinemas was honored by its peers in the industry with an award for Exhibitor of the Year.
D-BOX motion technology
In 2010, Premiere Cinemas partnered with Quebec-based D-BOX Technologies, Inc. to bring D-BOX motion technology, which delivers programmed motion effects synchronized with the film to a platform or the seat, to the Texas market. The system was installed first at the Aggieland Premiere Cinema in Bryan and later the same year in El Paso; it has since been extended to the Lubbock, Orlando, Rio Rancho, [Burleson, Texas|Burleson]], and Temple theaters. D-BOX Motion Code is available on more than 900 titles.
IMAX
In 2011 Toronto-based IMAX Corporation announced it had entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with Premiere Cinemas to build and operate new large-format digital IMAX theatres in various markets. Premiere Cinema operates IMAX locations in four Texas markets: Lubbock, El Paso, Temple and Bryan.