Reading Cinemas

Reading Cinemas (pronounced 'red-ding') is a group of cinema chains operating in the United States, Australia and New Zealand under American parent company Reading International.^[1]

History

Originally affiliated with Reading Railroad, the company was purchased by a Los Angeles-based lawyer named James Cotter through his holding company, the Craig Corporation, and liquidated the rest of its assets to finance his cinema chains in Puerto Rico, Australia and New Zealand. The company sold one of its last railroad-related assets, the Reading Terminal Headhouse, in 1991. Through the rest of the decade, he began acquiring, developing, and operating real estate properties, focusing its efforts on properties occupied by cinema exhibitors and live theatre operators. Most of the company’s holdings by this time were located far beyond the company’s historical native ground of Pennsylvania’s coal mines. Reading entered Australia in 1995 and New Zealand in 1997, developing a chain of multiplex cinemas that operated under the Reading banner and exhibited mainstream films. Domestically, Reading pursued a more offbeat business direction, acquiring an art-house theatre at the historic Cable Building in Lower Manhattan in 1996 that operated under the name Angelika Film Center. The company also acquired and expanded a chain of multiplex cinemas throughout the island of Puerto Rico.^[1]

James Cotter died in 2014, leaving the company to his son James Jr., and his daughters Ellen and Margaret. In 2017, the California Supreme Court insisted that a temporary trustee be appointed to the company following a dispute over the management of the company between James Jr. and Ellen.^[2]

Locations

Reading Cinemas currently has 37 locations with a total of 352 screens spanned across three countries.^[3]

See also

• Consolidated Theatres
• Angelika Film Center

References