General Cinema was a nationwide chain of movie theaters that operated from 1935 until 2002. At its peak the company operated approximately 621 screens, some of which were among the first cinemas certified by THX. Its mascot was Popcorn Bob and his Candy Band, which graced the company's policy trailers from 1993 until 2002 and were created by Lucasfilm. Starting in the 1960s General Cinema diversified into other businesses; at times they owned the department store Neiman Marcus, the publisher Harcourt Brace, radio stations in several major markets (notably WEFM in Chicago, WZGC in Atlanta, WGCL in Cleveland and WIFI in Philadelphia), and TV station WCIX in Miami. They formed a joint venture theater chain with Hoyts, known as Hoyts General Cinema, that had locations throughout South America. The company suffered greatly when it filed for bankruptcy protection in 2000. They also switched their beverage supplier from Pepsi to Coca-Cola in 2001. What remained of the company afterward was acquired by AMC Theatres in 2002. With the acquisition, the Credits program merged into the MovieWatcher network.
The General Cinema Corp. trademark was placed up for auction on December 8, 2010. As of 2011, this trademark has been recently published for opposition by JTE Multimedia.
Famous quotes containing the words general, cinema and/or corporation:
“We all have known
Good critics, who have stamped out poet’s hopes;
Good statesmen, who pulled ruin on the state;
Good patriots, who, for a theory, risked a cause;
Good kings, who disembowelled for a tax;
Good Popes, who brought all good to jeopardy;
Good Christians, who sat still in easy-chairs;
And damned the general world for standing up.—
Now, may the good God pardon all good men!”
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)
“The cinema is not an art which films life: the cinema is something between art and life. Unlike painting and literature, the cinema both gives to life and takes from it, and I try to render this concept in my films. Literature and painting both exist as art from the very start; the cinema doesn’t.”
—Jean-Luc Godard (b. 1930)
“The nearest the modern general or admiral comes to a small-arms encounter of any sort is at a duck hunt in the company of corporation executives at the retreat of Continental Motors, Inc.”
—C. Wright Mills (1916–1962)