Picturehouse Cinemas

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Picturehouse Cinemas is a chain of art house cinemas in the United Kingdom. As of May 2006 it has 18 branches, all in England and Scotland.

The Picturehouse chain started in 1989 but many of its cinemas operated independently before being bought by City Screen, the chain's owners. One of its branches, the Duke of York's Picture House in Brighton, opened in 1910 and is Britain's longest continually operating cinema.

The cinemas maintain a degree of independence unusual for members of chains, and most of their promotional material is specific to individual cinemas rather than to the chain as a whole. The range of films caters to less mainstream tastes than most commercial cinemas and there is an emphasis on independent, cult and foreign language films, although some branches also show more mainstream Hollywood films that they consider interesting.

The Picturehouse chain is also differentiated from most commercial chains by promotional activities that aim to encourage an interest in film, including membership schemes, printed programmes with comparatively in-depth background information about films, film festivals and themed series of showings. The cinemas are generally small and centrally located compared to others recently opened in the UK, which are often large multiplex cinemas built on the edges of towns.