Empire Cinemas

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This article is about the British cinema company. For the Canadian cinema chain, see Empire Theatres.

Empire Leicester Square

Empire Cinemas is a multiplex cinema chain in the United Kingdom. It is a sister company of the Irish cinema chain Ward Anderson.

In 2005 both Odeon and the UK operations of UCI (also owners of thefilmworks brand) were taken over by Terra Firma Capital Partners who planned to merge the businesses under the Odeon brand. As part of this merger they were required by the Office of Fair Trading to divest eleven of their cinemas. At the same time Cineworld tookover the UK and Republic of Ireland operations of UGC who began merging them into their existing Cineworld brand and were required by the Office of Fair Trading to divest six of their UK cinemas.

Empire Cinemas acquired both groups of available cinemas and began to rebrand them all as Empire Cinemas. The flagship site within the new group is The Empire, Leicester Square, London from which the company takes its name.

By the end of 2006, Empire Cinemas will operate 142 screens across the United Kingdom.