Omniplex Cinemas

Omniplex Cinemas is a cinema chain in Ireland set up in 1991 and operated by Paul Anderson. It operates cinemas throughout Ireland and Northern Ireland. Omniplex is has started a €14.5m investment and renovation in a number of its cinemas including the rolling out across Ireland of its large screen format OmniplexMAXX.^[1]

Omniplex owns 200 screens and 23 cinemas, with 12 in the Republic of Ireland and 11 cinemas in Northern Ireland.

Company History

The Anderson family have a long history in the film and cinema business dating back to 1948 when Kevin Anderson (Paul Anderson's father now retired) first started a film distribution business. The first films acquired were The Hills of Donegal and The Rose of Tralee, which were distributed to cinemas across Ireland.

The first cinema was purchased in Lucan in 1955, where company Chairman and Managing Director Paul Anderson started working at 8 years old before officially entering the business at 18.

The Andersons continued to acquire, redevelop and sell cinemas across Ireland over the subsequent decades. Their biggest acquisition came when they bought the Rank Cinemas portfolio in 1988, which included Dublin's flagship Savoy cinema and The Screen cinema, which the Andersons jointly owned as part of the Dublin Cinema Group until 2013.

The origins of Omniplex lie with the evolution of multiplex cinemas in the early 1990s. The first cinema to be branded an Omniplex was in Santry (now IMC). Since then Omniplex have expanded in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, there are 23 Omniplex cinemas currently operating. This includes the 13 screen Cork Omniplex which opened in 2005 and the Swan Omniplex in Rathmines which opened in 2015 following a 10 year campaign to open a cinemas in the Swan shopping Centre, which the Andersons acquired in 1999.

The company announced the acquisition of the Quayside cinema in Balbriggan, which was bought from NAMA and refurbished at a cost of €1.5m.^[2]

As well as screening films Omniplex cinemas also show live events that are broadcast from around the world. This includes weekly live show from New York's Met Opera, The Bolshoi Ballet and music concerts.

Omniplex are reported to sell 5.5m cinema tickets per year.^[3]

Acquiring of the Gaiety Cinema Group

It May 2015 it was announced that Omniplex had bought the Gaiety Cinema Group (GCG) in an €8m deal. GCG owned two cinemas in Sligo and Arklow, in the Bridgewater Shopping Centre^[4][5]

OmniplexMAXX

The OmniplexMAXX is the next generation of giant format cinemas screens being rolled out across Omniplex’s cinemas. This includes the OmniplexMAXX in Antrim which, at 23 metres wide, is Ireland’s widest cinema screen. Other OmniplexMAXX screens have opening in Mahon, Cork, Limerick, Waterford and Rathmines, which opened in 2014 with the Irish premier or The Inbetweeners 2.^[6] New OmniplexMAXX screens are planned in Dundonald and Dundalk. The auditoriums include custom-designed leather reclining armchairs as standard, HD digital projection and MasterImage 3D. OmniplexMAXX will also introduce next generation audio format to deliver an immersive 3D sound experience using a three-dimensional Barco Auro 11.1 channel/speaker layout, the only cinema company in Ireland with access to this sound system.

Private Cinema - Dublin

In August 2015 Omniplex opened the first digital private screen in Dublin in their Rathmines cinema. Dubbed the 'secret screen' it is not part of the cinema's public schedule and is only available for private hire. Its use is a closely guarded company secret.^[7]

Omniparks

In 2015 Omniplex launched OmniPark, the new leisure park brand covering three of the parks that company owns, on which it has cinemas. Omniparks are located in Dundonald, Craigavon and Bangor.^[8]

Cinema locations

Republic of Ireland

Northern Ireland

References

External links

• Omniplex Cinemas