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96-660: The Kino Babylon is a cinema in the Mitte neighbourhood of Berlin and part of a listed building complex at Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz opposite the Volksbühne theatre. The building was erected 1928–29. It was designed by the architect Hans Poelzig in the Neue Sachlichkeit style. In 1948 the theatre was heavily renovated and served afterward as a speciality cinema for the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). After

192-619: A collective agreement with the employees starting on 1 January 2010. In 2009 the operator of the cinema instigated a legal dispute with the FAU, regarding its right to designate itself as a trade union. In October 2009, the Berlin-Brandenburg employment court decided that the FAU had the right to negotiate pay settlements. A temporary injunction , imposed by the Berlin high court in December 2009, forbade

288-415: A digital cinema format that uses dual 2K resolution projectors and a screen with a 1.90:1 aspect ratio; this system is designed primarily for use in retrofitted multiplexes, using screens significantly smaller than those normally associated with IMAX. In 2015, IMAX introduced an updated "IMAX with Laser" format, using 4K resolution laser projectors. The term " premium large format " ( PLF ) emerged in

384-631: A movie house , film house , film theater , cinema or picture house . In the US, theater has long been the preferred spelling, while in the UK, Australia, Canada and elsewhere it is theatre . However, some US theaters opt to use the British spelling in their own names, a practice supported by the National Association of Theatre Owners , while apart from Anglophone North America most English-speaking countries use

480-523: A silent film cinema with an orchestra pit and a cinema organ for musical accompaniment. During the 1948 renovation the orchestra pit was closed and the organ dismantled. One of the Babylon's projectionists, Rudolf Lunau, was a member of an illegal resistance cell of the Communist Party of Germany from 1933 until his arrest in 1934. He held meetings in "his" projection room, where he also hid opponents of

576-451: A French conglomerate, Compagnie Générale des Eaux , later Vivendi Universal . In 2004, a private consortium acquired the studios. The films produced at the DEFA studios after World War II included approximately 950 feature films, 820 animated films, more than 5,800 documentaries and newsreels, and 4,000 foreign language movies dubbed into German, which were acquired by the privatized successor to

672-564: A better view. Many modern theaters have accessible seating areas for patrons in wheelchairs. See also luxury screens below. Canada was the first country in the world to have a two-screen theater. The Elgin Theatre in Ottawa, Ontario became the first venue to offer two film programs on different screens in 1957 when Canadian theater-owner Nat Taylor converted the dual screen theater into one capable of showing two different movies simultaneously. Taylor

768-537: A break in between. Separate admission for a short subject is rare; it is either an extra before a feature film or part of a series of short films sold as one admission (this mainly occurs at film festivals). (See also anthology film .) In the early decades of "talkie" films, many movie theaters presented a number of shorter items in addition to the feature film. This might include a newsreel , live-action comedy short films, documentary short films, musical short films, or cartoon shorts (many classic cartoons series such as

864-457: A cinema and a theatre and therefore had a back stage area behind the screen. This was where new smaller auditorium was built as part of the restoration. The orchestra pit of the large auditorium was restored, so that a chamber orchestra can play live music during screenings of silent films. In 1999, the 70-year-old J. D. Philipps cinema organ was restored. It is the only cinema organ in Germany that

960-565: A former graphic designer, also designed DEFA's logo. On 13 August 1946, the company was officially registered as a joint-stock company ( German : Aktiengesellschaft ). By the end of the year, in addition to the Staudte film, it had completed two other feature films using the former Tobis studio facilities in Berlin and the Althoff Studios in Babelsberg . Subsequently, its principal studio

1056-414: A full restaurant menu instead of general movie theater concessions such as popcorn or candy. In certain countries, there are also Bed Cinemas where the audience sits or lays in beds instead of chairs. 3D film is a system of presenting film images so that they appear to the viewer to be three-dimensional. Visitors usually borrow or keep special glasses to wear while watching the movie. Depending on

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1152-460: A graveyard and ruins, formed an ideal location for his ghostraising spectacle. When it opened in 1838, The Royal Polytechnic Institution in London became a very popular and influential venue with all kinds of magic lantern shows as an important part of its program. At the main theatre, with 500 seats, lanternists would make good use of a battery of six large lanterns running on tracked tables to project

1248-417: A result, the customer geography area of multiplexes and megaplexes typically overlaps with smaller theaters, which face threat of having their audience siphoned by bigger theaters that cut a wider swath in the movie-going landscape. In most markets, nearly all single-screen theaters (sometimes referred to as a "Uniplex") have gone out of business; the ones remaining are generally used for arthouse films, e.g.

1344-409: A screen in front of the stage and adding a projector; this conversion may be permanent, or temporary for purposes such as showing arthouse fare to an audience accustomed to plays. The familiar characteristics of relatively low admission and open seating can be traced to Samuel Roxy Rothafel , an early movie theater impresario . Many of these early theaters contain a balcony , an elevated level across

1440-567: A system is used that requires inexpensive 3D glasses, they can sometimes be kept by the patron. Most theaters have a fixed cost for 3D, while others charge for the glasses, but the latter is uncommon (at least in the United States). For example, in Pathé theaters in the Netherlands the extra fee for watching a 3D film consists of a fixed fee of €1.50, and an optional fee of €1 for the glasses. Holders of

1536-414: A total of over 500,000 visitors, with programs including Pauvre Pierrot and Autour d'une cabine . Thomas Edison initially believed film screening would not be as viable commercially as presenting films in peep boxes, hence the film apparatus that his company would first exploit became the kinetoscope . A few public demonstrations occurred since 9 May 1893, before a first public Kinetoscope parlor

1632-560: Is arguably the first cinema in the world. Claimants for the title of the earliest movie theatre include the Eden Theater in La Ciotat , where L'Arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat was screened on 21 March 1899. The theatre closed in 1995 but re-opened in 2013. L'Idéal Cinéma in Aniche (France), built in 1901 as l'Hôtel du Syndicat CGT, showed its first film on 23 November 1905. The cinema

1728-618: Is credited by Canadian sources as the inventor of the multiplex or cineplex; he later founded the Cineplex Odeon Corporation , opening the 18-screen Toronto Eaton Centre Cineplex, the world's largest at the time, in Toronto, Ontario. In the United States, Stanley Durwood of American Multi-Cinema (now AMC Theatres ) is credited as pioneering the multiplex in 1963 after realizing that he could operate several attached auditoriums with

1824-458: Is increasing. The RealD company expects 15,000 screens worldwide in 2010. The availability of 3D movies encourages exhibitors to adopt digital cinema and provides a way for theaters to compete with home theaters . One incentive for theaters to show 3D films is that although ticket sales have declined, revenues from 3D tickets have grown. In the 2010s, 3D films became popular again. The IMAX 3D system and digital 3D systems are used (the latter

1920-497: Is mentioned in the 2010 Guinness World Records . The World's smallest solar-powered mobile cinema is Sol Cinema in the UK. Touring since 2010 the cinema is actually a converted 1972 caravan. It seats 8–10 at a time. In 2015 it featured in a Lenovo advert for the launch of a new tablet. The Bell Museum of Natural History in Minneapolis , Minnesota has recently begun summer "bike-ins", inviting only pedestrians or people on bicycles onto

2016-569: Is still inconvenient and disturbing to find and claim it during the commercials and trailers, unless it is near an aisle. Some movie theaters have some kind of break during the presentation, particularly for very long films. There may also be a break between the introductory material and the feature. Some countries such as the Netherlands have a tradition of incorporating an intermission in regular feature presentations, though many theaters have now abandoned that tradition, while in North America, this

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2112-486: Is still played in its original location. In May 2001 the reopening of the auditorium took place with the film Othello by Orson Welles . In 2002 the "Berlin film art Babylon" association was awarded the "Silver Hemisphere" by the German Foundation for Monument Protection . The architects Joachim Roemer and Klaus Meyer-Rogge were honoured for saving a "key building of cinema architecture". The restored cinema organ

2208-516: Is the oldest known movie theater still in continuous operation. Traditionally a movie theater, like a stage theater , consists of a single auditorium with rows of comfortable padded seats, as well as a foyer area containing a box office for buying tickets. Movie theaters also often have a concession stand for buying snacks and drinks within the theater's lobby. Other features included are film posters , arcade games and washrooms. Stage theaters are sometimes converted into movie theaters by placing

2304-474: Is used in the animated movies of Disney / Pixar ). The RealD 3D system works by using a single digital projector that swaps back and forth between the images for eyes. A filter is placed in front of the projector that changes the polarization of the light coming from the projector. A silver screen is used to reflect this light back at the audience and reduce loss of brightness. There are four other systems available: Volfoni, Master Image, XpanD and Dolby 3D . When

2400-773: Is usually called a " megaplex ". However, in the United Kingdom, this was a brand name for Virgin Cinema (later UGC). The first megaplex is generally considered to be the Kinepolis in Brussels, Belgium, which opened in 1988 with 25 screens and a seating capacity of 7,500. The first theater in the U.S. built from the ground up as a megaplex was the AMC Grand 24 in Dallas, Texas , which opened in May 1995, while

2496-424: Is very rare and usually limited to special circumstances involving extremely long movies. During the closing credits many people leave, but some stay until the end. Usually the lights are switched on after the credits, sometimes already during them. Some films show mid-credits scenes while the credits are rolling, which in comedy films are often bloopers and outtakes, or post-credits scenes , which typically set up

2592-624: The Looney Tunes and Mickey Mouse shorts were created for this purpose). Examples of this kind of programming are available on certain DVD releases of two of the most famous films starring Errol Flynn as a special feature arrangement designed to recreate that kind of filmgoing experience while the PBS series, Matinee at the Bijou , presented the equivalent content. Some theaters ran on continuous showings , where

2688-629: The Berlin Independent Film Festival , the Türkisches Film Festival Berlin, and the Berlin Documentary Film Festival (DocBerlin), In 2009 some employees, who were members of the anarcho-syndicalist Free Workers' Union (FAU), sought higher wages and better working conditions. At the end of July 2009 the Berlin section of the FAU called for a boycott of the cinema. The Ver.di trade union signed

2784-526: The Digital Cinema Package for the film. Control data is encoded in a monoaural WAV file on Sound Track channel 13, labelled as "Motion Data". Motion Data tracks are unencrypted and not watermarked. Movie theaters may be classified by the type of movies they show or when in a film's release process they are shown: Usually in the 2020s, an admission is for one feature film. Sometimes two feature films are sold as one admission ( double feature ), with

2880-533: The Federal Republic of Germany (commonly known as West Germany), and on 7 October 1949, the Soviet zone officially became the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). Ownership of DEFA as well as all DEFA assets were transferred to the newly created state. On 23 June 1950, Sepp Schwab  [ de ] , a hardline Communist, was appointed director-general of DEFA. As socialist realism took hold at DEFA,

2976-723: The Latham family, was demonstrated for members of the press on 21 April 1895 and opened to the paying public on 20 May, in a lower Broadway store with films of the Griffo-Barnett prize boxing fight, taken from Madison Square Garden 's roof on 4 May. Max Skladanowsky and his brother Emil demonstrated their motion pictures with the Bioscop in July 1895 at the Gasthaus Sello in Pankow (Berlin). This venue

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3072-463: The Ministry of Technology campaign to raise standards. Using a very futuristic look, these 27-seat cinema vehicles were designed to attract attention. They were built on a Bedford SB 3 chassis with a custom Coventry Steel Caravan extruded aluminum body. Movies are also commonly shown on airliners in flight, using large screens in each cabin or smaller screens for each group of rows or each individual seat;

3168-513: The Pathé Unlimited Gold pass (see also below) are supposed to bring along their own glasses; one pair, supplied yearly, more robust than the regular type, is included in the price. IMAX is a system using 70 mm film with more than ten times the frame size of a 35 mm film . IMAX theaters use an oversized screen as well as special projectors. The first permanent IMAX theater was at Ontario Place in Toronto, Canada. Until 2016, visitors to

3264-530: The State Film Archive of the GDR and state film and television programme-makers. From 1984 to 1989, amongst other offerings, it showed documentary films made by the state-owned DEFA studios. In 1993 the auditorium had to be closed by the building authorities because it was in danger of collapsing. As a result, the foyer of the cinema was converted into a temporary stage with 68 seats. The two-year redevelopment of

3360-508: The auditorium was closed due to risk of collapse, it was restored between 1999 and 2001 in accordance with conservation guidelines. In 2002 the restoration was awarded the "German Award for Monument Protection". Since 2001 the Babylon has primarily served as revival house as well as a venue for film festivals, musical and literary cultural events. It was a Berlin International Film Festival venue from 2008 to 2010. The cinema

3456-588: The 1570s in the English language. Movie theatres stand in a long tradition of theaters that could house all kinds of entertainment. Some forms of theatrical entertainment would involve the screening of moving images and can be regarded as precursors of film . In 1799, Étienne-Gaspard "Robertson" Robert moved his Phantasmagorie show to an abandoned cloister near the Place Vendôme in Paris. The eerie surroundings, with

3552-555: The 1920s. The most important film in collaboration with him was The Golem: How He Came into the World (1920) by Paul Wegener and Carl Boese . In addition to the Babylon, Poelzig designed two other cinemas; the "Capitol am Zoo" (1924–26) in Berlin and the "Kino Deli" (1926/1927) in Wrocław , now in Poland, but at that time it was part of Germany and known as Breslau. In 1929 the Babylon opened as

3648-415: The 1950s—have up to thirty screens. The audience members often sit on padded seats, which in most theaters are set on a sloped floor, with the highest part at the rear of the theater. Movie theaters often sell soft drinks , popcorn and candy , and some theaters sell hot fast food . In some jurisdictions, movie theaters can be licensed to sell alcoholic drinks. A movie theater might also be referred to as

3744-620: The 1960s, DEFA produced the popular Red Western The Sons of the Great Mother Bear , directed by Josef Mach and starring Gojko Mitić as the Sioux Tokei-itho. This spawned a number of sequels and was notable for inverting Western clichés by portraying the native Americans as the "good guys", and the American army as the "baddies". In 1992, after German reunification, DEFA was officially dissolved and its combined studios sold to

3840-505: The 1980s the introduction of VHS cassettes made possible video-salons, small rooms where visitors viewed movies on a large TV. These establishments were especially popular in the Soviet Union , where official distribution companies were slow to adapt to changing demand, and so movie theaters could not show popular Hollywood and Asian films . In 1967, the British government launched seven custom-built mobile cinema units for use as part of

3936-476: The Babylon began in 1999. It cost ten million Marks and was mainly funded by the German government. Lottery development funds of two million Euros were given for the seats and technical equipment. The roof and the ceiling of the large auditorium were refurbished. Wooden joists in the ceiling, which were no longer able to support the weight, were replaced by steel girders and a new roof was erected over them. The front of

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4032-464: The Babylon is located has the form of a triangle along Hirtenstraße, Kleine Alexanderstraße and Weydingerstraße, with the main cinema entrance at "Rosa-Luxemburg-Straße 30." This was the only block of the Poelzig-designed neighbourhood that survived World War II completely intact. The building is strongly structured horizontally by rows of windows forming stripes and a wide overhanging moulding at

4128-460: The Crest Theatre in downtown Sacramento, California , small-scale productions, film festivals or other presentations. Because of the late development of multiplexes, the term "cinema" or "theater" may refer either to the whole complex or a single auditorium, and sometimes "screen" is used to refer to an auditorium. A popular film may be shown on multiple screens at the same multiplex, which reduces

4224-607: The Dark and Warner Bros. House of Wax , the first 3D feature with stereophonic sound. For many years, most 3D movies were shown in amusement parks and even "4D" techniques have been used when certain effects such as spraying of water, movement of seats, and other effects are used to simulate actions seen on the screen. The first decline in the theatrical 3D craze started in August and September 1953. In 2009, movie exhibitors became more interested in 3D film. The number of 3D screens in theaters

4320-638: The FAU Berlin from calling itself a trade union until further notice. This was overturned by the Supreme Court in June 2010. Movie theater A movie theater ( American English ) or cinema ( Commonwealth English ), also known as a movie house , cinema hall , picture house , picture theater , the pictures , or simply theater , is a business that contains auditoriums for viewing films for public entertainment. Most are commercial operations catering to

4416-515: The GDR has been made internationally accessible and licensable on the Progress Film archive platform. The DEFA Foundation is a non-profit organisation established by the Federal Government of Germany on 15 December 1998. It was established in order to preserve the films in the DEFA library, as well as the former East German film studios, and oversee their use for the public good as part of

4512-700: The IMAX cinema attached to the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford , West Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom, could observe the IMAX projection booth via a glass rear wall and watch the large format films being loaded and projected. The largest permanent IMAX cinema screen measures 38.80 m × 21.00 m (127.30 ft × 68.90 ft) and was achieved by Traumplast Leonberg (Germany) in Leonberg, Germany , verified on 6 December 2022. IMAX also refers to

4608-502: The Old French word "theatre", from the 12th century and "...directly from Latin theatrum [which meant] 'play-house, theater; stage; spectators in a theater'", which in turn came from the Greek word "theatron", which meant "theater; the people in the theater; a show, a spectacle", [or] literally "place for viewing". The use of the word "theatre" to mean a "building where plays are shown" dates from

4704-572: The Soviet Union, the excessive control placed by the state on authors of screenplays, as against other literary works, discouraged many competent writers from contributing to East German film. Screenwriters could find their efforts rejected for ideological reasons at any stage in script development, if not from the outset. As a result, between 1948 and 1953, when Stalin died, the entire film output for East Germany, excluding newsreels and non-theatrical educational films, amounted to fewer than 50 titles. In

4800-593: The airline company sometimes charges a fee for the headphones needed to hear the movie's sound. In a similar fashion, movies are sometimes also shown on trains, such as the Auto Train . The smallest purpose-built cinema is the Cabiria Cine-Cafe which measures 24 m (260 sq ft) and has a seating capacity of 18. It was built by Renata Carneiro Agostinho da Silva (Brazil) in Brasília DF, Brazil in 2008. It

4896-691: The audience for a sequel. DEFA DEFA was founded in Spring 1946 in the Soviet Occupied Zone in eastern Germany; it was the first film production company in post-World War II Germany. While the other Allies , in their zones of occupation, viewed a rapid revival of a German film industry with suspicion, the Soviets valued the medium as a primary means of re-educating the German populace as it emerged from twelve years of Nazi rule. Headquartered in Berlin ,

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4992-407: The audience sits upon chairs, blankets or even in hot tubs , and watch the movie on a temporary screen, or even the wall of a building. Colleges and universities have often sponsored movie screenings in lecture halls. The formats of these screenings include 35 mm, 16 mm, DVD , VHS, and even 70 mm in rare cases. Some alternative methods of showing movies have been popular in the past. In

5088-409: The auditorium above the theater's rearmost seats. The rearward main floor "loge" seats were sometimes larger, softer, and more widely spaced and sold for a higher price. In conventional low pitch viewing floors, the preferred seating arrangement is to use staggered rows. While a less efficient use of floor space this allows a somewhat improved sight line between the patrons seated in the next row toward

5184-637: The board of directors, and a committee was established under the auspices of the Socialist Unity Party to review projects and screen rushes . In July 1948, Lindemann was dismissed from the board of directors because of alleged "financial irregularities" and replaced briefly by Walter Janka . In October 1948, the SED was instrumental in replacing Janka, Volkmann and Bergmann as corporate directors with official party members Wilhelm Meissner, Alexander Lösche  [ de ] and Grete Keilson . In December,

5280-425: The building was also restored. The aim of the restoration was not to return the building to how it looked at a particular point in time, but to keep various elements from throughout the building's history. The foyer was returned to how it was when the building opened in 1928 and the auditorium was renovated to its 1948 style, with plush seating and stucco and gilded details. The building was originally used as both

5376-470: The car's stereo system. Because of their outdoor nature, drive-ins usually only operate seasonally, and after sunset. Drive-in movie theaters are mainly found in the United States, where they were especially popular in the 1950s and 1960s. Once numbering in the thousands, about 400 remain in the U.S. today. In some cases, multiplex or megaplex theaters were built on the sites of former drive-in theaters. Some outdoor movie theaters are just grassy areas where

5472-436: The choice of other films but offers more choice of viewing times or a greater number of seats to accommodate patrons. Two or three screens may be created by dividing up an existing cinema (as Durwood did with his Roxy in 1964), but newly built multiplexes usually have at least six to eight screens, and often as many as twelve, fourteen, sixteen or even eighteen. Although definitions vary, a large multiplex with 20 or more screens

5568-498: The company was formally authorized by the Soviet Military Administration to produce films on 13 May 1946, although Wolfgang Staudte had already begun work on DEFA's first film, Die Mörder sind unter uns ( The Murderers Are Among Us ) nine days earlier. The original board of directors consisted of Alfred Lindemann, Karl Hans Bergmann, and Herbert Volkmann, with Hans Klering as administrative Secretary. Klering,

5664-434: The dark. Since the advent of stadium theaters with stepped aisles, each step in the aisles may be outlined with small lights to prevent patrons from tripping in the darkened theater. In movie theaters, the auditorium may also have lights that go to a low level, when the movie is going to begin. Theaters often have booster seats for children and other people of short stature to place on the seats to allow them to sit higher, for

5760-511: The death of Trauberg and the resignation of Wolkenstein resulted in two more Soviets in their stead, Aleksandr Andriyevsky and Leonid Antonov. In 1948, the division of Germany into zones controlled by the Soviet Union and by the Western Allies came into effect. The SED eventually became openly Communist , with a strong Stalinist orientation. On 23 May 1949, the Allies' Germany officially became

5856-467: The definition of desirable and acceptable themes for films became narrower. In June 1947, a film writer's conference held in Potsdam produced general agreement that the "new" German cinema would disavow both subjects and stylistic elements reminiscent of those seen on German screens during, and prior to, the Nazi era. By 1949, expectations for scripts were codified around a small number of topics, such as "[re-]distribution of land" or "the two-year plan". As in

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5952-473: The early 1950s with the release of the first color stereoscopic feature, Bwana Devil . The film starred Robert Stack , Barbara Britton and Nigel Bruce . James Mage was an early pioneer in the 3D craze. Using his 16 mm 3D Bolex system, he premiered his Triorama program in February 1953 with his four shorts: Sunday In Stereo , Indian Summer , American Life , and This is Bolex Stereo . 1953 saw two groundbreaking features in 3D: Columbia's Man in

6048-415: The feature film. Advertised start times are usually for the entire program or session, not the feature itself; thus people who want to avoid commercials and trailers would opt to enter later. This is easiest and causes the least inconvenience when it is not crowded or one is not very choosy about where one wants to sit. If one has a ticket for a specific seat (see below) one is formally assured of that, but it

6144-400: The finely detailed images of extra large slides on the 648 square feet screen. The magic lantern was used to illustrate lectures, concerts, pantomimes and other forms of theatre. Popular magic lantern presentations included phantasmagoria, mechanical slides, Henry Langdon Childe 's dissolving views and his chromatrope. The earliest known public screening of projected stroboscopic animation

6240-497: The first decade of motion pictures, the demand for movies, the amount of new productions, and the average runtime of movies, kept increasing, and at some stage it was viable to have theaters that would no longer program live acts, but only movies. The first building built for the dedicated purpose of showing motion pictures was built to demonstrate The Phantoscope , a device created by Jenkins & Armat, as part of The Cotton State Exposition on September 25, 1895 in Atlanta, GA. This

6336-430: The first megaplex in the U.S.-based on an expansion of an existing facility was Studio 28 in Grand Rapids, Michigan , which reopened in November 1988 with 20 screens and a seating capacity of 6,000. A drive-in movie theater is an outdoor parking area with a screen—sometimes an inflatable screen —at one end and a projection booth at the other. Moviegoers drive into the parking spaces which are sometimes sloped upwards at

6432-431: The former East German film distribution monopoly, PROGRESS . In October 2005, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City hosted a two-week DEFA festival. Das Stacheltier is a satirical series of short films that was produced in East Germany by the DEFA Film Studios from 1953 to 1964. The short films were meant to be shown in film theatres preceding the newsreel and the main feature. The only feature film in

6528-409: The front to give a more direct view of the movie screen. Movies are usually viewed through the car windscreen (windshield) although some people prefer to sit on the bonnet (hood) of the car. Some may also sit in the trunk (back) of their car if space permits. Sound is either provided through portable loudspeakers located by each parking space, or is broadcast on an FM radio frequency, to be played through

6624-437: The general public, who attend by purchasing tickets . The film is projected with a movie projector onto a large projection screen at the front of the auditorium while the dialogue, sounds and music are played through a number of wall-mounted speakers. Since the 1970s, subwoofers have been used for low-pitched sounds. Since the 2010s, the majority of movie theaters have been equipped for digital cinema projection , removing

6720-403: The grounds for both live music and movies. In various Canadian cities, including Toronto , Calgary, Ottawa and Halifax , al-fresco movies projected on the walls of buildings or temporarily erected screens in parks operate during the Summer and cater to a pedestrian audience. The New Parkway Museum in Oakland, California replaces general seating with couches and coffee tables, as well as having

6816-521: The imposing auditorium, that is given a warm and cosy mood without many extravagant decorative forms. Wall and ceiling are painted in a shaded yellow, the gallery niche and the stalls are painted red and contrast with a narrow copper-coloured band, the balustrade of the seats is blue. The seats are covered with velvet of the same colour. The wooden working of the doors and the grilles of the heating and ventilation system are painted in red. Poelzig also worked as set designer and architect for film and theatre of

6912-946: The mid-2010s to refer to auditoriums with high-end amenities. PLF does not refer to a single format in general, but combinations of non-proprietary amenities such as larger "wall-to-wall" screens, 4K projectors, 7.1 and/or positional surround sound systems (including Dolby Atmos ), and higher-quality seating (such as leather recliners). Cinemas typically brand PLF auditoriums with chain-specific trademarks , such as "Prime" ( AMC ), "Grand Screen” ( B&B Theatres ), "BTX" ( Bow Tie ), "Superscreen" ( Cineworld ), "BigD" ( Carmike , now owned by AMC), "UltraAVX" ( Cineplex ), "Macro XE" ( Cinépolis ), "XD" ( Cinemark ), "BigPix" ( INOX ), "Laser Ultra" ( Kinepolis and Landmark Cinemas ), "RPX" ( Regal Cinemas ), "Superscreen DLX"/"Ultrascreen DLX" ( Marcus ), "Titan" ( Reading Cinemas ), "VueXtreme" ( Vue International ), and "X-land" ( Wanda Cinemas ). PLFs compete primarily with formats such as digital IMAX;

7008-425: The national cultural heritage of Germany. It holds around 700 feature films; 450 short fiction films; 950 animated films; 2,000 documentary films; 2,500 serial films; 6,700 German language dubbed foreign films; various other films made after 1990, and various ephemera such as film posters and manuscripts. The foundation has also been making digitised copies of its films since 2012. In 2013, the foundation established

7104-463: The need to create and transport a physical film print on a heavy reel. A great variety of films are shown at cinemas, ranging from animated films to blockbusters to documentaries. The smallest movie theaters have a single viewing room with a single screen. In the 2010s, most movie theaters had multiple screens. The largest theater complexes, which are called multiplexes —a concept developed in Canada in

7200-502: The popularity of such shows in France. The earliest public film screenings took place in existing (vaudeville) theatres and other venues that could be darkened and comfortably house an audience. Émile Reynaud screened his Pantomimes Lumineuses animated movies from 28 October 1892 to March 1900 at the Musée Grévin in Paris, with his Théâtre Optique system. He gave over 12,800 shows to

7296-405: The production of motion pictures or in a large private residence. The etymology of the term "movie theater" involves the term "movie", which is a "shortened form of moving picture in the cinematographic sense" that was first used in 1896 and "theater", which originated in the "...late 14c., [meaning an] open air place in ancient times for viewing spectacles and plays". The term "theater" comes from

7392-658: The regime who went underground. At the beginning of the 1980s a metal plaque was placed in the foyer of the cinema to commemorate him. After the Second World War the Babylon, then in the Soviet occupation zone , reopened on 18 May 1948 as a première theatre under direction of the Sovexportfilm agency in Germany. From 1949 until 1989, under East German rule, the Kino Babylon showed specialist films, for example, screening films from

7488-419: The roof plate. The front is ochre-coloured plaster, with stripes painted on plaster in a light yellow shade. Following Neue Sachlichkeit design principles, the interior design was characterized by economical use of materials and utilisation of the emotional impact of colour and form: From a spacious, in grey, red and yellow kept vestibule, from where two broad stairs lead upwards to the rood loft, one gets to

7584-554: The same items would repeat throughout the day, with patrons arriving and departing at any time rather than having distinct entrance and exit cycles. Newsreels gradually became obsolete by the 1960s with the rise of television news, and most material now shown prior to a feature film is of a commercial or promotional nature (which usually include " trailers ", which are advertisements for films and commercials for other consumer products or services). A typical modern theater presents commercial advertising shorts , then movie trailers, and then

7680-584: The same staff needed for one through careful management of the start times for each movie. Ward Parkway Center in Kansas City, Missouri had the first multiplex cinema in the United States. Since the 1960s, multiple-screen theaters have become the norm, and many existing venues have been retrofitted so that they have multiple auditoriums. A single foyer area is shared among them. In the 1970s, many large 1920s movie palaces were converted into multiple screen venues by dividing their large auditoriums, and sometimes even

7776-472: The screen, provided they do not lean toward one another. " Stadium seating ", popular in modern multiplexes, actually dates back to the 1920s. The 1922 Princess Theatre in Honolulu, Hawaii featured "stadium seating", sharply raked rows of seats extending from in front of the screen back towards the ceiling. It gives patrons a clear sight line over the heads of those seated in front of them. Modern "stadium seating"

7872-470: The series was the silent film Der junge Engländer directed by Gottfried Kolditz in 1958. Many well-known East German directors and actors contributed to the film series, including Frank Beyer , Erwin Geschonneck , Gisela May , Rudolf Wessely , Otto Tausig , Peter Sturm , Rolf Herricht and Heinz Schubert . In 2019, Progress was acquired by LOOKSfilm. Since April 1, 2019, the entire film heritage of

7968-399: The silver screen (formerly sometimes sheet ) and the big screen (contrasted with the smaller screen of a television set). Specific to North American term is the movies , while specific terms in the UK are the pictures , the flicks and for the facility itself the flea pit (or fleapit ). A screening room is a small theater, often a private one, such as for the use of those involved in

8064-414: The stage space, into smaller theaters. Because of their size, and amenities like plush seating and extensive food/beverage service, multiplexes and megaplexes draw from a larger geographic area than smaller theaters. As a rule of thumb, they pull audiences from an eight to 12-mile radius, versus a three to five-mile radius for smaller theaters (though the size of this radius depends on population density). As

8160-402: The system used, these are typically polarized glasses . Three-dimensional movies use two images channeled, respectively, to the right and left eyes to simulate depth by using 3D glasses with red and blue lenses (anaglyph), polarized (linear and circular), and other techniques. 3D glasses deliver the proper image to the proper eye and make the image appear to "pop-out" at the viewer and even follow

8256-528: The term cinema / ˈ s ɪ n ɪ m ə / , alternatively spelled and pronounced kinema / ˈ k ɪ n ɪ m ə / . The latter terms, as well as their derivative adjectives "cinematic" and "kinematic", ultimately derive from Greek κίνημα, κινήματος ( kinema , kinematos )—"movement, motion". In the countries where those terms are used, the word "theatre" is usually reserved for live performance venues. Colloquial expressions, mostly applied to motion pictures and motion picture theaters collectively, include

8352-572: The use of common " off-the-shelf " components and an in-house brand removes the need to pay licensing fees to a third-party for a proprietary large format. Although the term is synonymous with exhibitor-specific brands, some PLFs are franchised. Dolby franchises Dolby Cinema , which is based on technologies such as Atmos and Dolby Vision . CJ CGV franchises the 4DX and ScreenX formats. In some theaters, seating can be dynamically moved via haptic motion technology called D-BOX . In digital cinema , D-BOX codes for motion control are stored in

8448-470: The viewer when he/she moves so viewers relatively see the same image. The earliest 3D movies were presented in the 1920s. There have been several prior "waves" of 3D movie distribution, most notably in the 1950s when they were promoted as a way to offer audiences something that they could not see at home on television. Still the process faded quickly and as yet has never been more than a periodic novelty in movie presentation. The "golden era" of 3D film began in

8544-631: Was closed in 1977 and the building was demolished in 1993. The "Centre Culturel Claude Berri" was built in 1995; it integrates a new movie theater (the Idéal Cinéma Jacques Tati). In the United States, many small and simple theaters were set up, usually in converted storefronts. They typically charged five cents for admission, and thus became known as nickelodeons . This type of theatre flourished from about 1905 to circa 1915. The Korsør Biograf Teater, in Korsør , Denmark, opened in August 1908 and

8640-585: Was later, at least since 1918, exploited as the full-time movie theatre Pankower Lichtspiele and between 1925 and 1994 as Tivoli. The first certain commercial screenings by the Skladanowsky brothers took place at the Wintergarten in Berlin from 1 to 31 November 1895. The first commercial, public screening of films made with Louis and Auguste Lumière 's Cinématographe took place in the basement of Salon Indien du Grand Café in Paris on 28 December 1895. During

8736-603: Was opened on 14 April 1894, by the Holland Bros. in New York City at 1155 Broadway, on the corner of 27th Street. This can be regarded as the first commercial motion picture house. The venue had ten machines, set up in parallel rows of five, each showing a different movie. For 25 cents a viewer could see all the films in either row; half a dollar gave access to the entire bill. The Eidoloscope , devised by Eugene Augustin Lauste for

8832-409: Was originally host to a single screen with 1200 seats. This has since been split into three screens, with each now seating 500, 68 and 43 people respectively. The building contractor Alfred Schrobsdorff (1861–1940) contracted Hans Poelzig to design eight blocks at Bülowplatz, today Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz , between 1927 and 1929. The completed blocks included 170 apartments and 80 shops. The block where

8928-523: Was presented by Austrian magician Ludwig Döbler on 15 January 1847 at the Josephstadt Theatre in Vienna , with his patented Phantaskop. The animated spectacle was part of a well-received show that sold out in several European cities during a tour that lasted until the spring of 1848. The famous Parisian entertainment venue Le Chat Noir opened in 1881 and is remembered for its shadow plays , renewing

9024-457: Was relaunched on 26 May 2001 at a screening of The Golem: How He Came into the World . This was followed by a series of silent film concerts with the pianist Stephan von Bothmer. The Babylon was a Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) venue from 2008 (when it hosted its new "Generation14plus" event) to 2010, but has not been listed as such since 2011. The cinema has hosted,and continues to host, several other film festivals, including

9120-597: Was the Babelsberg Studio built by Ufa in the 1920s. On 14 July 1947, the company officially moved its headquarters to the Babelsberg Studio, and on 13 November 1947, the company's "stock" was taken over by the Socialist Unity Party or SED, which had originally capitalized DEFA, and pro-Soviet German individuals. Soviets Ilya Trauberg and Aleksandr Wolkenstein joined Lindemann, Bergmann and Volkmann on

9216-504: Was utilized in IMAX theaters, which have very tall screens, beginning in the early 1970s. Rows of seats are divided by one or more aisles so that there are seldom more than 20 seats in a row. This allows easier access to seating, as the space between rows is very narrow. Depending on the angle of rake of the seats, the aisles have steps. In older theaters, aisle lights were often built into the end seats of each row to help patrons find their way in

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