The Greidinger family, the majority owners of Cinema City International N.V., started their cinema business in
Haifa, Israel, Moshe Greidinger (grandfather of the company's current CEO also named Moshe Greidinger) started building his first cinema in 1929, which was opened in 1931 as Ein Dor. In 1935, he opened his second cinema in Haifa, Armon Cinema (palace in Hebrew), a large
art-deco building that contained 1,800 seats. Armon Cinema became the heart of Haifa’s entertainment district; due to its large capacity, the cinema was often used for performances by the
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and the
Israeli Opera. In 1958, the family expanded to
Tel Aviv, by acquiring the Chen cinema in Dizengoff Square. They expanded further by opening additional cinemas in Israel, among them the Armon Cinema in Ramat-Gan in the mid 1960s. In 1967, the family entered the
film distribution business when it acquired a company named Forum Film. In 1982 the "Chen" cinema was turned into the first cinema multiplex in Israel.
International expansion In 1997, the international expansion of the business started, Cinema City International N.V. (CCI) was established and opened its first cinema in
Budapest, Hungary, and by 2005 was the largest multiplex operator in Hungary. In 1999 CCI started in Poland and by 2005 had 12 multiplex theaters there. In 1999, CCI bought the only existing multiplex theater in
Prague in the Czech Republic. It also operates multiplex cinemas in Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia. In 2005, CCI opened its distribution office, Forum Hungary in Budapest. The company represents Disney, Spyglass and Revolutionary Releasing in Hungary. In the first six months of 2006 it became the second biggest film distribution company in the country.
Acquisition by Cineworld In January 2014, it was announced that British exhibitor
Cineworld would acquire Cinema City's cinema business in a cash and stock deal valued at approximately £503 million, with Cinema City International taking a 24.9% stake in Cineworld and retaining its real estate assets. Cinema City International CEO
Mooky Greidinger was also named the new CEO of Cineworld as a whole. In December 2022, Forum Film and Greidinger were sentenced to fines and a six-month
suspended sentence for violations of
competition law relating to its 2010 acquisition of competing distributor Matalon; Forum had violated the regulatory terms of the merger by colluding against a competing cinema chain to prevent them from screening eight specific films distributed by the company. ==See also==