Early history General Cinema Corporation was founded as a
drive-in theater in 1935 by
Philip Smith,
Foray into film production In 1976, the company collaborated with
Lew Grade's
Associated Communications Corporation to form Associated General Films, which produced films including
Voyage of the Damned and
Capricorn One; the partnership ended the following year and ATV's ITC Entertainment subsidiary started financing films on its own.
Brand development In 1986, General Cinema officially collaborated with
Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) to create the first of a new series of policy trailers. In 1992, the company collaborated with
Lucasfilm Ltd. to create new mascots for the company. Within less than a year, the then-iconic Candy Band was created; soon after, two more mascots were developed and named Popcorn Bob, and Pepsi Sue, three developments that were used in pre-show reels from 1993 to 2002. In 1993, its holding company, by then named
Harcourt General, spun-off General Cinema as a separate company.
Company closing After competition forced the closure of a number of General Cinema locations, General Cinema filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on October 11, 2000, with accompanying resignation of
Richard A. Smith and a further employed Smith family member. On December 7, 2001,
AMC Theatres agreed to buy GC Companies, Inc. as part of GC's Chapter 11 reorganization plan, an acquisition completed on March 29, 2002. With the acquisition, the Credits
loyalty program merged into the MovieWatcher network. The General Cinema Corp. trademark was placed up for auction on December 8, 2010. In December 2011, this trademark was published for opposition by
JTE Multimedia. On March 11, 2014, the
USPTO declared the trademark "General Cinema" abandoned. ==References==