The company owns 71 theaters and 689 screens throughout the United States, the United Kingdom, and Latin America under several brands, such as Showcase Cinemas, Multiplex Cinemas, and Cinema de Lux. It is the controlling shareholder of Paramount Global.
National Amusements was founded by Michael Redstone, and later passed to his son Sumner Redstone. After his 2020 death, the company was passed to a trust led by his daughter Shari Redstone. After nearly 90 years of control by the Redstone family, in July 2024, David Ellison's Skydance Media announced its intent to acquire National Amusements and perform an all-stock merger between it and Paramount Global.[3]
The company was founded by Michael Redstone in 1936 in the Boston suburb of Dedham as Northeast Theater Corporation, operating a chain of movie theaters in the region. In 1959, when the founder's son Sumner Redstone joined the company, it was renamed National Amusements, the present name.
In March 2005, due to Viacom's declining stock price, National Amusements announced that it would split its media subsidiary into two companies that would remain under its control, which was completed on December 31.[7][8] The original Viacom became the second CBS Corporation as it kept CBS, Simon & Schuster,[9] and Paramount Network Television (now CBS Studios), among other assets, while MTV Networks, BET Media Group, and Paramount Pictures were spun-off to a sister company under the Viacom name. The second iterations of Viacom and CBS Corporation commenced trading on January 3, 2006.[10]
At the end of 2008, due to financial troubles, owners Sumner Redstone and Shari Redstone sold $400 million of nonvoting shares in National Amusements.[11][12] In October 2009, the company sold almost $1 billion of its interest in the stock of CBS and Viacom[13] and sold 35 theaters to Rave Motion Pictures. Today these theatres are owned by Cinemark, AMC, Alamo, or have closed. National Amusements now almost exclusively operates theaters in the Northeastern United States (with the exception of one location in Ohio).[14] The following year, National Amusements planned to sell $390 million of notes to refinance a large part of the company's bank owed debt.[15]
In 2019, it was announced that the multinational media conglomerates controlled by National Amusements — Viacom and CBS Corporation — would re-merge to form a new company named ViacomCBS.[16] Viacom and CBS announced that the merger would close on December 4;[17][18] following the official close,[19] the company began trading on the NASDAQ the following day. In 2022, the company was renamed Paramount Global.[20]
Sumner Redstone, who was National Amusements' chairman, CEO and owner, died on August 11, 2020.[21] His holdings were transferred to a trust led by his daughter Shari Redstone.[22]
In January 2024, it was reported that film producer David Ellison was interested in buying National Amusements from the Redstones. If the acquisition would be closed, the company would be placed under Ellison's Skydance Media.[23] On July 2, it was reported that Skydance had reached a preliminary agreement, and that it had been referred to a special committee of Paramount's board for approval.[24][25][26] On July 7, Skydance officially announced its intent to acquire Paramount Global, under a process in which Skydance will acquire National Amusements for $2.4 billion, pay Paramount's Class A and Class B stockholders $4.5 billion in cash and shares, and then perform an all-stock merger between Paramount and Skydance.[27][28][29]
Current operations
City Center 15 Cinema de Lux in White Plains, New York. The lobby includes a waiting area with a television, newspaper rack and sofas (left), a piano (right of center), and a restaurant (not pictured).
The company operates more than 1,500 movie screens across the Northeastern United States, the United Kingdom, and Latin America under its Showcase Cinemas, Showcase Cinema de Lux, Multiplex Cinemas, and Cinema de Lux. In Canada, National Amusements, through its 1994 acquisition of Viacom, also owned Famous Players; individual cinemas from the now-defunct chain are now owned by Cineplex Entertainment and Landmark Cinemas. In 2004, National Amusements acquired the Brazilian operations to cinema chain UCI, and revamped them so they could be more in line with their Showcase chain. They also share some of the corporate identities of Showcase and have XPlus & De Lux rooms in selected cinemas, as well as fully reclining seats.
Stewart, James B.; Rachel Abrams (2023). Unscripted: The Epic Battle for a Media Empire and the Redstone Family Legacy. New York: Penguin Press. ISBN9781984879424. OCLC1365390478.
