A movie theatre inNew Rochelle, New YorkFootball fans watching a football game in a movie theater
Amovie theatre ormovie theater is a place wheremovies are shown on a bigscreen. People or "patrons" (theaudience) watch movies, usually in chairs inside anauditorium, where the movie is projected with amovie projector onto a largeprojection screen at the front of the auditorium while the dialogue, sounds and music are played through a number of wall-mounted speakers. A movietheatre is sometimes called acinema. A theatre with multiple screens commonly is called a "multi-plex" or "mega-plex" (if more than 10 screens). Movie theatres have comfortable chairs. There are different types of formats of a movie theatre.
The first movie theatre was opened to the public on April 23, 1896, in Koster and Bial's Music Hall on 34th Street inNew York City. The oldest movie theatre in the world, which is still in action today is theKino Pionier (opened 1907) inSzczecin,Poland. Movie theatres make money from not only movie tickets but from concessions which sell food and drinks (popcorn,candy,soft drinks, etc.). In recent years with the increase of movie rental costs, theatres have become more and more creative about how they make money. New theatres being built include restaurants, party rooms, conference rooms, arcades and more.
