Reading Cinemas is a group of cinema chains operating in the United States, New Zealand, and Australia. It is owned by Reading International.[1]
History
20th century
In the late 1980s, through his holding company the Craig Corporation, Los Angeles–based lawyer James Cotter acquired the Reading Company, a former American railroad company that held a portfolio of real estate properties after it sold its railroad assets and rolling stock in 1976. Through the rest of the 1990s, Cotter acquired, developed, and operated real estate properties, focusing on cinema exhibitors and live theatre operators. Most of the company's holdings by this time were located far beyond the company's historical native ground of eastern Pennsylvania.
Reading entered the Australia market in 1995 and the New Zealand market two years later, in 1997, developing a chain of multiplex cinemas that operated under the Reading banner and exhibited mainstream films. In the United States, Reading pursued a more offbeat business direction, acquiring an art-house theatre at the historic Cable Building in New York City