Village Cinemas
Village Cinemas is an Australian-based multinational film exhibition brand that mainly shows blockbusters, mainstream, children and family films and some arthouse, foreign language and documentary films. Since 2003, its Australian sites became a joint venture between Village Roadshow and Amalgamated Holdings, forming Australian Theatres. Previous to this, Village Cinemas was the founding entity of parent company, Village Roadshow from 1954 when the first drive-in theatre was established, and from 1988 Warner Brothers owned a one-third share in the chain. The Village Cinemas brand also operates in various forms within some international markets, either as a joint venture with Village Roadshow, or under licence, where they also operate within Event Cinemas/Greater Union/Birch Carroll & Coyle, and many international cinema-chains. Village Cinemas has output deals with all major film distributors and selectively screens some independently sourced films depending on material. History Foundation The company origins of Village Roadshow and Village Cinemas came in 1954 from the foundation in one of Australia's first drive-in theatre operations in Croydon, Melbourne (Melbourne's third drive-in, but only the fourth in the entire country), established by Roc Kirby. The drive-in was adjacent to the shopping strip, Croydon Village; hence the company adopted the 'Village' name. Kirby had