Elie Kassab
Member Profile
How has Cinema United membership been impactful to you and/or your business?Membership in Cinema United gives my company a larger presence and voice when dealing with studios, vendors and government. It is one of the best investments we can make in the movie business.
I spent a lot of time around my in-laws who owned a large independently owned chain. It gave me the confidence to build City Center 12 Cinema in Downtown Vancouver and lease it to Regal in 1998. The cinema was the catalyst for the revitalization for the downtown area. I then moved on to building cinemas in Sandy and Independence, Oregon and Battle Ground, Washington at the request of their mayors and city councils.
Being able to bring family entertainment to small cities and communities where the larger chains do not want to go.
The most memorable times to me are the grand openings of Sandy Cinema (May, 2002), Battle Ground Cinema (April, 2005) and Independence Cinema (March, 2007). The communities were very happy and excited to get a cinema of their own and be able to see movies without traveling long distances.
Member Gallery
We saw “Bohemian Rhapsody” and we loved it so much that we went back and saw it again and sang all the songs with everyone attending the movie.
The future of exhibition will be decent, as long as we have products and movies and as long as the window is 6 weeks minimum. Any shorter than that and we are in trouble.
