Hubbry Logo
search
logo

National Amusements

logo
Community Hub0 Subscribers
Write something...
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
See all
National Amusements

National Amusements, Inc. was an American privately owned movie theater operator and mass media holding company incorporated in Maryland and based in Norwood, Massachusetts, controlled by the Redstone family. The company owned 69 theaters and 667 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 was 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 merger between Skydance Media and Paramount Global to form Paramount Skydance Corporation. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the merger of Skydance Media and Paramount Global on July 24, 2025, with the merger closing on August 7, 2025, with National Amusements being absorbed into Paramount Skydance.

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.

On June 10, 1987, the company became the majority owner of the original incarnation of Viacom, a former CBS subsidiary syndicating television programs to stations around the United States. Since the buyout, Viacom continued to expand through purchases from the early 1990s to the early 2000s, announcing plans to merge with Paramount Communications (formerly Gulf+Western), parent of Paramount Pictures, in 1993 (which closed in 1994), buying the Blockbuster Video chain in 1994, merging with the original CBS Corporation in 2000, and acquiring BET Holdings (which became BET Media Group) in 2001.

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. The original Viacom became the second CBS Corporation as it kept CBS, Simon & Schuster, 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.

At the end of 2008, due to financial troubles, owners Sumner Redstone and Shari Redstone sold $400 million of nonvoting shares in National Amusements. In October 2009, the company sold almost $1 billion of its interest in the stock of CBS and Viacom 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). The following year, National Amusements planned to sell $390 million of notes to refinance a large part of the company's bank owed debt.

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. Viacom and CBS announced that the merger would close on December 4; following the official close, the company began trading on the NASDAQ the following day. In 2022, the company was renamed Paramount Global.

Sumner Redstone, who was National Amusements' chairman, CEO and owner, died on August 11, 2020. His holdings were transferred to a trust led by his daughter Shari Redstone.

See all
User Avatar
No comments yet.