Hoyts

Sejarah

Pada permulaan abad ke-20-khususnya, di Melbourne pada 1908 seorang doktor gigi Dr Arthur Russell, yang, pada masa lapangnya, seorang pemain cornet dan seorang ahli ajaib, membeli suatu saham dalam sebuah sirkas pengembaraan Amerika, digelar Hoyts Circus, dan mengembara dengan mereka sebagai seorang penetap ahli ajaib. Selepas suatu pengurusan yang malang kewangannya, Russel kembali pada pekerjaannya sebagai seorang doktor gigi.
Undeterred, he leased the old St. Georges Hall in Bourke Street, Melbourne(later known as the Hoyts Esquire), and began showing short films on Saturday nights. Unlike his previous venture, it was successful, and as a result, he formed a new company called Hoyts Pictures Pty. Ltd. By the time he died at the end of World War I, Hoyts had expanded into the suburbs of Melbourne, and into Sydney.
Pada 1926, Hoyts and two other companies, Electric Theatres Pty. Ltd. and Associated Theatres Pty. Ltd., merged to become Hoyts Theatres Limited. In 1932, the Fox Film Corporation (now Twentieth Century Fox) secured a major shareholding in the company.
In August 1982, Twentieth Century Fox sold Hoyts to a group of four Melbourne businessmen. In April 1985, the Fink family brought out the other partners to become the sole owner. The Finks began to expand the company, into areas such as film distribution, home entertainment, and cinema operations in New Zealand, USA, South America and Europe.
In 1987, the corporation was restructured and two of the companies in the corporation were listed on the Australian Stock Exchange: Hoyts Media and Hoyts Entertainment. However, the company that owned the cinemas, Hoyts Cinemas, was not floated until 1996. The years between 1987 and 1996 saw considerable expansion, so that by 1994, Hoyts was the 10th biggest cinema chain in the world and was owned by an American investment company—Hellman and Friedman—directors and senior management, and the Australian company Lend Lease Corporation.
In 1996, Hoyts Cinemas was floated and in 1999, the late Kerry Packer's private family company, Consolidated Press Holdings, bought the chain for $620 million (AUD$745.3 million). After that, Hoyts began to sell off cinemas. This trend began in 1999 when their Polish operations were sold, and in 2000 when their UK operations were also sold. In 2003, Hoyts sold its Hoyts America operations to Regal Entertainment Group.
In 2004, it joined forces with Village Roadshow and AHL to bail out Val Morgan Cinema Advertising, eventually taking their stake to 100% in 2005. In December that year, PBL and West Australian Newspapers purchased the company from Consolidated Press Holdings.
Hoyts currently has Australia's largest multiplex cinema screen, located in Hoyts cinema 5, Blacktown, Sydney NSW it measures 28 metres across.
On March 29, 2007, Hoyts opened their latest cinema in Sylvia Park, in Auckland, New Zealand - featuring what is now the largest 35 mm film screen in the world and bean bag seating.
In September, 2007, PBL and WAN sold each of their 50% shares in the Hoyts Group to Sydney-based private equity firm Pacific Equity Partners. The sale valued the company at $AU440 million.
In October 2008, Hoyts announced a takeover bid for Australian Multiplex Cinemas (AMC). The purchase did not proceed although Hoyts still hopes to return to Queensland, where previously they had theatres in Brisbane and a three cinema complex in Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast under their name.

Digital Cinema capital investment plans

Hoyts Exhibition has announced plans to replace all film equipment with Digital Cinema equipment within an ambitious 18 month window, in preparation for the sale of the Hoyts group. The modernization of the equipment to the current Hollywood mandated Digital Cinema standard, is expected to cost the group somewhere in the order of 30 million AUD. This amount is subsidized by the Virtual Print Fee received from the participating Hollywood Studios. This 30M AUD cost is also expected to be offset by the significant reduction in staffing requirements (exhibitors in the USA are claiming a 90% reduction in projection staff post modernization). If Hoyts follow through with their capital investment plans, they stand a chance of relinquishing their position as the lowest capital investor in the Australian cinema exhibition industry.

Hoyts 100 year celebration

Contrary to as claimed, the Hoyts group is actually 103 years old this year. Due to the group transferring ownership six times, and the habitual turn over of senior staff that comes with each new owner, no senior staff remain with any significant knowledge of the group's history beyond what is contained on this wikipedia page! Previous to this celebration, the celebrations were held on the 6th year of the decade.

Hoyts Distribution

Hoyts Distribution is the film distribution arm of the company. It existed in its own right in the 1980s-early 1990s, and was later merged with the distribution operations of Columbia Tristar and 20th Century Fox. In 2002, the company was brought back to life, distributing primarily films produced by Nine Films and Television, Channel 9's film production arm, and major independent studios, such as Lions Gate Entertainment.

Hoyts Exhibition

Hoyts Exhibition, the largest and most well-known arm of The Hoyts Group, manages cinemas in five Australian states; the Australian Capital Terrirtory, New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia.
Hoyts Exhibition also operates 8 cinemas across New Zealand.

Lokasi lama di New Zealand

Hoyts Lower Hutt 5-plex, opened in 1993, closed on 6 February 2008. The building will become the new home of the Lower Hutt Baptist Church.
Hoyts also operated the MidCity 5-plex from 1990 until it closure in May 2003. The site was later redeveloped into Conservation House, the headquarters of the Department of Conservation.
Hoyts also operated Movieland 5-plex (Rotorua) and Movieland 4-plex (Invercargill) both from 1993 to 2005 (Both taken over by Reading Cinemas); Movieland 3-plex (Timaru) 1997 to 2000 (taken over by Independent operator); Whangaparaoa 5-plex from 1996 to 1999 (taken over by Berkeley Group)

Bluewater

Hoyts were the original operator of the multi-screen cinema at the Bluewater shopping mall in the UK, having been signed up by Bluewater developer Lend Lease Corporation (also an Australian firm). Hoyts also operated the 'Gallery' upmarket subsection to the Bluewater cinema. A couple of years later, Hoyts decided to exit the UK market to concentrate on their operations in Australia and New Zealand, as the Bluewater site was their only UK operation, making the operation uneconomical. Showcase Cinemas, an established UK cinema operator, took over operation of the Bluewater cinema, though retained much of the fabric, layout and design that had been introduced by Hoyts, including The Gallery. (Showcase also operate the Cinema de Lux brand of upmarket cinema but as of 2009 have not introduced this branding to the Gallery at Bluewater).

Val Morgan

Val Morgan holds the advertising rights to virtually all advertising screens in Australia and almost all screens in New Zealand. In Australia, this includes the circuits of Hoyts, Greater Union, Village, Birch Carroll & Coyle, Wallis, Reading Cinemas, Australian Multiplex Cinemas, Skycity Cinemas, Regent Cinemas and the majority of independent cinemas.
In addition to on-screen advertising, Val Morgan is involved in such cinema-based advertising opportunities as co-branding, poster boxes, foyer displays and live advertisements.
Through a joint-venture with Motivate Publishing, the Gulf's leading publisher of magazines and books, Val Morgan has recently expanded its operations into the United Arab Emirates, representing the advertising interests of many key cinemas in the region.

Hiburan rumah

Pada 1980an dan awal 1990an, Hoyts mengoperasikan operasi tempatan RCA-Columbia Pictures Home Video, digelar RCA-Columbia Pictures-Hoyts Home Video. Ia kemudian digelar Columbia Tristar Hoyts Home Video, tetapi Hoyts kemudian gugur dari operasi bisnes. Pembebasan Pengedaran Hoyts telah diedarkan pada video dan DVD oleh Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
Ada juga empat imprint yang syarikat ini telah ada: First Release Home Entertainment, Video Box Office, Magic Window (children's videos) dan RCA-Columbia Pictures International Video.
Hoyts juga mempunyai usaha sama dengan Polygram, menubuhkan Hoyts Polygram Video pada sekitarnya masa yang sama apabila usaha sama mereka dengan RCA-Columbia Pictures Home Video. Pembebasan mereka yang dikenali adalah versi filem pada jalur komik Footrot Flats, berjudul Footrot Flats: The Dog's Tale.