Odeon Cinemas - Present Day

Present Day

Since the turn of the century, Odeon has undergone a series of sales after The Rank Group needed cash injections to reduce their debt, firstly to Cinven which merged Odeon with Cinven's ABC Cinemas. In 2004, the chain was purchased by Terra Firma and merged with United Cinemas International to produce the largest cinema chain in Europe. As a condition of this merger (imposed by the Office of Fair Trading), Odeon Newcastle upon Tyne, Sutton Coldfield, Poole, Quinton, Hemel Hempstead and London Bromley have been sold to Empire Cinemas. Many smaller, older cinemas such as Odeon Grimsby on Freeman Street were closed down to keep market-share within legal limits. The remaining UCI cinemas, including thefilmworks brands, were rebranded as Odeon from 4 November 2005.

UCI cinemas in Ireland have also joined the Odeon chain, and while they initially retained the UCI brand name, evidence of the merger became apparent, for example when booking tickets by credit card, the name "Odeon" appears, as well as some dual branded campaigns. The Odeon in-house film review magazine, "Onscreen", is now also distributed in UCI cinemas, retaining the Odeon logo font throughout. In August 2007, UCI launched a new Irish website with an identical layout to odeon.co.uk. This website states that the Irish cinemas were sold to an Irish group, Entertainment Enterprises, in September 2006. This transaction went unreported in the Irish media. It also states that the cinemas remain part of the Odeon chain under a management contract. Rank/Odeon previously ran cinemas in Ireland (including the flagship, the Savoy Cinema in O'Connell Street) until 1982, when they were purchased by Ward Anderson. In April 2008, Entertainment Enterprises announced that it purchased the Irish assets of Storm Cinemas, and as with the existing UCI chain, would be contracting the running of the cinemas to Odeon. On 31 May 2011, Odeon announced that it had bought back the UCI chain in Ireland (including the Storm Cinemas-branded locations) from Entertainment Enterprises. Odeon is to rebrand all of Irish cinemas under the Odeon brand during 2012, and will open its first cinema under its own brand on 27 March 2012

In Bradford, England there has been a concerted effort to save their Bradford Odeon, which closed in 2000. Bradford City Council have plans to demolish the art-deco building and replace it with a new complex of shops and offices. Campaigners have made seven separate attempts to have the building listed, all of which have been rejected. A poll cited on BBC Radio Leeds showed the majority of city residents wished to save the Odeon.

In 2007 Odeon acquired 10 cinemas in Italy. It is now the largest cinema chain in Europe. It is currently the largest cinema chain in Britain in terms of sites, however it has fallen to the third most popular cinema in terms of admissions under UCI Group's ownership after years of being the Market Leader under the previous management of Rank and Cinven. In March 2012, the Odeon And UCI Group under Terra Firma's control reported a £70 million loss for the year 2011, as posted on Companies House.

Odeon have plans for further expansion within the UK and have announced they will be operating an eight-screen cinema at New Square, West Bromwich.

Many of the Cinemas have a Costa Coffee coffee shop, a Ben & Jerry's ice cream kiosk, a bar area and an IMAX auditorium.