National Amusements

National Amusements, Inc. is an American privately owned theater company based in Dedham, Massachusetts, United States. The company was founded in 1936, as the Northeast Theatre Corporation by Michael Redstone.

National Amusements is now owned by Michael Redstone's son, Sumner Redstone, who holds 80% of the company, and Sumner's daughter, Shari Redstone, who owns the remaining 20%. Through National Amusements, the Redstones control both the CBS Corporation (owner of CBS) and Viacom (owner of Paramount Pictures) through supervoting shares.

The company operates more than 1,500 movie screens across the Northeastern United States, one location in Springdale, Ohio, the United Kingdom, Latin America, and Russia under its Showcase Cinemas, Multiplex Cinemas, Cinema de Lux, and KinoStar brands. National Amusements is equal partners in MovieTickets.com.

National Amusements' slogan, "Welcome to the Show", was coined by policy trailer producer Pike Productions, Inc., with which National Amusements had an exclusive contract until Filmack acquired Pike, in the late 2000s.

Financial troubles
At the end of 2008, the Redstones' financial troubles started when billionaire Sumner Redstone had to dump $400 million of nonvoting shares.

It was released that National Amusements planned to sell $390 million of notes in another attempt to refinance a large part of the company's bank owed debt.

Sale of theaters and subsidiary stock
In October 2009, the news was released that National Amusements would be selling almost $1 billion of stock they own in CBS and Viacom. National Amusements has sold 35 theaters to Rave Motion Pictures. Today these theatres are owned by Cinemark. National Amusements now almost exclusively operates theaters in the Northeast (with the exception of one location in Ohio).

Main competitors

 * AMC Theatres
 * Bow Tie Cinemas
 * Cinemark Theatres
 * Regal Entertainment Group