Cinemas in the 1990s were beginning to take shape worldwide with the advent of stereophonic audio and modern genres such as action/thrillers, romances, westerns, and more. The three main cinema groups in the UK at the time were Cineworld Group PLC, Curzon Cinemas, and Odeon Cinemas.

Cineworld was founded by Steve Wiener in 1995. The first Cineworld cinema opened in Stevenage, Hertfordshire in July 1996. A second cinema opened in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, in December 1996 and the third opened in Feltham, London in July 1997.

All these were catered to the local British audience. These movies produced were also of different genres ranging from romances, comedies, musicals, suspense dramas, biographies, children's movies, and Westerns.

Some of the more famous movies under their belt included:

GET SHORTY (1995 – action movie)

Director: Barry Sonnenfeld / Cast: John Travolta, Gene Hackman, Rene Russo, Danny DeVito

Ernesto "Chili" Palmer is a Miami-based loan shark and movie buff. When his leather jacket is taken by rival mobster Ray "Bones" Barboni, Chili retrieves it and breaks Bones' nose. Bones ambushes him at his office, but Chili shoots first, grazing Bones' forehead. Bones' boss refuses to retaliate, reminding him that Chili is under the protection of Brooklyn mob boss Momo. After Momo dies of a heart attack, Bones takes over his operation and demands that Chili collect an outstanding debt from Leo Devoe, a dry cleaner who died in a plane crash. Chili learns from Leo's wife Faye that her husband is alive, having left the plane before takeoff; she received a settlement of $300,000, but Leo ran away with the cash. Chili tracks Leo to a Las Vegas casino, where he accepts an additional job to collect a large gambling debt from B-movie director Harry Zimm. – Cineworld Classics

ASSASSINS (1995 – action movie)

Director: Richard Donner / Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Antonio Banderas

Assassin Robert Rath plans to retire, haunted by the memory of murdering his mentor Nicolai several years ago. While Rath is on an assignment, his target is eliminated by Miguel Bain, another assassin. Bain greatly admires Rath but also wants to kill him to establish himself as the world's greatest hitman. Soon to follow is a series of nerve-racking adventures with danger lurking in every corner. – Cineworld Classics

GOLDENEYE (1995 – action movie)

Director: Martin Campbell / Cast: Pierce Brosnan, Sean Bean, Izabella Scorupco

In 1986, MI6 agents James Bond and Alec Trevelyan infiltrate a Soviet chemical weapons facility called Arkangel. After Trevelyan is caught and seemingly killed by the facility's commanding officer, Colonel Arkady Grigorovich Ourumov, Bond destroys the site and escapes in a stolen aircraft. – Cineworld Classics

TALES FROM THE HOOD (1995 – horror)

Director: Rusty Cundieff / Cast: Corbin Bernsen, Rosalind Cash, Rusty Cundieff, David Alan Grier

Four tales based on problems that affect the African-American community. <Rogue Cop Revelation> During his first night on the job, young black police officer Clarence Smith is taken by his new white partner, Newton Hauser, to the scene of what initially appears to be a routine traffic stop of a well-dressed black man by two white cops. When Smith runs the car's license plates, he learns that the man is in fact a city councilman and black rights activist.
<Boys Do Get Bruised> Walter Johnson is a quiet and sensitive boy who transfers to a new school one day with bruises around his cheek and eye. Walter's caring teacher Richard Garvey notices the bruises and talks to Walter. He initially thinks that the school bully Tyrone gave him the bruises. Although Tyrone has bullied Walter, Walter claims that the bruises came after he was attacked by a monster.
<KKK Comeuppance> Duke Metger is an obnoxious and highly racist Southern senator and a one-time member of the Ku Klux Klan who is currently running for governor. The senator is in his office filming a campaign commercial when he sees protesters outside the office. Jewish and African-American groups have teamed up to protest against Metger for being a racist, a former Klansman, and for setting up his office at an old slave plantation previously owned by his ancestor, Nathan Wilkes. One individual, Eli, tells the reporter that the plantation is haunted by dolls animated by the souls of Wilkes's previously tortured slaves, warning the news crews and everyone else at the scene that it is not a myth. <Hard-Core Convert>Jerome "Crazy K" Johns is a hardened gangster and homicidal psychopath who has killed many people mercilessly. He is driving down the streets when he encounters his rival Lil' Deke whom he pursues and guns down. In retaliation, Lil' Deke's associates shoot at Crazy K. Before they can finish him off, the police arrive at the scene and gun down the attackers. Crazy K, badly injured but still alive, is arrested and sent to prison, serving a life sentence without parole. – Cineworld Classics

CAMPFIRE TALES (1997 – horror)

Director: Martin Cunert / Cast: James Marsden, Christine Taylor, Amy Smart, Ron Livingstone

Three individual short segments that are presented in an overarching narrative, told by a group of friends around a fire after they crash their car in the woods. <The Honeymoon> Rick and Valerie are on their honeymoon driving through Nevada. They take a detour to visit caverns, and park their RV in a rural area. They are disturbed by a local man who warns them not to spend the night there, insisting they park elsewhere.
<People Can Lick Too> 11-year-old Amanda is in an online chat room talking to a girl named Jessica, who is actually an online predator posing as a young girl. The night before her twelfth birthday, her parents go to a parent-teacher conference and rely on her teenage sister Katherine to stay with her. Katherine leaves to go meet her boyfriend, leaving Amanda alone.
<The Locket> Scott is riding his motorcycle through the country and it gives out on him. He notices a rural farmhouse and seeks shelter there during a rainstorm. Inside is a beautiful mute woman named Heather; she communicates with Scott by writing on a handheld chalkboard, and invites him to stay the night. – Cineworld Classics

DIE HARD 2 (1996 - thriller)

Director: Renny Harlin / Cast: Bruce Willis, Bonnie Bedelia, William Atherton

John McClane is a lieutenant with the LAPD, who arrives at Dulles International Airport to pick up his wife, Holly. Meanwhile, a plane carrying corrupt foreign military leader General Ramon Esperanza is also headed to Dulles under extradition for using U.S. funds to buy drugs. Waiting to meet Esperanza's plane is disgraced former Colonel William Stuart and a group of ex-military sympathizers who supported Esperanza's actions. McClane follows two of Stuart's men into a restricted baggage sorting area where a gun fight ensues. He kills one man, but the other escapes. With the help of his friend Sergeant Al Powell, he discovers that the dead man's fingerprints correspond to an American soldier who was listed as having died in a helicopter accident two years earlier. McClane reports his concerns to the ill-tempered airport police chief, Carmine Lorenzo, and air traffic control director Ed Trudeau, but neither believes him.– Cineworld Classics

Some Arabic-language movies by Cineworld Films:

EL HUB KEDA

Hamdi, is a mechanical engineer owning a car repair shop, he loves his cousin Nadia without her even realizing it. Nadia, is a newly divorced wealthy young woman, she loves the attractive young Hazem, who is chasing her aiming to marry her for her wealth. The tune of the theme song "Ya Mustafa", performed by Lebanese singer Bob Azzam, is well known in the Arab World today as a soccer chant.– Cineworld Classics

Wicked Game (1991 – action/drama)

Director: Henry Barakat Cast: Salah Zulfikar, Athar ElHakim

Author Riyad Kamel marries the beautiful Camelia despite her previous relationship with Azmi, his lawyer. While Azmi marries Manar, who is Raiyad's secretary. Manar suspects that Azmi and Camellia are back together. She records a tape for Camelia urging Azmi to kill Manar and Riyad, so she plots to take them down. – Cineworld Classics

Curzon Cinemas are a chain of cinemas based in the United Kingdom, mostly in London, famous for their art house films.

Some of the films distributed by Curzon Cinemas included:

SAYF HALQ ELWADI (A Summer in La Goulette) (1996 – drama)

Director: Férid Boughedir Cast: Mustapha Adouani, Gamil Ratib, Sonia Mankaï

Youssef (Mustapha Adouani) is a Muslim who works on the TGM and lives in La Goulette. His best friends are Jewish Jojo the brik seller and Sicilian Catholic Giuseppe the fisherman, who are also his neighbours. Their daughters grow up together and share their prospects for life, but the landlord Hadj Beji has his eyes on Youssef's daughter Meriem. – Wikipedia

Director: Roland Emmerich. Cast: Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Mary McDonnell

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE (1996 – action/adventure)

Cast: Tom Cruise, Jon Voight, Henry Czerny, Emmanuelle Béart

After finishing a mission in Kiev, IMF agent Jim Phelps and his latest team are sent to Prague to stop rogue agent Alexander Golitsyn from stealing the CIA's NOC (non-official cover) list, which reveals the identities of all their undercover agents in Europe. However, the list is stolen, and the team is killed one by one, along with Golitsyn, leaving Jim's pointman Ethan Hunt the only survivor. – Curzon Cinemas

The first Odeon cinema was opened by Oscar Deutsch in 1928, in Brierley Hill, Staffordshire (now West Midlands), England, although initially called "Picture House". The first cinema to use the Odeon brand name was Deutsch's cinema at Perry Barr, Birmingham in 1930. The brand's flagship cinema, the Odeon, Leicester Square in London, opened in 1937. Odeon then became part of the Rank Organisation who continued their ownership of the circuit for a further sixty years. Odeon Cinemas has also been responsible for helping with the promotion of European Opera in the United Kingdom.

The mega movie stars brought in by Odeon Cinemas. Source - Media Storehouse

Odeon Cinemas at James Street West Source - Cinema Treasures

Two of the more popular cinema branches, those at James Street West and the Luxe at at Leicester Square, are operated by Odeon Cinemas. – Odeon Cinemas