Who Owns Cinépolis?

Enrique Ramírez Miguel entered the cinema business in Morelia, Michoacán, building on a small regional theater operation. In 1971 he founded Organización Ramírez and opened Cine La Raza in Mexico City, beginning expansion beyond his home state. Through the 1970s and 1980s the company operated under names including Cinematográfica Cadena de Oro, Cinemas Gemelos, and Multicinemas, acquiring and building theaters across Mexico while competitors consolidated.

The Cinépolis brand arrived in 1994 with a multiplex in Tijuana, introducing stadium seating and modern projection that reset Mexican expectations for cinema. The 1999 launch of Cinépolis VIP, the first premium large-format luxury cinema concept offering in-seat dining and reclining seats, pioneered a format that the global industry later adopted widely as premium large format and dine-in exhibition.

International expansion began in the 2000s and accelerated after 2010. Cinépolis entered Central America, then South America, establishing market leadership in much of Latin America. The company expanded into Spain through the 2009 acquisition of Cine Yelmo, entered India in 2009 where it built one of the country's largest premium circuits, and pushed into the Middle East after Saudi Arabia ended its 35-year cinema ban in 2018, winning one of the first operating licenses there. Indonesia followed in 2019.

COVID-19 forced the deepest crisis in company history, closing screens across all markets and permanently surrendering some locations. Recovery since 2022 has been deliberate, with roughly 60 to 70 new screens opening annually compared to 300 per year before the pandemic. In 2025 Cinépolis recorded 256.4 million admissions, the highest ticket sales of any exhibitor in the world, ahead of AMC and China's Wanda despite having fewer total screens than both.