Los Angeles based Metropolitan Theatres Corporation has been a privately held company owned by the Corwin family since 1923. Metropolitan currently operates 19 theatres with 90 screens in California, Colorado, Idaho, Utah, and British Columbia. Bruce C. Corwin is the Company's Chairman and CEO. Bruce's son, David, is Metropolitan's President and represents the fourth generation of the Corwin family to run the company.
Joseph H. Corwin moved to California from Sioux City, Iowa and founded the Company in 1923 with one theatre, the Broadway, in downtown Los Angeles. His sons, Lawrence and Sherrill, grew with the business, and Metropolitan was the dominant motion picture exhibitor in downtown Los Angeles by the late 1940s. Bruce's father, Sherrill, ultimately became the chief executive of the growing circuit and fostered expansion into Palm Springs and Santa Barbara, California. Metropolitan's largest area of concentration is in Santa Barbara County, where it has operated since 1950. The Company currently owns and operates 27 screens at nine locations in Santa Barbara, Goleta, and Carpinteria.
In the mid-1960s, Metropolitan was among the first exhibition circuits in the nation to venture into a Spanish language film policy, both in subtitle form for American movies and in Spanish for Mexican produced films. The Company continues to operate two Spanish language theatres in Los Angeles as well as a traditional ten-plex in Calexico, California.
In September 2003, the Company formed Metro/Rocky Mountain Cinemas and Resort Cinemas of Whistler which operate state-of-the-art cinemas in ski resort areas of the Western United States and Canada in Aspen, Colorado; Hailey, Idaho; Park City, Utah; Steamboat Springs, Colorado; and Whistler and Squamish, British Columbia.
Metropolitan is also part of two joint ventures in northern Colorado. It operates the MetroLux 14 Theatre in the Promenade Shops at Centerra in Loveland, Colorado, with Storyteller Theatres and is partners with Cinemark Theatres on a 12-plex in Greeley, Colorado, at the Greeley Mall.
The Corwin family's participation in public affairs and civic and charitable projects is well-established in Los Angeles and beyond. Metropolitan Theatres fosters local relationships in the communities in which it operates. At the University of California, Santa Barbara, there are Corwin awards for screen writing and play writing and dance and music composition. There is also continuing support for gifted music students through the Los Angeles Music Center Unified Fund. To further the cause of higher education, there have been innumerable benefit performances in Metropolitan's theatres.
Management Team
Bruce Corwin – Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
David Corwin – President
Allen Gilbert – Executive Vice President
Dale Davison – Senior Vice President of Operations and Development
Tim Spain – Vice President of Operations
Skip Stefansen – Vice President of Concessions
Alan Stokes – Vice President of Film Marketing and Advertising
Victoria Uy – Vice President of Finance and Human Resources |
