Everyman Media Group plc (known as Everyman Cinemas) is a cinema company based in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, England. The company was founded in 2000, when entrepreneur Daniel Broch bought the original Everyman Cinema in

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the London Borough o ...

, London, which dated to 1933, which before then was a theatre. Broch led the growth of the company with the acquisition in 2008 of Screen Cinemas to add more locations. This coincided with Broch selling a majority stake in the enlarged company, though he remains a shareholder. Following the acquisition, the group has refurbished or plans to refurbish a number of cinemas. Those already refurbished include Walton, Belsize Park, Baker Street, and The Screen On The Green in Islington. Everyman's cinemas have one to five screens, a small number of which offer 3D. Everyman Cinemas offer a programme of films and special events, including the

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is opera ...

from New York and the National Theatre (in selected cinemas), live Q&As, film festivals and seasons. The venues each feature a licensed bar, food, digital projection and surround sound technology. The group is extending its operating area and has opened cinemas in northern England. The first of these opened in

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popul ...

in April 2013 as part of the Trinity Leeds development in the city centre and a second opened within The Mailbox in Birmingham on 27 February 2015. A further cinema opened in Harrogate in September 2016. In April 2015, the company reached an agreement to buy four cinemas from its larger rival Odeon for £7.1 million. In August 2013, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'' reported that the entire non-management staff of about 100 is employed on

zero-hour contract A zero-hour contract is a type of employment contract between an employer and an employee whereby the employer is not obliged to provide any minimum number of working hours to the employee. The term 'zero-hour contract' is primarily used in the ...

s, earning just above the

minimum wage A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation by the end of the 20th century. B ...

, and without any guaranteed set hours each week. An Everyman staff member told the newspaper: "Our zero-hour contracts and low wages mean that affording basic necessities is becoming impossible. We work almost full-time, yet have no security, sick pay or benefits. Our customers are paying more and more for cinema tickets, but the company does everything it can to keep the cost of their staff as low as possible. It's not interested in the hardship this causes." The company has since re-structured its pay system, creating tiers of skill level for job structure. It is currently in the early stages of the process of introducing 10-hour minimum contracts. The Everyman Media Group plc made its début on the

Alternative Investment Market AIM (formerly the Alternative Investment Market) is a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange that was launched on 19 June 1995 as a replacement to the previous Unlisted Securities Market (USM) that had been in operation since 1980. It allows ...

(AIM) on 7 November 2013.

Current locations

Everyman Cinema, Muswell Hill, 30 September 2016 07

Everyman Cinema Barnet (formerly the Odeon Cinema) 67

Future locations

The company is currently expanding their list of venues.

Durham

Everyman are to launch a new-build cinema as part of the regeneration project in Milburngate, Durham. It is due to open in Winter 2022.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

In March 2020, Everyman Cinemas and all other cinemas in the UK closed indefinitely due to a national lockdown in response to the ongoing

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. They started a phased reopening in July 2020.

References

{{Authority control Cinema chains in the United Kingdom Cinemas in London Companies listed on the Alternative Investment Market