Cinemex Brand Guidelines: A 1995 Mexico City Multiplex, a Larrea Owner and a 2024 Logo

From a Harvard project to Altavista.

Cinemex began as a business plan. Spanish Wikipedia says the company took shape in 1993 as a master’s project at Harvard by two Mexicans, Miguel Ángel Dávila and Adolfo Fastlicht, and an American, Matthew Heyman, who wanted to reinvent cinema-going in Mexico. English Wikipedia adds that a new cinematography law passed in 1992 lifted the regulations that had held back larger cinemas, and that the founders raised equity funding in 1994 from JPMorgan Partners and a Chicago family partnership.

At the time, Spanish Wikipedia says, the Mexican market was dominated by the state-run Compañía Operadora de Teatros, which managed the large old picture palaces, and by private operators such as Organización Ramírez and Cinemark.

The first Cinemex opened at the Pabellón Altavista in Mexico City on 2 August 1995, both language versions of Wikipedia agree. Others followed quickly in the capital: Unicornio Land in September 1996, the flagship Cinemex Santa Fe that October, and Manacar in January 1997, English Wikipedia says. Spanish Wikipedia describes the model as multiplexes of eight to 15 screens, open every day of the year, with staggered show times so that films were available throughout the day.

Ownership changed often in the first decade. In June 2002 the Canadian group Onex and the American firm Oaktree Capital Management bought the company, Spanish Wikipedia says, keeping its management; in June 2004 they sold it to a group of funds led by The Carlyle Group, Bain Capital and Spectrum Equity, which grouped it with AMC Entertainment.

Entretenimiento GM and Cinemark.

On 5 November 2008, Spanish Wikipedia says, Entretenimiento GM de México, part of Empresarios Industriales de México, the holding company of the businessman Germán Larrea, bought Cinemex from AMC Entertainment. Earlier that year, in February, the same company had agreed to buy MMCinemas, a Monterrey-based chain strong in Mexico’s northern border states. In 2012 it added the 14 sites of Cinemas Lumiere, and the MMCinemas and Lumiere names were gradually retired so that every site took the Cinemex image. Infobae, in December 2024, described the chain as part of Grupo México, the group Larrea chairs; Merca 2.0 named Ricardo Larrea as chief executive of Grupo Cinemex.

The largest step was Cinemark de México. Cinemex announced in February 2013 that it would buy the 29 Mexican sites of the American chain. The competition regulator first turned the deal down, concerned that only two competitors would remain; after the regulator was restructured in 2013, the new commission approved the merger on 12 November 2013, Spanish Wikipedia says.

Spanish Wikipedia calls Cinemex the second-largest cinema brand in Mexico after Cinépolis and, citing figures for early 2020, gives it 351 complexes with 3,094 screens in 104 cities. Like other chains, Cinemex closed temporarily in 2020.

Abroad it trades as CMX. Its first American site, CMX: The VIP Cinema Experience, opened at Brickell City Centre in Miami in 2016, and in 2017 it agreed to buy Cobb Theatres, which English Wikipedia says made CMX the eighth-largest chain in the United States. CMX filed for Chapter 11 protection in April 2020 and emerged that December, and filed again on 1 July 2025, English Wikipedia says. In June 2026 Variety reported that CMX, based in Miami and described as a subsidiary of Cinemex with 30 locations and 299 screens, had acquired nine iPic dine-in locations, which keep the iPic name.

How cinema chains present themselves.

Cinema chains sell an evening out more than a product, so their own pictures do much of the work. The pictures a chain publishes are mostly of its rooms: auditoriums with rows of seats facing the screen, and foyers, concession counters and bars. In 2025 the Milwaukee station FOX6 filmed the lobby of the Marcus Majestic in Waukesha, Wisconsin, whose manager described the aim as to “wow and dazzle” guests.

Screen formats have become brands of their own. Chains name their large-format rooms, their recliner rooms and their dine-in rooms, and carry outside names such as IMAX, Dolby Atmos sound and moving-seat 4D. Spanish Wikipedia lists a family of Cinemex room names, from CinemeXtremo for its large-format screens to Platino for recliners with seat service; in February 2026, Deadline reported, Marcus Theatres told analysts that a growing share of its sales came from premium large-format and 3D showings.

The booking app and the loyalty card are now part of the identity too. Chains run points schemes, tiered memberships and subscription-style clubs. When Cinemex changed its logo in December 2024, its chief executive said the app and website would change with it, Merca 2.0 reported; Marcus Theatres told analysts in 2026 that it was concentrating on a dine-in app, loyalty programmes and a movie club, according to Deadline.

Behind the consumer brand there is usually a corporate one: a listed parent, a family holding company or a private-equity owner, with its own pages on ownership, sites and screen counts. This guide sets out what can be checked about each chain — who founded it, who owns it and how large it is, as dated sources give it — and treats claims about comfort or scale as the companies’ own.

A film strip, retired in 2024.

For decades the Cinemex mark was built around a multicoloured strip of film. On 11 December 2024 the company replaced it. Merca 2.0 reported that the new logo was shown on social media and at the opening of a Cinemex Platino complex at Samara Satélite, in the State of Mexico, and that it caused considerable controversy; Infobae reported the same week that the change had gone viral. Spanish Wikipedia describes the new design as simpler.

The chief executive framed the change as more than visual. Writing on LinkedIn, Ricardo Larrea said the company had redesigned its identity to connect with each person in a more personal way, that the app and website would evolve with it, and that the change came with a new mission, “¡Crear momentos inolvidables!” (“Create unforgettable moments!”), Merca 2.0 reported. Spanish Wikipedia says the Cinemex Premium sub-brand followed with a simpler look of its own in March 2025.

The chain sells its rooms as a family of sub-brands. Spanish Wikipedia lists CinemeXtremo, a large-screen format with Dolby Atmos sound introduced at the end of 2013; CinemeX4D, with moving seats and effects; Premium, with larger seats; Platino, recliner rooms with food and drink brought to the seat, which Spanish Wikipedia says now trade as Confort; Cinemex Market, where concessions are laid out like a market hall; Casa de Arte for independent films; and CineMá, screenings for parents with babies. It adds that IMAX with laser projection arrived on 29 November 2023 at sites including Santa Fe and Antara Polanco.

Loyalty sits alongside. Spanish Wikipedia says the Invitado Especial programme runs in tiers and was operated with the Payback points scheme until Payback left Mexico in June 2023, after which members moved to a Cinemex Invitado Especial card in August 2023.

Two traps sit around the name. Cinemex is a different company from Cinemark, the American chain whose Mexican sites it absorbed in 2013, and its American arm uses its own name and site, CMX Cinemas, rather than the Mexican cinemex.com.

For a design guide, Cinemex shows how a chain can retire a long-running symbol and rebuild its sub-brands around a new identity. Compare Cinépolis, its larger Mexican rival, and AMC Theatres, whose group owned Cinemex before 2008. For this guide we use a deep violet, a coral and a teal with a geometric sans, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

Keep Cinemex’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.