Multikino Brand Guidelines: The Poznań Multiplex Pioneer That Became a Vue Chain

A joint venture and an early multiplex.

Multikino began in 1998 as a joint venture between the ITI Group and UCI, the international cinema operator, Polish Wikipedia says. Its first cinema, Multikino 51 in Poznań, opened that year. When it closed in March 2025, Radio Poznań described it as the first multiplex in Poznań and the first in the whole country, and noted that it had run for twenty-seven years. A second site opened in 1999 in Warsaw’s Ursynów district; Polish Wikipedia calls it the first large multiplex in the capital.

Growth through the next decade was steady. Polish Wikipedia lists openings in Zabrze and Gdańsk in December 2000, Kraków in 2001, Bydgoszcz in 2002, Szczecin in March 2004 and Elbląg in August 2005. In July 2004, it says, ITI bought out UCI’s share and became the sole owner of the brand and the chain. The tenth Multikino opened in May 2007 in the Stary Browar (“Old Brewery”) shopping centre in Poznań, and in July 2007 the company changed its legal form from a limited-liability company to a joint-stock company, the encyclopedia adds.

The chain then grew by merger as well as by building. In February 2008 Multikino announced that it would combine with its rival Silver Screen. By early 2010 all of the Silver Screen cinemas except the one in Łódź had been renamed Multikino, and the Łódź cinema followed after a refit in February 2018, Polish Wikipedia says. The chain also crossed the border for the first time: it opened a cinema in Riga in August 2010 and another in Vilnius at the end of September that year.

A Vue company since 2013.

The ownership change came in 2013. Film New Europe reported on 4 October 2013 that Multikino, which it called one of the biggest Polish cinema chains, had been sold to Vue Entertainment, the British cinema group. Vue bought 86 per cent of the shares from the ITI Group and 14 per cent from Ares Management. The deal, first announced in May 2013, went through on 2 October 2013 after approval by Poland’s Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, the paper said, and it was Vue’s first venture in Central and Eastern Europe. Polish Wikipedia, citing Gazeta Wyborcza, dates the announcement of completion to 1 October.

At the time of the sale Multikino had 28 cinemas with 231 screens in 22 Polish cities, plus two cinemas with 15 screens in Riga and Vilnius, Film New Europe reported. ITI’s chief executive told the paper that the chain had promoted high standards in cinema operations “since its inception back in 1998.” Polish media had speculated that Cinema City and Agora were contenders for the chain, the paper noted, but neither turned out to be in the running.

Under Vue the chain grew again by acquisition. In July 2018 Film New Europe reported that Vue International had bought Cinema3D, a Polish chain of eleven cinemas in towns including Biała Podlaska, Głogów, Kalisz and Tarnów, and that all of them would be rebranded as Multikino. The same report put Multikino at 48 cinemas and 343 screens across Poland and the Baltic region before that deal. According to the same report, Vue would also buy and invest in three further cinemas with 20 screens in Warsaw and Nowy Targ. Polish Wikipedia dates the takeover to May 2019 and says it took the chain to 45 sites with 322 screens in 37 Polish cities.

Today Multikino is a Warsaw-based joint-stock company wholly owned by Vue, according to Polish Wikipedia. Its programme reaches beyond new releases: the encyclopedia lists concerts, overnight film marathons, live sport, opera and ballet relays, and recorded stagings from Britain’s National Theatre.

How cinema chains present themselves.

This group of guides looks at cinema chains in France, Central and Eastern Europe, Germany, Finland, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, the United Kingdom and Australia, and at how each presents itself: the name over the entrance, the signs, logos and colour schemes the companies publish, and the way that name carries over to tickets, websites and apps. The palettes shown here are our own interpretations, not official colour values.

Formats are part of that presentation. Some operators label their auditoriums with the premium and large-format systems they install, such as IMAX, 4DX, ScreenX or Dolby Atmos sound, and with their own names for reclining seats or VIP rooms, as Cinema City’s national websites do. City-centre multiplexes carry house labels too: UGC has grouped its large multiplexes under the Ciné Cité name since 1995.

Ownership varies. Some chains belong to larger cinema groups, as Cinema City has belonged to Cineworld since 2014; others sit inside film and media companies, as with UGC, which also produces and distributes films and series and in which Canal+ says it took a 34% stake in November 2025. Restructurings and sales are part of the record, and corporate pages on founders and owners are where each company tells its own version.

Loyalty cards and subscription passes have become part of the brand as well. UGC launched its UGC Illimité card in France in 2000, and other operators followed with passes and clubs under their own names. This guide sets out what can be checked about each chain: who founded it, who owns it now and how it names its cinemas and cards, and it marks clearly what rests only on the company’s own word.

Seats, screens and closing doors.

The chain has changed its auditoriums as often as its map. In August 2008 Multikino said it had installed digital projectors able to show Dolby 3D films in every cinema, Polish Wikipedia reports. Since 2017, the encyclopedia adds, it has offered virtual-reality screenings under the name Multikino VR by Samsung. In February 2018 the cinemas in Łódź and at Poznań’s Stary Browar were refitted with fewer seats, and Poznań gained reclining superVIP seats. Multikino Młociny in Warsaw opened on 22 May 2019 with ten screens, and in March 2022 Multikino Gemini in Tychy opened with seven screens fitted only with superVIP seats and a self-service bar area, Polish Wikipedia says.

Some early sites have closed. The Gdynia cinema shut in September 2018 when its shopping centre closed, and the first Warsaw site, in Ursynów, closed in August 2024, according to Polish Wikipedia. Multikino 51 in Poznań showed its last films on 9 March 2025, with screenings running until midnight; Radio Poznań reported that the developer Develia had bought the building and planned housing on the site.

For a design guide, Multikino shows how one Polish cinema name can carry through a joint venture, a merger and a foreign owner. Compare Vue, its owner since 2013, and Cinema City, another chain operating in Poland. For this guide we use a deep berry, a soft blush and charcoal with a sans, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

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