Short answers, pulled from the story.
The first building constructed specifically to show motion pictures was built at The Cotton State Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia on the 25th of September 1895, to demonstrate the Phantoscope, a device created by Jenkins and Armat. Ptuj City Cinema in Slovenia, which held its first commercial public screening on the 3rd of March 1897, is the oldest active commercial movie theater still in operation.
Canadian theater-owner Nat Taylor is credited by Canadian sources with inventing the multiplex, after converting the Elgin Theatre in Ottawa, Ontario in 1957 to show two different movies simultaneously on two screens. In the United States, Stanley Durwood of American Multi-Cinema pioneered the multiplex concept in 1963 at Ward Parkway Center in Kansas City, Missouri.
The first permanent IMAX theater opened at Ontario Place in Toronto, Canada. IMAX uses 70 mm film with more than ten times the frame size of a standard 35 mm film. The largest permanent IMAX cinema screen measures 38.80 by 21.00 meters, verified at a theater in Leonberg, Germany on the 6th of December 2022.
Movie theaters earn an estimated 85% profit at the concession stand, and the retail price of movie-theater popcorn is roughly nine times what it costs to produce. This high margin exists partly because film studios historically claim as much as 100% of gross ticket revenue during a film's opening weeks, leaving exhibitors heavily reliant on food and drink sales.
The earliest 3D movies were presented in the 1920s. The golden era of theatrical 3D began in the early 1950s with Bwana Devil, the first color stereoscopic feature. The first 3D feature with stereophonic sound was Warner Bros.' House of Wax in 1953. A major revival of theatrical 3D interest occurred in 2009, with RealD expecting 15,000 3D screens worldwide by 2010.
In the US, the number of tickets sold fell nearly 11% between 2004 and 2013, even as box office revenue increased 17% due to higher ticket prices. A Pew Media survey from 2006 found that 75% of respondents preferred watching movies at home, with home viewings outnumbering theater visits at a five to one ratio. In 2014, concerns grew in the industry over same-day theatrical and on-demand streaming releases.