Short answers, pulled from the story.
The oldest movie theater still in operation today opened its doors on the 3rd of March 1897 in the town of Ptuj, Slovenia. This venue holds the title of the oldest active commercial movie theater in the world.
Louis and Auguste Lumière held the first commercial public screening of films made with their Cinématographe in the basement of the Salon Indien du Grand Café in Paris on the 28th of December 1895. These early screenings were adaptations of existing spaces rather than purpose-built structures.
The first building built for the dedicated purpose of showing motion pictures was constructed to demonstrate the Phantoscope at The Cotton State Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia, on the 25th of September 1895. This event occurred before the Ptuj City Cinema opened but established the concept of a dedicated venue.
Canada was the first country in the world to have a two-screen theater when the Elgin Theatre in Ottawa, Ontario, became the first venue to offer two film programs on different screens in 1957. Theater-owner Nat Taylor converted the dual-screen theater into one capable of showing two different movies simultaneously.
Since the 2010s, the majority of movie theaters have been equipped for digital cinema projection, removing the need to create and transport a physical film print on a heavy reel. This technological shift has transformed the industry by allowing for greater flexibility in film distribution.
Ticket sales have been declining since the mid-2010s and have not fully recovered from declines during the COVID-19 pandemic when many theaters were closed. This decline was first observed in the 1950s when television became widespread among working-class homes.