Cinema Treasures

What Cinema Treasures does

Cinema Treasures is a privately held Delaware LLC, founded in 1999 and operated by co-founders Ross Melnick and Patrick Crowley from Los Angeles. The company operates cinematreasures.org, a free, community-driven online database that catalogs more than 62,000 movie theaters worldwide alongside 407,000+ user-contributed photographs, a video collection of theater documentaries, and a blog covering theater news, openings, closings, demolitions, and preservation efforts. The platform serves movie theater enthusiasts, historians, and preservationists who research theater architecture, document cinema history, and locate theaters near them, with a secondary audience of general moviegoers checking theater status. All content — listings, photos, comments, and editorial — is crowdsourced from registered users and a small core of long-tenured contributors including editor Ken Roe (20+ years) and former blog editor Michael Zoldessy.

The underlying technology is a conventional web-based application centered on a relational theater listings database, a user-generated photo gallery supporting multiple image formats and license types (Public Domain, Creative Commons variants, All Rights Reserved), and a mapping layer provided by Apple Maps (switched from Google Maps in 2018 after a 500x pricing increase). Distribution is direct-to-consumer via the website — there is no mobile app, API, marketplace listing, or third-party reseller channel. Marketing is organic and community-led, relying on word-of-mouth within the cinema enthusiast community, the blog, and social media presence on Twitter (@movie_theaters) and Facebook.

The business model is single-stream advertising. Cinema Treasures uses Google as a third-party ad vendor to serve display ads on the site; there are no paid user tiers, subscriptions, premium listings, B2B licensing, or e-commerce. The company is bootstrapped — there are no disclosed funding rounds, institutional investors, or parent company in the data. Revenue is undisclosed but is likely small, given the niche audience, single revenue source, and the fact that a 500x vendor cost increase in 2018 created an existential margin shock. Geographic reach spans the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany, Belgium, Greece, Singapore, New Zealand, Malaysia, and additional countries, though no country-level operations or offices exist outside the Los Angeles mailing address.

Name

Cinema Treasures

Legal name

Cinema Treasures, LLC

Website

https://cinematreasures.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1999

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Cinema Treasures is a community-driven, ad-supported web database cataloging 62,000+ movie theaters worldwide with 407,000+ user-contributed photos, serving cinema enthusiasts, historians, and preservationists seeking theater history and location information.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Online Cinema Database & Archive

NAICS

Museums, Historical Sites, and Similar Institutions (7121), Museums, Historical Sites, and Similar Institutions (712)

SIC

Services-Miscellaneous Amusement & Recreation (7990)

akta.pro primary industry

Digital Archiving & Asset Management (MAM/DAM, Cataloging, QC) (MPADAMAG)

akta.pro secondary industry

Specialty Museums (e.g., Maritime, Aviation, Sports, Music, Film) (THAJADAF)

Keywords

• Movie theater database
• Cinema history archive
• Theater listings directory
• Community photo gallery
• Movie theater news

Headquarters

HQ city

Los Angeles

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Advertising (Google Ads): Cinema Treasures uses Google as a third-party vendor to serve advertisements on the website. This is the primary revenue model for the free-to-use platform.
2. User-Generated Content (Community Contribution Model): Users voluntarily contribute theater listings, photos, and updates at no cost to the company. This user-generated content forms the backbone of the platform's database of 62,000+ theaters and 400,000+ photos.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Cinema Treasures operates a free, community-driven online database and digital archive dedicated to documenting, preserving, and celebrating movie theaters worldwide. The platform catalogs over 62,000 movie theaters with user-contributed listings, history, architecture, photos, videos, and a blog covering theater news, openings, closings, demolitions, and preservation efforts. Revenue is generated through third-party advertising (Google Ads) on the website.

Product overview

Cinema Treasures is a community-driven online database and digital archive dedicated to documenting, preserving, and celebrating movie theaters worldwide. The platform operates as a unified web application featuring a searchable database of 62,000+ theaters, a photo gallery with 407,218+ images, a video collection, and a blog covering theater news. The core product enables users to browse, search, and contribute information about theaters including historical details, architectural styles, current status, photos, and user comments. All content is user-contributed through registration and submission features.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Cinema Treasures Theater Database A comprehensive online database cataloging over 62,000 movie theaters from around the world, featuring user-contributed listings with details on theater history, architecture, current status (open, closed, demolished), seating, operators, and location information. Free to use for all visitors.
• Theater Photo Gallery A browsable collection of 407,218+ theater photographs uploaded by community members, documenting the visual history of movie theaters worldwide with multiple license options including Public Domain, Creative Commons variants, and All Rights Reserved.
• Theater Video Collection A curated selection of documentary and archival videos about historic movie theaters, including documentaries and 'Portrait of a Palace' style productions about theaters such as the Uptown and the Crystal Palace Theatre in Auckland, New Zealand.
• Theater News Blog A community-updated blog covering movie theater news including openings, closings, demolitions, renovations, restorations, preservation alerts, fundraising, industry events, and commentary on the cinema enthusiast community.

Quantifiable outcome

• 62,000+ movie theaters documented worldwide
• +2 more outcomes

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Theatre Historical Society of America (THS)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 9 December 2014A strategic partnership announced on December 9, 2014, between Cinema Treasures and the Theatre Historical Society of America (THS). THS's Development & Marketing Director Janine Pixley began contributing daily to the Cinema Treasures blog to introduce CT users to THS resources and vice versa. THS was founded in 1969 by Ben Hall (who co-authored 'Best Remaining Seats,' an inspiration for Cinema Treasures) and documents the architectural, cultural, and social history of America's theaters through its American Theatre Architecture Archive, signature publication Marquee, and events including Conclave Theatre Tour. This partnership connects movie theater news with a dedicated preservationist audience.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Emerging players

• MUBI: A curated film streaming and community platform focused on cinephiles. Comparable as a niche, enthusiast-targeted cinema platform, though transactionally (subscription) rather than archive-driven.

Broad incumbents

• Yelp: A user-generated local business review and listings platform. Comparable as a community-driven place database with reviews, photos, and ad-supported monetization, though broad in scope rather than cinema-specific.
• Tripadvisor: A global travel platform with user reviews and listings of attractions including theaters. Comparable as an ad-supported community database of places and experiences with global reach.
• Fandango: A major movie ticketing and theater-listing platform. Comparable as a destination for theater discovery, but transactional and operated by a major studio-backed incumbent rather than a community archive.
• IMDb: The largest general entertainment database, owned by Amazon. Comparable as a community-driven catalog of film/theater information, but operates at vastly broader scale with first-party data and ticketing integrations.
• Museum of the Moving Image: A New York-based institution dedicated to the art, history, and technology of film, television, and digital media. Comparable as a heritage institution focused on cinema preservation, though institutional rather than community-driven.

Direct peers

• Atlas Obscura: A community-driven database of unique places, including historic theaters and cinemas. Comparable as a place-based community content platform with editorial and user contributions, freemium monetization, and experiential tourism extensions.
• Letterboxd: A community-driven film platform with user-generated reviews, lists, and profiles. Comparable to Cinema Treasures as a niche, enthusiast-built content community centered on cinema, though focused on films rather than theaters.
• Roadside America: A long-running, enthusiast-built guide to quirky and historic American places, including historic theaters. Comparable as a niche, community-built heritage-place directory with similar longevity and small-team operations.
• Theatre Historical Society of America: An organization dedicated to documenting the architectural, cultural, and social history of American theaters. Directly comparable as a theater preservation body, and already a formal partner of Cinema Treasures.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/movie_theaters
• Facebookfacebook.com/profile.php

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Cinema Treasures