Cineplex CEO to receive Legend of Cinema Award from international industry group
Ellis Jacob, the CEO of Canadian cinema giant Cineplex, is joining a very exclusive club. Its only other member is filmmaker Martin Scorsese.
Jacob, who has been part of the Canadian cinema industry long enough to remember when VCRs were considered a threat, is retiring this year — but not before receiving the Legend of Cinema Award at an industry event in April.
The award has only been given out once before. In 2023, Martin Scorsese became its inaugural recipient , in honour of his storytelling prowess, his push for film preservation and restoration, and his love of the big-screen experience.
Michael O’Leary, president and CEO of Cinema United, the industry group that presents the award, said that last quality is what drives Jacob as well.
“That is the connective tissue between Ellis and Martin Scorsese,” he told National Post in an interview. “They obviously both have a well documented love of movies in the theatre. They are tireless promoters of them. They come at it in different ways, but their goal is the same, which is to reinforce what a special experience it is to see a movie in a theatre.”
He added: “It’s just another way to recognize people who really care about movies.”
And it’s not an annual prize. “I couldn’t tell you when it will be awarded again. This will be something where we’ll look at the situation and say: Is there someone who rises to a significant level and would be worthy of this award?”
Jacob is one such someone. Born in Calcutta (now Kolkata) India in 1953, he came to Canada in 1969 and worked in the auto sector and at Motorola before moving into the motion picture business. He worked for what was then Cineplex Odeon in the ’80s and ’90s before co-founding Galaxy Cinemas in 1999. In 2003 he became CEO of the newly merged Cineplex Galaxy (later renamed Cineplex Entertainment), a position he has held ever since.
“I feel very honoured,” Jacob told National Post. “Joining Martin Scorsese is a pretty big distinction and recognition.”
In 2022 Jacob became the first Canadian to receive Cinema United’s Marquee Award, which recognizes an exceptional executive within the industry, and in 2018 he was the first from this country to serve as chair of Cinema United’s executive board. “It’s important that Canada be part of the world when it comes to this,” he said.
O’Leary agreed. “Ellis has a huge impact in the country of Canada,” he said. “But he hasn’t stopped there, and he’s a leader across this industry. People look to him for guidance and advice, and he has a leading voice in a lot of the big decisions that the industry is facing, not just in Canada but everywhere in the world.”
Under Ellis’s watch, Cineplex opened adult-only VIP theatres (including an all-VIP location in Toronto), Rec Room gaming/dining venues, and the Scene Card, which now boasts more than 11 million members.
“When I set up this program over 17 years ago everybody said: What are you setting up the program for?” he recalled. “It wasn’t about the points; it was about the data. And today that data is invaluable, and where it helps us tremendously is in international content.”
Jacob noted that the recent Hindi movie Dhurandhar did 35 per cent of its North American business at Cineplex. “Usually if we do 10 per cent we are excited. So doing those kinds of numbers is because we are able to communicate with those guests and bring them back in a big way. And there’s the sequel to the movie opening in March, and I think it’s going to be just as big.”
Prior to COVID-19, only about two per cent of Cineplex’s business was international content, a number that has since risen to more than 10 per cent and continues to grow.
The pandemic shutdown was only one of the waves ridden by Cineplex in recent years. Weeks before the pandemic it was announced that Britain’s Cineworld chain would purchase Cineplex; but the deal fell apart, and Cineworld was ordered to pay US$1 billion for breach of contract.
More recently, the company has been accused of “drip pricing” for its online booking fees, and ordered to pay a fine of $39-million. Its appeal of that ruling was turned down last month by the Federal Court of Appeal. The company plans to appeal to the Supreme Court.
Cineplex also saw a weak fourth quarter last year, reporting a profit of $369,000, down from $3.3 million a year earlier. But Jacob has long been looking past quarterly results.
“I started in exhibition in 1987 and I would say every decade reaffirmed my commitment to the industry and its future,” he said. “Everybody thought when the VCR came out the industry was dead and done. And basically I proved them wrong.”
As to the future: “I think what’s going to happen is content is going to get better. People want to get back and do those social experiences at the movies, and as long as we can communicate with them and market them to come back, I feel that they will be back in a big way. And 2026 has a good slate of movies, especially starting in April going through to the end of the year.”
Jacob plans to retire at the end of the year, and he has quite the bucket list. That includes taking a Global Professional Master of Laws through the University of Toronto with a number of other senior executives who are retiring. “The challenge is I haven’t got the dean to agree to it … so maybe if you put it in the story they’ll agree to it.”
He also plans to travel. “My goal six years ago was to go to every country in the world. And I also want to take up a couple of languages (he already speaks English, French, Hindi and several other Indian dialects) and then play golf, which I’m not good at, but I want to get better at.”
And of course movies. He once told Playback magazine that he prefers seeing them with other patrons rather that at private screenings. You’d probably notice if Martin Scorsese was behind you in line to see Hamnet or Wuthering Heights. But you might not recognize Jacob, even though the two have so much in common.
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