Lee Roy Mitchell

Texas theater operator who, with his brother J.C., ran Mitchell Theatres in the 1960s before building the Cinemark circuit. He serves as Cinemark's chairman.

Lee Roy Mitchell has worked in movie exhibition since the 1960s, when he and his brother J.C. Mitchell ran Mitchell Theatres, later Texas Cinema Corporation. He began operating theaters under the Cinemark name in 1977 and merged them with Texas Cinema in 1979. Plitt Theatres bought that circuit in 1980, but Mitchell kept building, and in 1987 Cinemark acquired all of the Plitt theaters. Under his leadership, Cinemark built multiplexes in growing suburban and mid-sized markets, developed the Tinseltown USA concept, and expanded into Latin America starting with Chile in 1993. He served as CEO for many years and remains chairman of the board.