There are more than 50 sites including Cinema Complexes and Convention Centers. TOHO Cinemas Co., Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Toho, is responsible for management, but there are also theaters operated by other companies of the Toho Group. The predecessor of Toho Cinemas Corporation is Virgin Cinemas Japan Ltd., a foreign capital company. A Japanese-American businessman, Mark Yamamoto, was funded by the British Virgin Group and founded Virgin Cinemas on September 12, 1997. The first Virgin Cinemas theatre, "Virgin Cinemas Trias Hisayama" opened in Fukuoka Prefecture on April 23, 1999. At the end of 2002, the company expanded from 8 theatres to 81, and became the 6th largest film entertainment company in Japan. On April 4, 2003, Toho purchased Virgin Cinemas for 10.3 billion yen, renaming the company as Toho Cinemas. Since then, parent company Toho and other companies have developed cinema complexes under the Toho Cinemas brand. In addition, many of the cinema complexes that the Toho Group had previously operated were renamed to TOHO Cinemas after the renewal. Toho Cinemas also integrated the ticketing system and point cards. On October 1, 2006, Toho Cinemas succeeded Toho's film and entertainment division as parent company, due to the restructuring of the Toho Group's film entertainment division, with the aim of improving management efficiency as a wholly owned subsidiary of the company's film entertainment business. As a next step, Toho East Japan Kogyo Co., Ltd., Chubu Toho, Toho Kansai Koki Co., and Kyushu Toho merged into Toho Cinemas, Ltd. on March 1, 2008. Originally the company that managed cinema complexes, but now, after reorganization, it also operates several conventional pavilions including "Toho Cinemas Daily Theater". There are also cinema complexes that operate under the name "Cinema Media". In addition, although we are in keeping pace with the movie theater of another name related to management, such as prize events, there are differences in ticket issuing systems and so on. As of July 2013, Toho Cinemas has the second largest number of movie theaters in Japan, following Ion Entertainment. On May 2015, Toho inaugurated Dreampass, an online service that sells movie tickets for movies that were frequently requested at movie theaters.
