Hailing from Lebanon, Hammad Atassi is the owner and brilliant mind behind Cinemacity Fountain Views, the only licensed theatre in Downtown Dubai. The brand-new 220-seater cinema is split across six screens and is ideally situated in one of the city’s main hotspots, the Dubai Mall district.
He will be bringing his international expertise in state-of-the-art theatres and wealth of experience from creating functional and highly aesthetic cinemas to the table.
Atassi left Lebanon at the start of the civil unrest, and at just 17 moved to the UK, and then the US, where he had acquired a degree in Civil Engineering at the University of Southern California.
Living in Los Angeles in his twenties exposed Atassi to the film industry where he gained first-hand experience in the production and distribution of his late father’s movies in Los Angeles, Paris, and London. He then went to work for a collection of food and beverage outlets, based in California, which ultimately led him to have a deeper understanding of the entertainment complexes within the F&B industry.
Hammad was able to take advantage of his understanding in engineering and fit out techniques to create well planned and design-oriented cinemas, using his knowledge and relationships in the distribution world and Hollywood. Moreover, his skilled knowledge in hospitality led him to produce functional and highly aesthetic cinemas and experiences in unique locations.
In 1995, he brought his enthusiasm for film back to the Middle East and established Prime Pictures, which immediately became the leading film distributor in the Middle East. Prime, the agent for DreamWorks, Paramount, and Sony Pictures in Lebanon, eventually expanded to the UAE, Egypt, and Jordan.
In 2004, Hammad signed his first cinema lease in Lebanon where he opened Cinemacity Multiplex, a first of its kind cinema experience that significantly gained popularity due to its interactive lobbies with sushi counters and bars.
From there, he opened more cinemas in Jordan, Lebanon, the UAE, and Syria in prestigious locations such as Beirut Souks in Beirut, and the AlAbdali Mall in Amman. The latest opening is Cinemacity Fountain Views.