News Sentinel staff
Friday, April 18, 2008

Regal Entertainment Group Chairman and CEO Mike Campbell received the Pioneer of the Year award Wednesday night in Santa Monica, Calif., from the Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation.

Campbell, who entered the movie theater business in 1982 in Claiborne County, formed Regal Cinemas Inc. in 1989 and has grown the Knoxville-based company to become the world’s largest theater chain.

Campbell was recognized for contributions to the film industry and was presented with the Pioneer of the Year award by actor Tom Cruise during a ceremony at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica. The event raised $1.2 million for the Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation and the proceeds will go to the Pioneers Assistance Fund to help motion picture industry veterans in need.

“I was certainly grateful and humbled by the award, but neither Regal nor I do what we do for the recognition. We do it because it is the right thing to do,” Campbell said Thursday.

Past Pioneer of the Year honorees have included Cecil B. DeMille, Jack Warner, Darryl F. Zanuck, Jack Valenti, Sumner Redstone and Sherry Lansing.

Campbell’s family and many Regal executives attended the presentation, which included entertainment by actor/comedian Kevin Pollack and music by John Fogerty.

“The entertainment was terrific. The highlight of the evening was Tom Cruise’s presentation of the Pioneer of the Year award to Mike Campbell,” said Regal spokesman Dick Westerling.

In his introduction of Campbell, Cruise pointed to characteristics the two have in common, including a passion for movies, meager backgrounds growing up and vows to help others less fortunate.

“Through hard work and determination, he turned a small business with one theater into the largest movie theater chain in the world,” Cruise said of Campbell. “He also revolutionized fundraising by being the first theater chain to promote to customers that Regal would donate a portion of the chain’s concession sales to charity. Not only did it improve concession sales, but it enabled Regal to raise over $14 million in the last 10 years on behalf of the Will Rogers Motion Picture Foundation.” (Source: Knox News)

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