After a nearly four-year search, the California-based owner of Consolidated Theatres may have found a buyer for Hawai'i's largest cinema chain.

Los Angeles-based Pacific Theatres has reached an agreement to sell 15 of its 29 cinemas to Reading International Inc., a publicly traded company based in Commerce, Calif., that owns cinemas largely concentrated in Australia and New Zealand.

Pacific Theaters declined to disclose locations of the cinemas being sold, but the company in late 2003 said it was seeking to sell its Hawai'i chain to concentrate on California operations.

A company spokeswoman yesterday said Pacific Theatres is exiting business outside the greater Los Angeles area. Outside Los Angeles, Pacific Theatres operates 181 screens at 15 cinemas — the same number Reading said it is buying for $72 million.

In Hawai'i, Pacific Theatres operates 98 screens at nine theaters under its Consolidated brand on O'ahu and Maui, including multiplexes at Pearlridge Center, Ward Centers and Kahala Mall.

Reading announced its pending purchase in a written statement. Company officials could not be reached for further comment yesterday.

The company expects the acquisition to be completed by the end of the year.

If the sale is completed and includes Consolidated Theatres, it would usher in a new owner of Hawai'i's dominant cinema chain, which four years ago employed 750 people.

Such a deal also would follow the sale of the second-biggest chain in the state made in 2004 when Knoxville, Tenn.-based Regal Entertainment Group bought 30 theaters from California-based Signature Theatres, including four theaters with 47 screens in Hawai'i.

Consolidated Theatres traces its history in Hawai'i back to the founding of affiliate Consolidated Amusement Co. in 1917.

In 1958, the company, which then owned 18 theaters and 75 percent of TV station KGMB and a radio station, was sold for $8 million to investors from Oklahoma. A year later the theater business was sold to Pacific Theatres, a firm founded in 1946 by William Forman.

Consolidated has evolved over the past few decades by opening large multiplexes and closing older single- or twin-screen theaters and drive-ins while selling or redeveloping valuable property under the businesses.

In June, Consolidated closed the Varsity Twin Cinema in Mo'ili'ili and sold the property to Kamehameha Schools. In August, the company shuttered the Aikahi Twin cinema.

Other Consolidated closures in the past few years include screens on the Big Island, and a trio of large theaters in Waikiki redeveloped for retail tenants.

Today, all or nearly all of Consolidated's cinemas are on leased property.

Like Pacific Theaters, Reading considers itself a cinema exhibition and real estate company.

The firm, whose stock trades on the American Stock Exchange, owned or operated 44 cinemas with 286 screens at the end of last year.

Most of Reading's screens are in Australia and New Zealand, though nine cinemas with 56 screens are in the United States.

The company operates theaters under its Reading brand in Australia and New Zealand. On the Mainland, the company operates cinemas under City Cinemas and Angelika Film Center & Cafe brands. Reading also owns seven "off Broadway" style live theaters in Manhattan and Chicago.

Reading's real estate development primarily involves opening retail centers with multiplexes in Australia and New Zealand.

The company also owns an 18 percent stake in Malulani Investments Ltd., a Honolulu-based firm that owns real estate in California, Hawai'i and Texas.

Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com.