电影院(diàn yǐng yuàn) - cinema in Mandarin

电影院 (diànyǐngyuàn) is the cinema, the building rather than the film itself. It is built from 电影 (diànyǐng), "film, movie" (literally "electric shadow", a lovely bit of early-twentieth-century coinage), plus 院 (yuàn), "courtyard, institution", the same 院 you get in 医院 (yīyuàn), "hospital".

去电影院看电影 (qù diànyǐngyuàn kàn diànyǐng), "go to the cinema to watch a film", is the standard pairing; note that 电影院 is where you go, while 电影 is what you watch, so both words tend to show up in the same sentence rather than one standing in for the other.

A single screening or cinema is counted with 家 (jiā), the measure word for businesses: 一家电影院 (yì jiā diànyǐngyuàn). Ticket vocabulary sits right alongside it: 电影票 (diànyǐngpiào), "cinema ticket", and the more general 票 (piào), "ticket".