The Exeter Picturehouse is owned and operated by City Screen Ltd. City Screen is the country's largest independent cinema operator and specialises in running city center, community-orientated cinemas. Central to its style of operation is screening a wide variety of films, tailored to the local audience, including the best of independent and world cinema. The cinemas all have integrated café-bars to enhance the cinema-going experience and to provide customers with a place to meet before or after the film. Wherever possible, the cinemas have active education programmes, designed to enhance the audiences appreciation and understanding of film.

City Screen opened the Exeter Picturehouse in October 1996, on the site of a former warehouse. It was designed by architects Burrell Foley Fischer and has been the recipient of a Civic Trust award. Through a pioneering partnership with Devon Curriculum Advice, the cinema works with schools and young people locally to introduce them to film making and to encourage them to see films outside of the Hollywood tradition.