The man wore a mask and carried what appeared to be a weapon when he entered the cinema in Viernheim, a town near Frankfurt, reports said.
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German media broadcast pictures of heavily armed police, wearing helmets and body armour, storming the Kinopolis complex in Viernheim and two people fleeing the building.
The gunman was shot dead after police stormed the complex, the Mannheimer Morgen newspaper reported, citing Interior Minister Peter Beuth of the state of Hesse.
However, such a scenario has not been confirmed by police, who are investigating the incident.
Viernheim is approximately 40 miles south of Frankfurt.
Early media reports on Thursday suggested that upwards of 25 people had been injured in the incident. A police spokesman said there were not believed to be any injuries, while some previous reports estimated there were between 20 to 50 injuries.
The police said that they now have no leads linking the man to radical Islam, and other motives are being looked into.
The movie theater is part of a town shopping center that has more than 100 businesses, CNN reported.
Police were not immediately available for comment.
Police said that the deployment lasted about three hours.
Witnesses say the man appeared very confused and “relatively young”.
Following deadly attacks in cities including Paris, Brussels and Istanbul, the German police forces had been put on high security alert.
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“There was a threat situation and the man was then shot dead by a colleague.” said police spokeswoman, Christiane Kobus. The caller said there was a masked man … armed with a long gun.
