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ABCDE
ABCDE commented about Embassy Theatre on Jul 7, 2017 at 11:36 pm

The 70ml screen was originally to go into the Majestic but the theatre owners would not allow the radical alterations needed to install it. When put in the Embassy the screen was so large that the sight lines were so bad that they couldnt use the downstairs seating as the overhang of the balcony cut out half the screen.They could only use the balcony seating of about 800. This caused programming problems as big films like James Bond had a minimum seating requirement of not less than 1000. Thus the big screen could not be used for a lot of the blockbusters that it was intended to be used for.

ABCDE
ABCDE commented about Hoyts Mid-City on Jul 2, 2017 at 2:26 pm

The Midcity Cinema Centre was opened by Amalgamated Theatres in 1987 as a replacement of their four older theatres (Kings, Plaza, Lido & Cinerama). The main opening film was ‘The Mission". All 3 screens seated about 450 and were of good design. However it was on the 3rd floor of an office building and there were escalators and passage ways to get up to it. In 1992 two more cinemas were added (120 & 60) and featured behind screen projection. These were on a lower level and were separately promoted as 'art house’ type cinemas. Hoyts suddenly closed these cinemas in 2007 without any prior warning and centered their Wellington operation on their 5 screen Regent on Manners

ABCDE
ABCDE commented about Hoyts Regent 1-3 on Jul 2, 2017 at 1:59 pm

The original Wellington Opera House was built on this site in the 1880s. In 1915 it became Everybodys Theatre screening silents. It was demolished in 1924 and the spectacular Regent Theatre was built. It was lavishly decorated in the house style of J C Willamson Theatres of which the Regent in Palmerston North and Melbourne are of the few still surviving.

It was always a prestige 1st release house and was always programmed for the more “quality” films. It suffered major earthquake damage in 1942 and was closed for several months. It was taken over by Kerridge Odeon Theatres in 1945 and continued until 1978 it was deemed an earthquake risk and was demolished. It also caught fire at this time.

The Regent Center was opened in 1982. Ground level was a walk through shopping mall linking through to Cuba Street and upstairs were 3 cinemas seating 450, 450 & 230 plus a large restaurant and bar. The cinemas were very poorly designed with the screens being too big and the front rows always being a source of complaint. Opening night films were ‘The French Lieutenants Woman’‘Arthur’ & ‘The Scarecrow’.

It was taken over by Hoyts Cinemas in 1993 and increased to 5 screens by dividing the two 450s straight down the middle into 4 X 200. These proved much better than before although they were very long and narrow so the screen size was now quite small. It was renamed Regent 5 and then Hoyts Regent on Manners. Hoyts had also taken over the nearby Midcity 3 and also increased that to 5 screens.

Major competition came with the opening of The Reading Cinema Centre in Courtenay Place and in 2009 both the Regent and Midcity were closed and Hoyts pulled out of Wellington.