Movie theaters destroyed in rioting in Thailand

posted by CSWalczak on June 1, 2010 at 7:51 am

BANGKOK, THAILAND — The widespread rioting and burning in Bangkok has claimed at least three theaters in the country’s capital. The ruined include include the classic single screen Siam Theater, the fifteen-screen SF World Cinemas megaplex, and the fourteen-screen theater owned by Major Cineplex in the wrecked Siam Paragon complex which included an IMAX auditorium.

The SF World and Major multiplexes, shut for the last six weeks while protesters blockaded the streets around them, were host to the Bangkok International Film Festival in recent years. Organizers of the event had already planned on using different venues.



Hardcore anti-government “Red Shirt” protesters dissatisfied with their leaders' surrender resorted to looting and torching the shopping malls, seen as symbols of a growing consumerist culture that has turned its back on Thailand’s rural poor.

There is more in the Hollywood Reporter.

Theaters in this post

• SF World Cinemas
• Siam Cinema