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Christchurch cinemas closed following earthquake
posted by
Bradley Knewstubb
on
March 9, 2011 at 7:45 am
CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND — All but one cinema are closed following the February earthquake. Only the Hornby cinema has managed to re-open.
The former Joyland cinema in the suburb of New Brighton has been demolished; while the Regent On Worcester Street in the city centre faces the wrecker’s ball.
Comments (5)
Having clicked on the cinema link, I get the Regent in its sister city of Christchurch, ENGLAND, not New Zealand. Hmmmmm?
Probably when the posting was composed, the wrong link was inadvertently inserted; the link to the Regent Theatre in Christchurch, New Zealand is /theaters/9286/.
I hope that at an appropriate time in the future, a CT member living in New Zealand or one who has contacts there can update us on the status of other movie theater buildings in Christchurch. There were a couple of news reports of some patrons rescued from wreckage of one cinema by theater personnel, but the cinema was not identified.
All cinemas were closed when the Quake that closed these originally as it was 4.35am (NZ Time). With the February 22 Quake there were only a hand full of people at the cinemas at this time. No cinemas collapsed completely, but structural damage resulted in the cinemas being demolished.
To CWalczak: The reports you mentioned was not a cinema. It has since come to light that there were two people died in the building that houses the Readings Palms 8-plex in Shirley, They died in one of the shops and not the cinema.
Also the Regent 4-plex On Worcester, a Hoyts Cinema, is being demolished. The cinema, located in the former circle, collapse into the former stall area, which was occupied by shops. Hoyts have decided to abandon the complex.
It has also just been
Some good news. The Regent on Worcester (a Hoyts cinema) has been up-graded to “repairs to be under taken”. However, this does not mean it is saved from demolition. It is now up to the owner of the building and their insurance company to see if it can economically be repaired.
So far since February 22, two insurance companies have gone into receivership because of the earthquake.