Scala Cinema
1 Rama Road, Siam Square, Pathum Wan,
Bangkok
10330
1 Rama Road, Siam Square, Pathum Wan,
Bangkok
10330
1 person
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The Scala Cinema was one of the oldest single screen cinemas operating in central Bangkok. It was named after the famed La Scala Opera House in Milan, Italy. The Scala Cinema was opened by Apex Theatres on 31st December 1969 with John Wayne in “The Undefeated”. It was equipped for 70mm films. The building was sold to developers and was closed by Apex Theatres on 5th July 2020 with films curated by the Thai Film Archive: David Hemmings in “Blowup”, 2 Thai documentary films “Scala” featuring the Scala Cinema & “Phantom of Illumination” featuring stand-alone movie theatres. The final film screened was “Cinema Paradiso”. It was demolished in October 2021 to build a shopping mall.
Contributed by
Ken Roe
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Recent comments (view all 6 comments)
A photograph of the foyer, and scroll down for a close-up of the exterior:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/iprahin/3899261067/
This one may have escaped the recent rampage of rioting that destroyed three other theaters in the area.
I do not think the picture cited above is in fact a picture of the Scala, in spite of its labeling on flickr. I appears to be actually a picture of the staircase at the Siam Theater /theaters/32780/ . There is a picture of the entry to the Siam on the theater’s website http://www.apexsiam-square.com/home.asp and the ceiling light fixtures and other details look like the ones in the picture cited. In addition, this website’s description of the Scala: View link makes it sound like it is rather shabby place. The Siam was one of the theaters wrecked in the recent rioting so I don’t know how long its website will stay active.
Well, I guess I was wrong; this website View link has both an exterior and lobby photo of the Scala (and there is no doubt that it is because of the exterior picture), yet on the APEX Theater’s website, it is not called the Scala but the pictures match up. Now I wonder if the the Scala and the Siam are/were one and the same, and which, if either, survived the rioting.
A great cinema going experience profiled earlier this year in Monocle…White gloved ushers…double aisled big screen experience…In my Bangkok years (mid 80s) saw JP Belmondo film here Ace of Aces and Emerald Forest (maybe in sister screen Siam)…This was the very best in Bangkok at the time even if the programming was a bit odd at times
This was reported in the Independent using the dates given above