Cineworld Cinema - York

DavidSimpson on April 30, 2022 at 10:37 am

I visited the Cineworld on Tuesday 26th April 2022 to see “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent”, starring (and about!) Nicolas Cage. I was given a very warm welcome by the staff, who are rightly proud of this new, vibrant cinema.

As a postscript to the Overview, the LNER Community Stadium (as it is known for sponsorship purposes) hosted its first soccer match on Tuesday 16th February 2021, when (for the record!) York City were beaten 3-1 by Fylde. (The capacity for the stadium is 8,500: perhaps the 8,005 quoted in the Overview is a typo.) The facilities at the leisure complex to the right of the stadium include a swimming pool, sports hall and gym, while the building that houses the Cineworld is also home to Hollywood Bowl and Puttstars mini-golf.

CF100 on March 3, 2020 at 9:50 am

Google Streetview links:

Under construction-July 2018. Under construction-July 2019.

The IMAX auditorium is the nearest part of the building in the photos, where it can be seen that the roof indeed extends above the rest of the retail/cinema block.

It can also be seen that the whole cinema is located above a thick slab at first floor level, below which are retail units/restaurants. Thus, the floor to roof measurements taken from the levels marked on the cross-section plan linked to in the previous post are a very good indication of the available height within the IMAX auditorium. 16.81m certainly seems quite possible.

CF100 on March 3, 2020 at 7:52 am

2014 planning application.

2016 planning application. (Minor material amendments.)

2017 planning application. (Non-material amendments—the only relevant one appears to be “reverse the slope of the cinema roof.”)

The most relevant application to view is the one dated 2016.

The applicable “minor material amendments” in this are:

“An increase the height and length of the commercial development building with alterations to internal layout and an increase in cinema and restaurant floorspace.”

Plans for the cinema are shown in documents “GA FLOOR PLAN, LEVEL 00,” “GA FLOOR PLAN, LEVEL 01,” “GA FLOOR PLAN, LEVEL 02,” “GA FLOOR PLAN, CINEMA PROJECTOR LEVEL,” and “GA PLAN ROOF PLAN.”

The layout of the cinema is altered from the 2014 application; the “footprint” of the retail/cinema block in the 2014 approved application is shown on these plans.

Comparing the roof plans in the 2016/2017 applications, the roof over the IMAX auditorium does not appear to be be changed. A cross-section is available; referring to the 2017 application, it is “SOUTH STAND AND RETAIL SECTION.”

Alas, this does not show the IMAX. Furthermore, it is not clear from this what the roof height of the IMAX is—there is a “lightbox parapet” marked, but it is not clear whether this has any relation to the IMAX’s roof.

The distance between “01 Level-Cinema Foyer” and the “Lightbox Parapet” is ~20m, and between “01 Level Cinema Foyer” and “R&C Parapet” (i.e., the heighest point above the other auditoria) is ~15.5m—about the height needed for a 1.43:1 screen!

Whatever the exact height of the screen is, it seems quite clear that the amended (2016) scheme was designed around a 1.43:1 IMAX with Laser installation. Perhaps it was only at a later date that it was decided by IMAX not to include 1.43:1 capability with the “Commercial Laser” version of their laser projection system? Still somewhat puzzling, for whilst 1.43:1 hasn’t faded away just yet, most IMAX releases remain at 1.90:1 maximum height.

Cineworld should be applauded for taking forward these ambitious schemes, but the random “red box” sidewall treatment is, in my view, not too attractive. Still, from having visited Cineworld Watford, I can confirm that these single projector IMAX with Laser-equipped auditoria with 70ft. or so wide screens are excellent places to see a film, with outstanding picture quality and a very capable sound system. I wouldn’t be overly concerned about letterboxing/the disused screen area; whilst absurd to have a 1.43:1 screen that can’t be filled, even more so given IMAX is supposed to be “no compromise,” it is still a large screen and the disused parts of the screen will be near-black.

[ADDED TEXT TO OVERCOME “YOUR COMMENT APPEARS TO BE SPAM” ERROR MESSAGE ON REPOSTING.]

PhilipWW on December 15, 2019 at 11:07 pm

That makes the aspect ratio 1.32. What a strange ratio; so both the old IMAX film ratio of 1.43 and the Digital Imax ratio of 1.90 are going to result in black bars top and bottom.

Whenever a standard Scope film is shown, there will be huge black bars top and bottom. This doesn’t seem like a very appealing proposition to me.