New cinema a boost for city
With over 900 cinema seats, seven movie screens and 13 food outlets, central Christchurch’s $50 million new Hoyts EntX multiplex is expected to give the central city a boost, when it opens on September 28.
The three-level complex has been under construction for a 18 months between Colombo, Lichfield and Tuam streets, and will open to coincide with the start of school holidays.
EntX will replace the eightscreen Moorhouse Ave facility, which cinema chain Hoyts lost in the earthquakes. It will be the company’s third multiplex in Christchurch and 11th in New Zealand, and the second in the country with large ‘‘xtremescreens’’, recliner seats and in-cinema dining.
Building owners Calder Stewart Investments bought the land from Crown rebuild company Otakaro, and designed and built the building for Hoyts. They originally hoped to have it finished in May.
The opening will bring the number of movie screens in the city to 39. The Arts Centre plans to open a double-screen arthouse cinema next year.
Lang Masters, who has owned cinemas in Christchurch for over 50 years, said while the new multiplex would bring screen numbers back up to preearthquake days, seat numbers remained well short of the cinema heyday when several 1000-plus seat cinemas ringed Cathedral Square.
Masters said that while smaller cinemas attract an older market, the multiplexes competed for younger audiences with ticket prices, food offerings and newstyle seats.
Central City Business Association manager Paul Lonsdale said the new location was even better than Moorhouse Ave as it would bring people into the heart of the city.
‘‘This is going to be a fabulous attraction.’’