My Blog

Dec 2, 2015

Another city movie theater has died...


Category: Blog
Posted by: kimba

Today I've head shocking news that "Central", the first movie theater I've ever visited, and already the third one in the downtown of my town, is closing its doors for good today! I can't believe that at all!

It would take me several pages to describe all those pleasant memories of moments spent there and watching all those movies, starting from the E.T. in 1984 onwards, not to mention waking up at the break of dawn to buy the tickets for the evening screenings of Titanic at about 7:00 AM.

It's true, during this last decade (and nowadays) it was more common to visit a multiplex which offers more movies and more screenings at the same place rather than going to a small downtown theater that offers only 2-4 movies, but before shopping malls with such megaplexes this was the best form of entertainment, especially during the 1970s, the 1980s and the 1990s. The below image, taken at the theater's entrance, is a pale image of what it used to be.

All these new shopping malls (which I mentioned in my previous blog post) are really to blame, and it was pretty unlikely for such small theaters to survive with such big rivals, although my town is probably the only such example, as the small movie theaters in Zagreb are still opened, while Split (besides 2 big multiplexes) has only 1 downtown theater, plus another one that is opened during the summer months...

I've also heard that on "Central"'s place a brand new 2-leveled night club will be opened. No comment on that...

R.I.P., dear "kino Central" (est. 1939.)... ;'(