CinemaOne to open in Price Plaza early next year

CinemaOne will be opening its doors to its Gemstone theatre at the Gulf City Mall, La Romaine later this month with another making its way to Price Plaza, Chaguanas in the first quarter in 2023. CinemaOne CEO Ingrid Jahra has dubbed this project CineCentral.

"CineCentral will provide a refreshed 26,000 square foot space with newly renovated spacious auditorium including cutting-edge sound and projection technology and extensive concession offerings."

Speaking at the launch at the Brix Hotel, Autograph Collection, Coblentz Avenue, Cascade, she said the estimated cost for this project is $15 million. She added that renovations are already being done to what was formerly known as MovieTowne and explained that the covid19 pandemic opened many doors for CinemaOne. She said although the pandemic gave people the option of streaming, many still want to be back in the theatres.

"As the pandemic restrictions began to ease in the latter part of 2021, audiences gave a big hint they were ready to come back to our big screen movie theatres. Spiderman No Way Home was released in December 2021 and has garnered a record-breaking US$1.9 billion in box office and that's just one title."

She said this trend continued with other big releases in the cinematic universe, but the box office receipts are yet to reflect those of 2019 as it has dropped to US$19.3 billion. Jahra said a key highlight was the month of July which accumulated US$3.37 million, which is the highest within the pandemic era.

"As we continue to expand our CinemaOne brand in major local markets, we could not be more thrilled to share our version of movie-going to the Chaguanas community. The CinemaOne's entry into the Chaguanas market is its association with Endeavour Holdings Ltd. Both companies are first and second entities to be listed in the small-to-medium enterprise tier of the TT stock exchange and now, are collaborating to ignite movie-going in the rapidly expanding and vibrant city of Chaguanas."