By Lindile Sifile

East London movie buffs will be spoilt for choice when the newly revamped Hemingway’s cinemas open officially this week.

The movie complex, previously managed by NuMetro and owned by the casino, now boasts six cinemas, with the biggest one comfortably seating 300 people.

At this size it enjoys the status of being the biggest cinema in the province.

The seats have also been replaced by larger and more comfortable reclining chairs with enough legroom for late arrivals to move around.

There is also an additional confectionery point.

Mpho Mokoa , marketing, event and promotions co-ordinator for the casino, said the revamp, which had started in June, had been designed to improve the quality of East London’s entertainment scene and match what other big cities offered.

“We noted that there wasn’t much of an entertainment scene here and that we used to get movies that had already been shown elsewhere in the country.

“With the new cinemas, this will change as we will launch movies the same time as other big cities such as Johannesburg . Having six cinemas will also provide variety for customers.”

She added that the names of regular customers would be put onto a database which would enable them to receive regular movie updates and upcoming attractions through e-mails.

Management of the cinemas has been taken over by G-Seasons. NuMetro’s finance and operations manager Danie van der Merwe said the decision to stop trading was a business one and had nothing to do with their performance during their term of management.

“The cinema is on the property of the casino and they own it. The site will still trade under NuMetro but under new managers,” he said.

However, Mokoa disputed this and said at the moment they would trade under Hemingway’s Cinemas until an agreement had been reached.

The developments come at a price for moviegoers, though, as tickets will cost R20 a show, R8 more than previously.

But in exchange, said Mokoa, customers would enjoy “top-of- the-range” audio-visual quality from the revamped projectors and sound system.

On Thursday night the cinema complex officially opens with a red carpet and black-tie event – exactly a week before the official opening of the new Hemingway’s Mall shopping centre.

The launch of the new cinema complex is set to spice up the existing competition between Hemingway’s Casino and Vincent Park mall where rivals Ster- Kinekor are situated.

General manager at Ster-Kinekor Shassy Mohamed Ali would not say how the new cinemas would affect their business and directed questions to their Johannesburg CEO Fiaz Mohamed , who could not be contacted late yesterday.

Source: Daily Dispatch