The painters and plasterers were still hard at work and the seats weren't in place when TimeOut visited on Tuesday but - assuming the council inspectors sign on the right dotted lines - the Capitol Cinema will be open for business next week.
The refurbishment of the cinema, in the
Balmoral shops on Dominion Rd, is the newest project for Richard Dalton, the genial proprietor of the Lido in Epsom. During his seven years there that cinema has been steadily upgraded to be one of the city's best.
Defying recessionary gloom, Dalton says that cinemas traditionally flourish in economic downturns.
"It's still one of the cheapest ways of having a night out, cheaper than going to a restaurant or the pub and people still need to get out of the house even if they have fancy DVD players at home."
Dalton has three partners in the enterprise and says he will programme the cinema in tandem with the Lido.
"It's hard to say but I'd like to think we will have stuff like [Cannes Palme d'Or winner] The Class and Juno and things that are maybe a bit more edgy than what we have at the Lido."
One of the earliest suburban cinemas, the Capitol was built in 1923 to plans by the architects who designed Auckland Museum. In 1986, the entrepreneurial Charley Gray, who had opened The Island of Real, a coffee bar cum music venue in Airedale St, started the city's first repertory cinema there - showing as many as half a dozen pictures a day, none first-release, on the model of the fabled Valhalla in Sydney's Glebe.
Kelly Rogers and Matthew Stevens, founders of the Bridgeway, also briefly ran operations there and in recent years it has been home to sporadic screenings of Bollywood films.
Out of economic necessity, Dalton says his operation will be more upmarket than Charley Gray's Pictures. He's repainted all the ornate plasterwork, and installed a new screen and digital sound system, and promises comfy Lido-style seats. And the neighbourhood is home to some of the most recession-busting Asian eateries in the city. Check papers and the website for the confirmed opening date.
Capitol Cinema, 610 Dominion Rd, Balomoral, Ph: 623 2000, www.capitolcinema.co.nz
Richard Dalton is bringing a little light into the recessionary gloom. Photo / Martin Sykes
The painters and plasterers were still hard at work and the seats weren't in place when TimeOut visited on Tuesday but - assuming the council inspectors sign on the right dotted lines - the Capitol Cinema will be open for business next week.
The refurbishment of the cinema, in the
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