A fire which started in a popcorn machine at Rotorua's Reading Cinema meant the movie theatre was out of business until at least last night.
Cinema complex manager Adam Morrison said the fire broke out in the popcorn machine about 10.20am yesterday.
Mr Morrison said staff had only just opened the building and were preparing the popcorn when a fault in the machine caused it to catch fire.
"We had just opened but luckily we had no patrons when the fire started,'' he said.
"I contained the fire with a fire extinguisher but the flames got high enough to activate our sprinkler system.''