Curzon Cinemas is planning to open up to 25 new boutique cinemas across the country over the next five years.
The iconic UK cinema chain is also set to invest £6m during this year including refurbishing premises in Soho and Bloomsbury and opening a new site in Victoria. Each site will have its own particular identity, created by a leading designer.
In going from 12 screens in the capital to 21, Curzon will bring its life-enriching, curated cinema offer to a wider audience. It’s another innovation for the chain which has a unique integrated model that spans the buying and distribution of content, physical cinemas with café bars and, more recently, its own home service available online, via BT and Samsung Smart TV.
Philip Knatchbull, CEO of Curzon Cinemas, said: “Curzon has historically been a London chain and, whilst we’re expanding nationwide, we’re still committed to providing great cinema, great service and great venues in the Capital. These projects aren’t just cosmetic – we’re fundamentally revitalising some of our historic and iconic venues and at the same time creating entirely new venues for quality and independent cinema in London.
“Bringing in different designers for each venue was a carefully thought out and deliberate choice. We might be a group of cinemas, but each of our venues has got an individual feel and ethos – that’s as important to us as it is to our customers so it’s something we’re working hard to retain.
“This work will introduce a range of smaller theatres alongside our existing larger capacity spaces. This will give us more flexibility in programming, allowing us to show an even greater range of fantastic films from the UK and around the world.”