Leamington’s Spa Centre cinema to return this spring

Spa Centre manager David Guilding and staff at the venue's cinema studio, which was refurbished last year.

After the new equipment was installed this week, the venue is hoping that the cinema will re-open in March, once the technical team have completed their training.

Film screenings have not been part of the centre’s programme since before last summer.

The results of a survey sent out to customers on the Spa Centre’s database have shown that the majority of people would like the cinema to continue to screen a mixture of arthouse and mainstream films and to keep ticket prices between £5 and £6.

The new equipment also gives the cinema the capacity to show a greater variety of films and more streaming of live events, such as opera and London theatre shows.

The Spa Centre’s deputy manager Laura Bates said: “We would like to continue running themed cinema events, for example on Valentine’s Day, around Christmas and for Halloween.

“The sound system has been improved and the quality of the screen is much better than it was before.”

Speaking at a recent meeting of Warwick District Council - which subsidises the Spa Centre - Cllr Stephen Cross, responsible for policy on culture, said: “We are really excited about the potential the new cinema equipment is going to give us.”

He also announced that the Spa Centre’s pantomime in December 2013 and January 2014 sold 19,065 tickets and raised £183,814 for the venue.