Event Cinemas

Some good news for now. The proposed development has been put on hold for a few years.

https://www.skyscrapercity.com/threads/on-hold-cbd-centre-505-george-street-80st-270m-mixed-%E2%80%8E.1727496/

The redevelopment is pending approval

There are now only 15 cinemas inside (since the 2 boutique cinemas occupy a large space). The new combined seating capacity (overall) is 3347 seats.

Good Afternoon. As of today a design winner has been chosen to build a 270m tower/apartment building on the site with demolition and construction to start in 2019/2020. Beginning of the end for the old Hoyts Centre. Fred

The Village complex was later demolished and never became part of the Greater Union / Hoyts complexes when they were joined together.

Can it really be that Bad,sounds like a big dumping ground for movies.

When it first opened the foyer was like an airport it was wonderful I even bought a second hand film book which I treasure.

I dont know what to say now, I mean… I loved that movie theatre. I have heaps of great memories of playing the video games and smoking cigs up stairs in my early teenage years. Yes it was pretty plain and without frills but i loved the wide foyer and those stairs. Hard to get photos from its hay day in the 80s. I hope this doesn’t mean i will be black listed for this admission

Greater Union now is the sole operator. Village left first and now Hoyts operate from their Entertainment Quarter and Cinema Paris.

This is the monstrosity that paved the way for the destruction of nearly 20 city cinemas when it was originally opened in 1976. Once it had proved itself as the way to the future of moviegoing all other cinema chains in Sydney disposed of their individual theatres and they were subsequently demolished.Most of those demoished were generally considered some of the prettiest and well maintained in Australia.

The Hoyts Entertainment Centre was built on the site of the Sydney’s art deco ballroom, The Trocadero, and when it opened in 1976 it consisted of 7 screens.All screens were equipped for 70mm but only 3 had screens of a size suitable for 70mm projection. The auditoriums had no decoration whatsoever apart from woollen curtains over the screen. The walls were bare concrete and there were no ceilings, just steel trusses left exposed. The foyer areas were hideous beyond belief, just to prove that Australians could manage to take shopping mall ugly, one step further! From the day it opened it started to deteriorate until it changed hands several times in the 80’s and 90’s. In an effort to make the monster pay for itself they started to economise in drastic ways like dividing cinemas, no maintenance, no trained projection staff,no foyer staff,no security, closing toilets etc until the point that most of the public refused to enter such a filthy, neglected place. It was then decided the place would be remodelled to incorporate the Greater Union complex next door and then show films from all 3 major exhibitors under one roof and split the costs.

Reopening with 17 screens,some have a 70mm capability but distributors won’t supply 70mm prints because of a lack of trained staff. Decoration is less vulgar but still tasteless.In many ways the whole complex is redundant as cinemagoing outside downtown Sydney is a thriving and more pleasant experience.

It may no longer be decrepit and filthy but it sure is the ugliest place in the city centre to see films and pretty much the only choice. All in all a depressing and dangerous place to find yourself for a night out!