The Prague cinema Světozor will open a third screening hall for fifty viewers

Prague - The Prague cinema Světozor will open its third screening room. Thanks to this, the traditional Prague cinema located on Vodičkova Street will be able to host over four hundred film screenings per month, expand its programming, and also introduce a self-service bar, Jakub Fürst from Aerofilms announced today in a press release. The new hall for fifty viewers will be operational from Thursday.

There are nearly ten multiplexes and several single-screen cinemas in Prague that focus on alternative programming. These cinemas generally lack the opportunity to grow due to their architectural designs and locations. "At Světozor, we were fortunate that alongside the two existing halls with a total capacity of over four hundred seats, we managed to place a third hall. It can accommodate 51 viewers," said Petr Jirásek, the long-time director of the Světozor cinema. Thus, Světozor refers to the term multiplex and the programming of Světozor and the new hall as an artplex.

"Světozor will transform into an artplex, where it will also be possible to attend a significant film festival, watch a live broadcast of an opera or theater from abroad, or see a title from the distribution offer. This will allow us to screen titles that other cinemas often fear to show due to their artistic distinctiveness," he added.

Since 2004, according to Jirásek, over 1.5 million viewers have visited Světozor. In the last five years, it has averaged around 145,000 paying viewers annually. With the new hall, the cinema will also open a new self-service bar and will discontinue its printed program, which will now be available only digitally.

The third hall was created with the financial support of the State Cinematography Fund according to the design of the architectural studio SKUpina and architects Marcela Steinbachová in collaboration with Vít Holý.

The history of the Světozor cinema, located in one of the most vibrant passages in Prague, began a hundred years ago. A few years after the first screening at the end of 1918, the Světozor cinema was transformed into a cabaret. It returned to its original purpose in 1957 when it was reconstructed into a panoramic cinema. In 1968, Světozor housed the famous Kinoautomat for a year and a half, which premiered at the Expo '67 in Montreal.

The modern history with the current operators began in 2004 when it became the second focal point for European and art film in Prague after the Žižkov Aero. The third hall is equipped with the latest 4K projection technology and sound systems, just like the small and large halls.