By Hussein Kiganda
Following the lifting of the lockdown by President Yoweri Museveni on December 31, several cinemas reopened today, with a huge number of moviegoers turning up.
At Century Cinemax, there was a high turnout for its first movie, Spiderman, which was shown at 1:00pm.
Joshua, one of the many who had come to watch Spiderman, said he was so happy that the cinemas were reopened.
“It has been long since I last watched a movie in the cinema. I do not have money, but I managed to save a little to enjoy myself. I am looking forward to watching Spiderman and I have hopes that it will be cool,” he said before he entered the cinema.
Acram Juuko, the events, marketing, and public relations officer, said, they were overwhelmed by the number of people coming.
“We have even been forced to send away some people because we need to observe the SOPs. We sent others to our branch in Naalya,” he explained.
Juuko noted that they are operating at half capacity so as to observe the standard operating procedures for the prevention of COVID-19.
He said all the halls have been spaced and those who come in a group or families sit together.
“All our halls are 195-seater, but we accept only 100 tickets for each. The ones who come in groups of three, four, or five or as a family or couple sit together,” Juuko explained.
However, he said movie prices have not been increased except for movies that are just premiering in Uganda.
“They are all at our usual price except for Spiderman, which is just premiering,” Juuko said.
He lamented that Century Cinemax has suffered a financial blow of sh100m since the closure of the economy in 2020. He hopes that the reopening of cinemas will help the company to recover and if all goes well, they plan to open up another branch at the Nsambya-based Arena Mall.
Century Cinemax is also hoping to show more local movies in order to boost the local film industry.
