Sham Shui Po is famous for its flea market and also home to the Golden Computer Arcade, floors of cheap and cut-price computers and computer accessories. Next year, it will also be home to one of three new Hong Kong cinemas due to open between now and early 2019.
UA Cinemas, which has eight cinemas in Hong Kong — including one at the airport — will open new theaters in Sham Shui Po, Tai Po, and Tsing Yi.
The Tai Po cinema will be located in Tai Po Super City, have four screens with more than 300 seats, and is expected to be completed in the first half of 2019. The Tsing Yi cinema is expected to be completed by next month and will have 639 seats across six screens.
According to Apple Daily, the Sham Shui Po cinema house is expected to be located on 131 to 133 Fuk Wing Street inside the Golden Computer Arcade. It will have three screens, seating more than 300 people, and is expected to open in the first half of next year.
News of the new cinemas delighted residents, particularly in Tai Po, which has not had a neighborhood cinema in 10 years.
Reactions to the announcement that a new cinema in Sham Shui Po will be built were largely positive (“That means I won’t have to walk to Mong Kok to see a film!”). However, there were some skeptics remarking: “The Golden Computer Arcade is so small, can they really fit a cinema in there?” and “I hope they don’t demolish the computer center.”
Some netizens were quick to point out that Sham Shui Po used to be home to a lot of cinemas, including the Palace Theatre which was demolished in 1972, and the Prince Theatre, which was torn down in 1998.
Reporters from Apple Daily went to visit Sham Shui Po and reported that, as of yet, there does not seem to be any construction work or sign of a new cinema being built.
With 50 cinemas in the city, Hongkongers are spoiled for choice when it comes to deciding where to watch a film. However Ivan Wong, the managing director of the company that manages UA theatres, said while the number of cinema houses in Hong Kong has increased, the distribution is uneven.
Wong said that ticket prices for the new theater in Sham Shui Po — which is a predominantly poor and working class area — will be adjusted to take into account the lower spending power of the 400,000 residents who live there.
Speaking of old theater in Hong Kong, an iconic post-war theatre just turned 65 yesterday. The State Theatre — which first opened as the Empire Theatre on Dec 11, 1952 — used to be a 1,400-seat complex and now functions as a snooker parlour, the SCMP reports.
Conservationists are trying to save the theatre from demolition and have renewed calls for renovation rules to be relaxed.
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