Cineplex opens new theatre at Centre Mall

Ice cream dipped in flavoured chocolate and covered in toppings; a family auditorium with a play area built into the side; Pong.

These are three of the features the newest theatre in Saskatoon, Cineplex Cinemas at the Centre, boasts at its new seven-screen, 30,000 square-foot complex at Saskatoon’s Centre Mall.

“More and more, our guests are gravitating towards movie-going experiences you can’t replicate at home,“ Sarah Van Lange, executive director of communications said Thursday.

The Cineplex Cinemas at the Centre opened in Saskatoon on Oct. 25, 2019. (Keenan Sorokan/980 CJME)

Opening Friday, the new cinema replaces Cineplex Odeon Centre Cinemas at the mall. Cineplex, a chain operating 162 theatres across North America, has exclusive rights to the mall once Rainbow Cinemas’ lease expires in the spring.

Six of the seven auditoriums have recliner chairs, including the special D-Box seating that vibrates and shakes with the action on screen.

The other auditorium ditches the reclining chairs in favour of bean-bag style rocking chairs with a children’s play area that allows children to blow off some steam before the movie begins.

“Everything in there is very colourful and playful,” Van Lange said of the supervised play area. “Knowing that they’re in a safe environment, knowing that they’re okay while I go get popcorn or while I go get a drink … it really does look at all the touch-points of that movie-going experience.”

The Centre becomes the third location in Canada with the children’s play area in an auditorium, and the first with reclining D-Box seating.

The lobby also has a variety of arcade machines, complete with a revamped arcade version of Pong.

The concessions also offer something unique. Aside from the vanilla ice cream cone that can be dunked in popcorn-flavoured chocolate and topped in extra sweets, there’s also pizza made in front of your eyes and baked in four minutes.

The largest theatre seats over 200 people, all of which include the cushy seating that is set to become standard for the chain.

“We’re not building auditoriums anymore that don’t have recliner seating. People want to have their movie-going experience be an experience. That’s why you’re seeing investments like we’re making in this facility here.”