With its easy access, huge foyer, eight screens, great food and elegant, old-school cinema vibe, it was often the cinema of choice for publicists hosting Hollywood blockbuster movie premieres. In the 2000s, kids would dress up as their favourite Harry Potter characters for morning weekend premieres. Riding high from her success with
Whale Rider, a young Keisha Castle-Hughes attended a
Star Wars charity screening there in 2005.
RICKY WILSON/Stuff
Now, the cinema seems to be a shadow of what it once was, boarded up with broken windows. More recently, big and small screen local stars posed for photos at the premiere of Taika Waititi’s