Oktyabr plex opening
Moscow venue sports nine screens, 3,174 seats
With nine screens and a total of 3,174 seats -- with a main hall of 1,518 seats -- the location looks set to become a major, possibly dominant player in the city market.
Its central location on Moscow's busy New Arbat street certainly looks attractive, although observers have long wondered how the relative lack of surrounding parking facilities could affect attendance.
Move to turn the Soviet-era giant into a plex began in 1997, initiated through a subsidiary of Vladimir Gusinsky's Media-Most holding. Investment came in around the $35 million mark -- considerably more than the cost of building an equivalent venue from the ground up in the city's suburbs, where many developers have been concentrating their recent efforts.
After Russia's August 1998 financial crisis, and Gusinsky's subsequent disputes with the Kremlin (which saw him exiled, and his prize asset, national television channel NTV, passed to hostile creditors), the virtually completed venue was effectively mothballed for almost four years, not least because of considerable coin due the German construction firm involved in the work.
Natural resources giant Gazprom, which inherited Gusinsky's assets, signed an agreement in September 2004 with the Moscow government to finish the process; Gazprom subsid Gazprom-Media controls 60% of the asset to the government's 40%.
Results of a July tender for a management company saw day-to-day operations assigned to leading exhib Karo Film.
Two of the originally constructed 11 screens are being adapted into concession spaces.
Karo runs Moscow's largest screen, the 2,500-seat Pushkinsky venue, which hosts most major Russian premieres as well as June's Moscow Film Festival.
Its sheer size isn't always an asset in everyday programming, however, with local reports that it will close by the end of the year to be redesigned as a plex. If that's the case, the Oktyabr will become Moscow's main central prestige location.
Guests at Thursday's opening ceremony, to include the Russian premiere of Oleg Stepchenko's actioner "Velvet Revolution," look set to include Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov and Gazprom prexy Alexei Miller.
