NEW PALACE CENTRAL – STATE OF THE ART CINEMA COMPLEX NOW OPEN
By Mark Morellini
The new luxurious Palace Central which is situated on the third level of Central Park on Broadway, opened its doors several weeks ago and should prove to be a popular entertainment destination for avid movie-goers.
The state of the art cinema complex boasts 13 screens (of which three are platinum class), multiple lounge and bar areas and an in-cinema dining menu which includes share plates, alcoholic beverages and premium handmade choc tops.
Build at a price tag of around $10 million, the venue’s official launch is on November 23 and Benjamin Zeccola CEO of Palace Cinemas, says that he is very proud of this innovative cinema complex.
“The thing that is exciting for me about Palace Central is that it’s all the good ideas that we have been developing over the past three decades and we’ve been able to fit them all into the one venue. So it’s the combination of entertainment and hospitality. Hospitality is really important to us, but the most important thing obviously are the films we put on followed by the comfort and amenities of the venue and that leads into hospitality.”
Zeccola said there wasn’t much deliberating as to whether a new Palace cinema complex should be built in the city, only kilometres from the established Events and Hoyts cinema complexes.
“We obviously considered it but they’re enormous cinemas with enormous capacities and we operate in a more boutique way. There can be massive restaurants for hundreds and hundreds of patrons and then you’ve got smaller authentic restaurants side by side – that’s an analogy for the way we do it, a more quality experience, a more carefully curated experience for people who love that kind of thing.”
With the advent of new platforms for watching movies such as home theatres, streaming and the introduction of new cinematic platforms in the future, will there still be a demand for cinemas in 20 years time?
“In 20 years time people are still going to be going out and what form their entertainment takes will have evolved several times. People love storytelling, you know it comes back to that – humans love good story telling and 1000 years ago people sat around camp fires telling stories and now we tell them with a hell of a lot more comfort and budget,” explained Zeccola, “Where that’ll be in 20 years time I can’t really say for sure, but what I can say is that there won’t be a shortage of Australians wanting to be entertained in the best possible way and we’ll be at the forefront of that.”
Zeccola said that Palace Central will be host to all the film festivals and unique events which patrons have become accustomed to, including the Italian, French and Spanish film festivals.
“You can look forward to seeing all the great events that we’ve been making famous in Sydney – you can look forward to seeing your favourite film and your favourite festival at Palace Central”.
