Jacob Tutt and his father, John, in Princess Twin Cinemas on Tuesday, May 19.
Princess Cinemas has officially announced renovations to their Twin Cinemas location, bringing new equipment like bigger screens and comfortable chairs with more legroom, in time for fall.
This project began earlier this month, and will take place in two separate and consecutive phases; at least one cinema will be operational throughout the project. The newly renovated cinema 1 will re-open in early July, while cinema 2 is expected to re-open in early September. The Princess Original Cinema will also remain open during renovations.
John Tutt is one of the owners of the cinema and has been in the business for over 40 years. He started it back in 1985 on 6 Princess St., which he and his son, Jacob, refer to as the “original Princess.” The success of the first cinema led to the opening of Princess Twin Cinema, just across the street from the original.
The cinema also recently celebrated its fourth decade of operation. “The renovations take place during our 40th year, as a sort of evidence of our commitment to making this space a better place to enjoy movies,” John said.
A major part of the renovations is adding five inches of more footroom in between the seats, as well as taking the lane in the middle of the cinema and splitting it in two. This allows more space for guests when exiting, entering, or taking bathroom breaks.
Jacob grew up in the cinema and enjoys being involved in the industry. “I grew up in the movie theatre, running around the halls of the projection booth, and jumping behind the snack bar and helping out as a kid,” Jacob said.
When asked about the previous chairs, John said: “The old chairs were passable, but they required so much maintenance, before we were kind of on a budget, so we put in reconditioned seats. Within a year, we realized how much maintenance these seats needed.”
The Tutts said they didn’t receive many complaints about the seats, but they knew they could provide guests with better options. Guests are invited to try out the new seats as renovations proceed. Another thing the Tutts wanted to change was the layout – having an aisle going down the middle splits your seating in two and takes the best seats: the ones directly in the centre of the screen. Along with changing the aisle, they also plan on getting slightly bigger screens.
When asked about what newcomers could expect when going to Princess Twin Cinemas, Jacob said: “excellent quality, independent art, foreign language films, [and] good quality Hollywood programming that isn’t typically making it to screens in the chain cinemas in our area.”
Staff at Princess Cinemas also enjoy digging back into the trove of independent or Hollywood film screenings. Earlier this week, they screened a movie marathon of all The Lord of the Rings films.
