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Cinestar Catania

Cinema King

The Cinema King opened on 10 March 1928 (under the name of Cinema Mirone), with the screening of the film "Derby reale" (Royal Derby). For a long time it had all the characteristics of a popular, local cinema showing third runs. In 1976 the management was transferred to Istituto Luce, which marked it out as an arthouse cinema. However Luce was to pay for its choice of programming mainly its own productions and two years later decided to abandon the venue. The Cooperative Centofiore stepped in and a year later the Azdak Cooperative, which launched the cinema anew as an exclusive landmark for quality cinema. Azdak left the Mirone in 1985 for the more spacious Ariston and the Mirone closed down. In 1995 it was taken over and modernized by Santo Lanzafame, a well-known cinema manager, who maintained a programme based largely on arthouse movies. In 2010 the management was transferred to the inheritors of Azdak (which was liquidated in 2006, following the sale of the Ariston), characterising the venue more strongly than ever as a unique landmark for cinephiles, with room for independent movies and series of screenings devoted to the classics.

The Arena Argentina opened in 1945 and for the first ten years of its life operated both as a cinema and as a theatre. Hit by the crisis affecting the sector, it closed in 1981 but in 1982 had already been taken over by the Azdak Coperative which made theme weeks and quality cinema the hub of its programming (with films changing every day). In 2007 the management passed into the hands of cinestudio srl, the inheritors of Azdak (which had closed down in 2006).