Cineplex Cinema

The many original cinemas that remained in the post colonial era (of which there were at least seven theatres including two exclusively Indian cinemas and even an outdoor drive in theatre) had mostly vanished in the seventies. Only two fondly recalled independent cinemas remained in the nineties when the first Cineplex opened but they both closed before the millennium due to shrinking business and rising costs. Cineplex originally opened a twin screen cinema in the downtown area and in a few years with the opening of the new Garden City shopping mall complex they would open another considerably up market twin screen location. At the time when the first Amakula Kampala festival occurred these were the only commercial cinema screens in town which at the time strictly screened popular American movies working through distributors in South Africa who largely controlled motion picture distribution in English speaking East Africa and nearby including Nairobi, Kenya and Lusaka, Zambia.

By 2007, the downtown location was closed as its receipts were seen to be inferior to those at the newer more plush location. In these years the Cineplex chain made few concessions to its audiences in terms of ticket prices, clearly with the idea of catering strictly to the middle class and expat audiences which were not significant enough to keep the theater filled throughout the week. The theaters routinely experienced the pattern of small audiences during the week and full houses on the weekends. However, the company clearly had a monopoly on what they perceived to be an invaluable asset which they were confident would ultimately prove itself viable with the growth of the middle classes. For this reason the organization continued to expand by adding two additional screens to their Garden city location while also opening another venue although it is in the neighboring Oasis mall next to Garden City which opened in 2010 as if to expand on an area already drawing a big public for both shopping and leisure activities. The new Cineplex theaters were opened in 2011. Thus there were now six Cineplex screens, making for a credible multiplex.