Film fans welcome cinema's return after 20 years

Customers have reacted positively to news that a cinema could return to a shopping centre for the first time in 20 years.

An application to open a four-screen multiplex at Crystal Peaks has been submitted to Sheffield City Council.

A 10-screen UCI was open from 1988 until 2003 and once hosted the premiere of The Full Monty.

The new development would take over the former Clarks shoe shop and a cafe-bar unit and centre manager Lee Greenwood said: “The question we get from our regular market research with customers is; 'when are you going to bring back the cinema?' "

The applicant, Albany Courtyard Investments Ltd, said the two-storey cinema would have capacity for up to 71 people per screen and create 12 full-time jobs.

Two of the screens would be on the ground floor with a further two on the upper level.

Mr Greenwood said the retail complex had been working with an unnamed cinema operator "for a number of years" and was "very confident" that the application would be approved.

The old AMC and later UCI cinema, which was demolished in 2005, could hold 312 people in its two auditoriums.

Former employee Tony Bennett was 27 when he worked there in the 1980s.

He said: "Everyone who worked there was young and a movie buff. It felt like a boom time for cinema.

"I remember films like Twins, Shirley Valentine and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. There were groups of hen parties, dressed up and quite raucous, who all came to see the film Shirley Valentine."

Tony also said he had been "sitting on a confession" for a number of years.

"On a late Saturday night, we'd do what we called 'trashing the cinema', deliberately chucking more popcorn around in the big screens and making more mess for the morning cleaners."

1997 was the year Crystal Peaks hosted The Full Monty premiere, and the film set in Sheffield went on to become a global box office hit.

Former TV and film reporter John Highfield, who attended the event, recalled: "The cinema was all spruced up and full of Yorkshire TV personalities. Claire King from Emmerdale was there and TV hostess Jenny Powell. The film went down a storm."

Shoppers who spoke to the BBC said they were "delighted" that a cinema could return to the centre.

One woman, 63-year-old Kath, said she normally had to go into the city centre to see a film.

Another, Jackie, said the new opening could bring "a load of revenue" to the area.

Mr Greenwood said he hoped a new cinema could also become a "community asset" with screens that could be hired for events and vintage film showings for elderly customers.

"We have a strong, loyal customer base here. Many have been shopping at Crystal Peaks for 30 years. We are their high street. They deserve a cinema."

If approved and an operator secured, the cinema would open in spring or early summer 2025.

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