The Cines Aragonia cinema chain has opened its doors in Zaragoza ─ with a population of 666,129, Spain’s fifth biggest city and capital of Aragon, the region in the north-east of Spain.
Located in a new complex with shops and leisure amenities, as well as apartments for rent, a hotel, offices and a car park, the multiplex has 16 screens with capacity for 3,300 viewers. Particularly noteworthy in this megaplex are its nine digital screens fully equipped with DLP Cinema® projectors from the Christie CP2000 series.
Suministros Kelonik, Christie partner in Spain, was the company chosen to mount and equip this new cinema complex, which is the largest in Aragon. Each of the multiplex’s 16 screens has different capacities depending on the kind of projection. However, one particular theatre holds 600 people and is decorated as an auditorium, including special features and the aesthetics. Equipped with a Christie CP2000-ZX projector, this unique space is conceived for showing blockbuster movies as well as holding concerts, conferences, conventions and other events. In addition, six of the other screens hold between 300 and 400 people, and the remaining nine, seat 90 to 100.
The complex housing the Cines Aragonia is an ultra-modern building with several different volumes designed by Rafael Moneo, one of the world’s most prestigious and renowned architects. It also includes a five star hotel, Reina Petronila, a shopping and leisure area, four high-rise buildings with apartments for rent plus the Torre Aragonia office tower. The complex was built by the developers Zaragoza Urbana with an investment of over €165 million.
Tomás Naranjo, Managing Director of Kelonik, recalls the initial meetings with Zaragoza Urbana and its brief. “The client wanted a large cinema complex with the best and latest technology currently available in the market, to be ready and fully equipped for future advances,” he explains. “After suggesting various possibilities in terms of projection equipment, they finally opted for Christie as the best choice due to its superb quality and its proven reputation as a global leader for visual solutions,” he adds.
Consequently, Kelonik installed five Christie CP2000-SB and four CP2000-ZX projectors in Cines Aragonia, one of the multiplexes with most digital screens in Spain. “Considering the frantic pace of new technologies in this industry and the vast spectrum of available possibilities, you have to look at many alternatives before finding the right one,” says Iván García Peña, Manager of Zaragoza Urbana’s Cinema Division. “In my own professional experience, Christie projectors are the ones that have convinced me most,” he adds.
Both models installed are DCI-compliant, offer Christie Brilliant3D™, a technology improving brightness while keeping operating costs to a minimum, thanks to a unique lens system proving ideal for 3D projections, and increasing brightness by over 50% in comparison with previous systems.
Three of the nine digital screens at Aragonia are 3D-ready and equipped with the XpanD 3D cinema system using active glasses, and the plans are to progressively upgrade all the remaining screens to 3D-ready. “However, this conversion will be done gradually, depending on the number of 3D film titles premiered in this format,” explains Iván García Peña. “At the moment, the box office returns for 3D movies are way higher when compared with the rest of the screens. We believe that 3D digital cinema is a major breakthrough for the cinema industry, and that’s why we want to be pioneers in the use of this technology both in Aragon and Spain.”
The new multiplex also boasts a special additional feature: larger and more comfortable seats comprising cutting-edge technology coupled with improved visibility thanks to the wider space between rows for extra leg room, and a greater distance between seats. Special attention has been also paid to the digital audio system, using equipment from KCS, a leading audio brand in Spain. Meanwhile, Doremi was the chosen brand for supplying the servers.
Besides, Cines Aragonia is planning to offer alternative HD contents in its digital screens very soon. It is also looking at the possibility of networking all its movie theatres using a content management system.
According to Tomás Naranjo of Kelonik, the biggest challenge was the sheer dimensions of some of the halls. “In many of the theatres the projection booth is very far from the screen. Working with such long distances was an added difficulty. However, the superb brightness and excellent performance of Christie projectors made everything so much easier,” he claims.
According to Antonio Abad, Head of Christie in Spain and Portugal: “We are delighted to be chosen by the largest digital multiplex in Aragon to equip its facilities with our 2K DLP Cinema projectors. We would like to congratulate Cines Aragonia as they made a courageous decision to opt for digital projection to offer spectators an amazing quality of images. With Christie’s digital projectors, cinema lovers will have a chance to enjoy an excellent quality image far superior to the quality currently offered by 35mm film copies.”
According to data from Zaragoza Urbana, the capital city of Aragon has, on average, two million cinemagoers every year. However, it is estimated that with the brand-new multiplex this figure will rise to three million, meaning that people from this city will go to the cinema an average of four times a year, on a par with Madrid. “This multiplex is a sign of our confidence in an industry going through hard times. Our aim is to recover all those people who have drifted away from the cinema, and to educate the new upcoming generations who, in principle, don’t have the same interest in cinema as a form of leisure and culture,” concludes García Peña.
Zarafilms, a subsidiary of Zaragoza Urbana, is the company operating this complex, and has been based in Zaragoza for more than 60 years now. Thanks to Cines Aragonia, Zarafilms has more than doubled its number of screens, and now leads the cinema market in Zaragoza, where it also runs Cines Palafox (11 screens), Cine Elíseos (one screen) and Cine Cervantes (one screen).
Cines Aragonia has opted for a mix of commercial movies and subtitled foreign films, as well as late-night programmes and special film seasons. As an added extra, users are also given three hours free parking in the underground car park with 2,000 spaces.