The first cinematographic complex in the department, the one of the Australian group Village Roadshow (ten theatres, 1.499 seats) opens on December 6th in the Nice Lingostière business area.
The first multiplex in the Alpes-Maritimes is going to be inaugurated next December 6th. The Village Cinema, which is going to open in the Nice Lingostière business complex should benefit from the privilege of not having to compete with someone else for a time : the other project of a multiplex in Nice, at the Arénas, has been delayed. As for the multiplex files on right bank of the Var, they are only in their first stages. The two most advanced projects, around Mandelieu and Mougins, have come up against environment legislations. Still, nothing is done on this side of the Var, since the Kinéopolis company is working at the moment on a new project in the Cannes' area.
'Village Cinema' : the first one
The Australians have shot first. And they should remain the only one in the department for two or three years further. The construction of their 'Village Cinema' is coming to an end in the Nice Lingostière business zone. This 10 theatre complex didn't need any special authorization : it stops at 1.499 seats. Just enough not to exceed the threshold of 1.500 seats; a threshold that, until July 1998, you can exceed only with an authorization of the cinematographic equipment departmental commission. Since then, this threshold has been lowered. But the Nice-Lingostière project was already initiated.
The opening has been scheduled for December 6th 1999. That's an important event for the operation promoter, the Australian group 'Village Roadshow', which will celebrate its first local breakthrough in France. He has been seeking an entry point in the French market for years. But, because of a poor knowledge of regional realities, they have met with several harsh setbacks : the projects of Vitrolles, Mulhouse, Arras, Perpignan, etc... have been refused because of local disapprovals. Since then, they have learnt the lesson. Digested it. Now, Australians know how to use dialogue. Many successes have come after that. Several projects have been achieved. After Nice, openings are scheduled in Boulogne-Billancourt, Bayonne, etc.
A parking problem for the Arénas
Second project in progress : Nice Arénas. This much more ambitious multiplex with twenty theatres as well as an Imax, for a total attendance of 6.000 seats, is scheduled on the RN7 border, behind the glass façade of buildings of the business area, on a land of 7 hectares. The passage in CDEC has occurred : the authorization has been given with 4 votes in favour, one against and one abstention. The commission has thought that with the proximity of the highway, the new multiplex, which works were initially scheduled to start in 2000, could extend very far and create its own animation.
As for cinema owners, there's no problem : the operation pilot is Raoul Aubert, the owner of most of cinemas in Nice. He's associated with Pathé especially in order to solve the problem of financial investment. Raoul Aubert doesn't think he's going to be harmful to its cinemas downtown. 'If I hadn't set up this multiplex project,he thinks, someone else would have done it.'
However, the file has had to face another obstacle : the parking spaces. First, they thought about using the parking facility of the business center, following the simple idea that the business center worked by day and cinema by night. But Nice city, according the legislation under way, did not accept this solution. Besides, in the meantime, this problem of parking spaces has also been experienced for the extension of the palais des festivals in Cannes and for the setting up of the FNAC downtown, on the place of the Ambassades' cinema, rue d'Antibes. Hence the obligation of realizing three or four parking floors downstairs, which makes the global cost of the project increase over 250 million francs.
Further projects in the West...
Two other projects have emerged in the Cannes basin. They are less advanced. The first one to go, in Mandelieu, in the Canardière craft zone, near the highway entry, is today in a bad way. Pathé, which had a plan for 12 theatres and 2.300 seats, had withdrawn. Then a building certificate has been authorized by the city, on February 9th 1998, to the Cirmad Grand sud for 10 theatres and 1.499 seats. But as the complex was in a zone liable to flooding near the Basse Siagne, it has been subjected to a recourse behind the Administrative court which has cancelled the building certificate. The city has appealed the decision. They hope to present again the file to the CDEC during the first three months 2000. All the restaurants, bowling alleys and arcades are quite important : it has been built for an attendance of 500.000 people per year.
Fourth project : in Mougins, in the Saint Martin ZAC. There's also another great protagonist of the French multiplex wave, the GCR group. The fourth film distribution network has acquired a land of 18.000 m2 and intends to built twelve theatres (2.600 seats) in the heart of an agglomeration of 350.000 inhabitants. At the beginning the opening was scheduled for the Film Festival of year 2000 but as the file has been delayed, the objective may not be achieved. All the more as the project has to be authorized by the CDEC and as everybody is not pleased by this kind of multiplex in Cannes' periphery.
As for the other files, they seem even more further : Cagnes sur mer (20 theatres realized on the racecourse by the American group AMC). Eventually, in the West of the Var, only one file has been accepted : the three theatres of Mouans-Sartoux. It's true that they will be built downtown...