Box cinema

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As box cinema one is theater or cinema with small dimensions referred.

Heinz Riech is considered to be the inventor of box cinemas in Germany . Riech took over the Ufa cinemas in 1972 . At this point in time, the cinema industry was already suffering from a massive drop in visitors. Many people preferred to stay at home in front of the TV, so that the large halls that were still common at the time, sometimes with over 1,000 seats, became increasingly empty. After purchasing the Ufa cinemas, Riech began to break up the large halls and foyers into smaller units so that significantly more films could be shown in the same building with only a few more staff and thus more audiences could be attracted.

The history of the Ufa Palace on Hamburg's Gänsemarkt is exemplary . The Lessing Theater was opened at the site as early as 1912 and was taken over by Ufa in 1917 . Used as a British military cinema from 1945 to 1956, it was demolished immediately after it was returned because it was in disrepair. The Ufa-Palast , which was reopened in 1957 , initially offered a spacious hall with 988 seats, in which numerous premieres were celebrated. After the takeover by Riech in 1972, seven halls with a total of over 2000 seats were built into the cinema. In some cases this was done without taking the interests of the guests into account: for example, there were supporting pillars in the basement in the middle of the hall. When modernization became necessary with the advent of the multiplex cinemas in the 1990s, the building was completely demolished in 1996, with the exception of the front, and a new building was opened in 1997.

Box cinemas were and still exist not only at Ufa. Many modern multiplex cinemas also have halls that sometimes only have 20 or 30 seats, following the concept of Heinz Riech and are also derisively called “broom closets”.

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