After near two years of closure, Palace Amusement is set to reopen its Palace Cineplex cinema to the public today, May 4.

Closed since 2020 during the height of the novel coronavirus pandemic, the reopening of the cinema located at the Sovereign Centre in Liguanea, St Andrew, will mark the full reopening of all cinemas operated by Palace Amusement. The company also operates cinemas in Montego Bay, St James (Palace Multiplex); Portmore, St Catherine (Sunshine Palace), Cross Roads, St Andrew (Carib 5) and a drive-in facility located along Dominica Drive in New Kingston, St Andrew.

The company said that the return of the cinema at this time follows significant improvements in their numbers backed by a general reopening of the economy and the discontinuation of restrictions on the entertainment industry and gathering limits previously imposed by Government.

“We reopened the other cinemas and we have been seeing an increase in the attendance so that has given us hope, “Melanie Graham, marketing manager and director of Palace, said in outlining a rationale for the move during an interview with the Jamaica Observer on Monday.

She said with the Cineplex theatre designed to host smaller and more intimate gatherings including birthdays and other close-knit events, when compared to the larger auditoriums, its reopening proved ‘economical’ and will help to further drive revenues, especially at a time when the company is pushing to regain lost earnings. Palace’s revenue is extracted primarily from movie ticket and confectionery sales, as well as screen advertising and film rentals.

“This cinema offers flexibility in handling alternative events that will be a little more difficult to deal with at the larger cinemas. The cinema, which comprises two auditoriums, can host up to 260 persons in one house and 89 in the other,” she told the Business Observer.

Gradually recovering from heavy losses incurred since the pandemic, the company in its push to return pre-pandemic sales to its business said it was also hoping to attract increase patronage from a stellar list of movies it has lined up for viewing throughout the year.

“Coming up we have a pretty good line-up for summer, we have Doctor Strange, a big Marvel Studios picture which opens on Friday. We also have Top Gun, an action movie which promises to be epic and Jurassic World. We will also have a Black Panther which is expected to come later in November as well as Avatar in December,” Graham said.

Withholding a forecast amid continued uncertainties, Graham, who also has a significant stake in the family-owned business, said that her immediate hope was for the business “to return to 2019 levels or as close to it as possible in its recovery.”

The company, which before the pandemic earned record revenues of over a billion dollars, has been grappling with increasing losses since the pandemic. It started showing signs of improvement when revenues jumped by 248 per cent to total $231.67 million during the July-December period, when compared to 2020. This, after some overwhelming response to blockbuster films released during that time which included Spiderman: No way home and James Bond’s flick No time to Die.