London’s newest Cinema – HMV becomesHMVCurzonBy Stephen Payne - Oct 23rd, 2009 @ 4:42 pm EST

The high street view of HMVCurzon main entrance ©2009 Jan Vincent­Rudzki

CD and DVD retailer HMV has got together with Curzon cinemas to launcha new cinema in London, HMV Curzon.

Curzon has five cinemas around London. They are known for being a mixture of art house and

general cinema. A bit more of a cosy place to view a film, rather than one of those big ‘plastic’

cinemas.

HMV on the other hand is known for its 280 UK retail shops. As well as the declining market for CDs

it majors on selling movies on DVDs (also now unfortunately declining!). It has been busy

diversifying its business and cinemas built into their stores are the latest venture.

Above the HMV shop in Wimbledon in south London together they have constructed, their

prototype, a three screen with state of the art digital projection and made it cosy to boot with a

licensed café bar. And best of all it opens today!

Simon Fox, Chief Executive of HMVGroup, and Philip Knatchbull, Chief

Executive of Curzon Artificial Eye, withNipper the dog mascot of HMV! © Jan

Vincent­Rudzki

HMVCurzon manager Karolina Kus(with Nipper), Radio Times Film Editor

Andrew Collins and British directorShane Meadows cut the ribbon ©

Stephen Payne

Last Saturday the shoppers of Wimbledon had a chance to

check out the place and this Wednesday the press had their

chance. This time Philip Knatchbull, Chief Executive of Curzon

Artificial Eye, and Simon Fox, Chief Executive of HMV Group,

where on hand along with Nipper the dog mascot of HMV!

I am temped here to note that Nipper was of particular

interest; he was showing his nerves about the venture,

shivering in the hands of Curzon’s Philip Knatchbull! Maybe he

was giving the game away as this is probably more of a risk for

HMV than Curzon?

For this pilot cinema they have utilised the non-trading second floor space above the existing HMV

store. The store itself has been refurbished so as to match in quality the high quality finish to the

cinema above. The entrance to both is from the front. The shop and cinema will have difference

opening times, which overlap, but the design works well when either of them is closed.

On Wednesday Evening before the opening weekend there

was the special gala screening and Q&A with British director

Shane Meadows for Le Donk & Scor-zay-ze. It was hosted by

Andrew Collins, film Editor for the Radio Times. He was his jolly

usual self and did a good job about being enthusiastic about

the new cinema and Shane Meadows new film.

I was not too great that evening due to lack of sleep the

previous night and unfortunately although a good example of

the type of low budget film that this cinema can accommodate

along side the main stream it was not really to my taste. A few

of the audience seem to find it hilarious. My colleague Jan

Vincent-Rudzki (who lives in Wimbledon!) thought is was interesting. However for me I had to keep

being prodded to stop me falling asleep, even at its 70 minutes length!

The cinema itself does have great potential. I believe it could well serve both HMV and Curzon well

by being able to show a flexible and diverse programming schedule with the ability to respond to

Wimbledon’s local demand. Maybe they should show the Wimbledon Tennis final for those that

can’t get in on the day…

Over the weekend we will detail in another post what is meant by digital state of the art projection!

Stephen Payne