Ster Century is a Slovak cinema company, formerly known as City Cinemas. The brand was formerly used in the UK, Spain, Greece, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic as a division of the South African cinema chain,

Ster-Kinekor Ster-Kinekor is a South African-based cinema company, and the country's largest movie exhibitor. It represents 60-65% of the market, having 32 cinema complexes consisting of 342 screens, 47 961 seats and 124 3D screens across the country (Comme ...

. Their UK head office was based in Camberley in Surrey. There was one Ster Century cinema in Dublin, Ireland, and six in the UK:

Basingstoke Basingstoke ( ) is a town in Hampshire, situated in south-central England across a valley at the source of the River Loddon on the western edge of the North Downs. It is the largest settlement in Hampshire without city status in the United King ...

, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Leeds,

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

, and

Romford Romford is a large List of places in London, town in east London, east London, England, located northeast of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Havering, the town is one of the major Metropolitan centres of London, metropolitan centr ...

. The Dublin

Liffey Valley Shopping Centre Liffey Valley Shopping Centre is a shopping centre located in Dublin, Ireland which comprises 80 stores and 20 restaurants. The centre opened on and is located near the junction of the M50 motorway and N4 road closely surrounded by Lucan to ...

cinema – the first Ster Century to open – was one of the largest in Ireland or the UK, in terms of footfall.{{Citation needed, date=November 2011 Of the six UK based sites, Norwich was the first to open in Autumn 2000.

History

Established in 1996, the company was a spin-off from the South African cinema chain,

. Ster Century's first cinema was opened in 1998 in partnership with Assos Odeon, a cinema company based in Greece, under the name Ster Odeon. In 1999 Ster Century opened its first cinemas under its own brand. By the end of the year it had operations in Dublin, Ireland; Prague and Brno, Czech Republic; Wrocław and Warsaw, Poland; and Budapest, Hungary. Development continued in 2000 with further cinemas opened in the UK, Spain, Greece, Slovakia and additional sites in Poland and the Czech Republic. By mid-2002 Ster Century had sold off its interests in Poland, Greece, Hungary and the Czech Republic to concentrate on its operations in Ireland and the UK. In 2003 Ster Century's assets in Ireland and the UK were sold to Aurora Entertainment in a Management buy-out, with remaining assets in Spain and Slovakia being sold off to local cinema operators. In 2005, it was sold again to Vue, and the cinemas have been completely re-branded to Vue's identity since then. All Ster Century Cinemas that have been re-branded still have some smaller elements (seat covers, "no phone use" signs, cinema lighting, carpet, etc.) that read "Ster Century" or bear the Ster Century logo. The brand has recently been revived in Slovakia, following the renaming of City Cinemas.

External links

Vue CinemasSter Century
Former cinema chains in the United Kingdom Former cinema chains in the Republic of Ireland Entertainment companies established in 1996