The shopping complex Atrium Center will get 10 screens, including 3D digital projection, and will be equipped to host premieres and previews. Until now, Arad, a city with more than 450,000 inhabitants, has had only two cinemas.

Cinema City moved into Romania in 2007 and, not counting the Arad venture, has 72 screens with 12,000 seats in Bucharest, Piteşti, Iaşi, Timişoara, Cluj-Napoca and Bacău. The company plans to open cinemas in Brăila, Baia Mare and Târgu Mureş by year-end. Cinema City, a multiplexes leader in the market, has 50 percent more screens than its nearest competitor, Hollywood Multiplex (www.hmultiplex.ro).

The chain was founded in Israel in 1929 and in 1997 opened its first foreign multiplex in Hungary. Currently Cinema City runs 69 multiplexes in six countries and has enjoyed substantial growth in Europe. It has another 42 multiplexes with 426 screens slated for the near future.