There’s some good news for London-based cinema fans. ODEON has announced a new cinema venue in central London and it’s the return of an old favourite.
The ODEON West End is back, redeveloped and rebranded as the ODEON Luxe West End. Its return brings the total of ODEON cinemas in the West End area back to three alongside the Leicester Square site and the London Haymarket venue (formerly known as ODEON Panton Street).
The new Luxe cinema features a Dolby Cinema screen that combines Dolby Vision and Atmos technologies for an immersive audio-visual experience.
The Odeon Luxe West End in Leicester Square is part of The Londoner hotel’s £300m development. The previous site shut down all the way back in 2015 and when we asked Dolby in 2018 whether it could be a Dolby Cinema venue, they were rather coy about it.
But this now confirms the existence of the cinema, and by our estimation, that makes London the first city in the world to have two Dolby Cinemas. And they’re literally about 100 yards from each other.
Inside the venue, the ODEON Luxe West End boasts the aforementioned Dolby Cinema screen powered by a dual Dolby Vision laser projector for improved colour coverage, darker blacks and brighter images. The Dolby Atmos object-based sound format positions sounds around a room for an increased sense of immersion and pin point accuracy.
With 168 seats – 166 of which are luxury recliners with two for wheelchair access – the screen will be 13.3 metres wide and include 67 speakers that have been individually wired and amplified to ensure that every seat in the house can witness the same experience.
And as one of ODEON’s Luxe cinemas, the experience isn’t just about what you see and hear in the auditorium. There will be an Art-Deco Oscar’s Bar similar to the one in the Leicester Square venue, offering a selection of wines, cocktails and premium beers alongside the food options.
As one of the first new cinemas to open in London following the successive lockdowns, the new Luxe cinema shows there’s still a big interest in the cinema-going experience, with more than 5 million guests returning to cinemas this summer since the big ‘unlocking’.
The ODEON Luxe West End re-opens September 2021.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
