The renovation will leave the 11-screen cinema intact, while the ground floor of the building has undergone a major refurbishment. Kadri Ärm, CEO of Apollo Cinema, said that they did not immediately decide that the Coca-Cola Plaza name ought to be dropped.

"However, the facts and the deeds spoke in favor of the new name, as a large Apollo bookstore has moved to the ground floor in addition to the Apollo cinema, and the Apollo Group catering businesses have also set up shop there, and since it is all Apollo Group businesses, it seemed a no-brainer that the building would take on the Apollo name," Ärm explained.

The ground floor of the building has recently undergone major renovations, but Ärm says there will be no major changes in the cinema halls in the near future. "We are gradually updating the halls, but there are no major or drastic changes in the pipeline. The cinema works well and all 11 halls are in good condition, so there is no immediate need to tear anything down," said Ärm.

However, there has been one substantial change in the former Coca-Cola Plaza recently, with one of the halls has been renamed as the "Väärtkinosaal" with a focus on smaller and art-house movies.

"We've always shown these types of movies but often the scale of the business is such that when a powerful Hollywood blockbuster comes along, art-house films get lost in the mix, which led to the idea that since there are so many venues in Apollo Plaza, one could be converted into a venue that would be more art-house film-friendly in the future."

While the poor weather could attract more people to the cinema this summer, according to Ärm, there are still plenty of other competing events happening in parallel.

"The cinema business is doing better this summer than last year, because the most important thing for cinema, apart from the weather, is to have films that people want to go and see," she said, adding that while there are no major Estonian movies on the summer schedule, there are several Hollywood blockbusters that are selling well.

According Ärm, the Estonian movie business is not in a state of flux.

"It's true that the pre-Coronavirus period was a boom time, largely thanks to strong domestic films like 'Truth and Justice' ('Tõde ja õigus')," he stressed, adding, however, that the upcoming movie schedule is quite promising.

"Commercially, the trend is clearly positive, so there is no danger of Apollo closing down any of its cinemas."

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