UGC Ciné Cité Strasbourg Étoile, Modern multiplex cinema in Strasbourg, France.
UGC Ciné Cité Strasbourg Étoile is a 22-screen multiplex with 5,400 seats, making it the largest UGC Ciné Cité in Europe and the second-largest cinema in France. Designed by architects Denis Valode and Jean Pistre, it stands beside the Austerlitz basin, facing the Rivetoile shopping centre and the Black Swan towers in the Fronts de Neudorf district. All screens are accessible to disabled visitors and equipped for the hearing impaired.
Strasbourg had no multiplex before this one; its 18.2 screens per 100,000 residents lagged behind the French average of 27.1. In 1997 the municipal council under Catherine Trautmann authorised a multiplex in the then-derelict Étoile district, requiring at least 20 screens and architectural quality. UGC won the tender and built it for 250 million francs; it opened on 29 November 2000, the same day the independent Star and Star-Saint-Exupéry cinemas closed in protest.
The cinema's name comes from the Étoile district where it was built. Since March 2023, it has required customers to choose a seat number before entering, a measure that prompted a petition and a humorous column by Jean-René Lidy on France Bleu Alsace. In 2011, 65% of its 1.9 million admissions were subscribers.
The cinema stands by the Bassin d'Austerlitz, opposite the Rivetoile shopping centre. Trams C and E stop at Winston Churchill, a few hundred metres behind the complex; lines A and D and buses G, C1 and C8 serve Étoile Bourse. Two covered car parks, P1 Commerces Rivetoile and P2 Cinéma, provide 1,750 spaces.
The cinema operates separate screening rooms that allow many different films to be shown at the same time throughout the day. This setup means visitors have numerous simultaneous film choices rather than just a few options.
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