Apollo Cinema, Art Nouveau movie theater on Agmashenebeli Avenue, Tbilisi, Georgia

Apollo Cinema is a three-story Art Nouveau building on Agmashenebeli Avenue featuring ornate architectural details and flowing lines throughout. The exterior and interior showcase the decorative style characteristic of early 20th-century European design.

The cinema opened in 1909 as Georgia's first purpose-built movie theater. During the Soviet period it was renamed October Cinema to commemorate the revolution, though it continued operating as a theater.

The cinema's name refers to the Apollo of Greek myth, chosen in 1909 to match famous cinemas in London, Rome, Paris and Madrid. It was renamed Oktyabri under Soviet rule and got the name Apollo back in 1990. Visitors can still see the preserved interior decoration: stucco reliefs, carved column capitals and bases, wall-painting fragments, floor mosaics and metalwork.

The building is best viewed from the street to appreciate its architectural details when the cinema is not showing films. Its position on a main avenue makes it easy to locate and accessible on foot from central Tbilisi.

The architect of the 1909 building is not documented; one version names Kolchin, while the decoration was executed by A. Novak and Karl Souchek. The interior kept its stucco reliefs, carved capitals and bases, wall-painting fragments, floor mosaics and metalwork through the 1987 reconstruction. The cinema was closed in the early 1990s and later sold in 2002 for 500,000 lari.