Continuing a multiplex boom in the Tucson area that started last December, Cinemark will open a new 12-screen theater in Oro Valley this week.
Century Theatres at the Oro Valley Marketplace, at 12155 N. Oracle Road, officially debuts Friday.
The Marketplace features stadium seating, a self-service concession stand and 48-inch-wide aisles, similar to Cinemark’s El Con and Park Place theaters.
“It’s our first theater in Oro Valley and we’re so very excited, not only because it’s in Oro Valley but because it’s such a neat development,” Cinemark vice president of marketing James Meredith said.
“I don’t think I’d say it’s an underserved market, but there’s clearly demand for a theater in Oro Valley,” he said.
Meredith said Cinemark plans to make the theater something of an arthouse destination, much like the Century El Con 20. As long as the market supports it, he said, it will play smaller-budget, indie-style films such as “The Duchess” and “Pride and Glory.”
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Demand will also help determine whether it eventually joins Cinemark’s other Tucson properties in broadcasting the live HD simulcasts of the New York Metropolitan Opera, company officials said.
The Plano, Texas-based Cinemark operates more than 400 theaters in 38 states and as well as Mexico and South America.
The Marketplace is the third first-run theater to open in the Tucson area in last 11 months. The 12-screen Tower Theatres opened near Continental Ranch in Marana last December and the Harkins Spectrum 18 followed in May near Interstate 19 and West Irvington Road on Tucson’s South Side.
Before that, the last first-run multiplex to open was the Century Park Place 20 in 2001.