The fall and rise of Blackpool as a cinema town

Cinema was once central to Blackpool’s affordable glamour, with seventeen theatres at its peak. Now, nearly a year after the last Odeon went dark, the local council is opening a multiplex of its own.

By Antonia Charlesworth Stack, first published on 21 March 2024

Look up. That’s the thing that most Blackpool locals intuitively do. Not just because of the 518 feet of steel that towers above us, but because it is above street level and behind modern facades that much of what remains of the town’s former position as a world entertainment capital remains…