Arc Cinema Peterhead

An unpretentious looking cinema in the unpretentious town of Peterhead, Aberdeenshire. The 1,500-seat Regal Cinema opened in 1939. There was a café and dance-hall adjacent, which luckily escaped an unexploded German bomb in World War II. It was operated by J.B. Milne Theatres chain. It closed in the early-1960’s and took advantage of bingo after 1961. The balcony area seating was retained, but this area was not used. Granada converted the café into a bar and disco. The Gala Bingo Club closed in January 2018.

In November 2019 work began to convert the building into a 5-screen Arc Cinema. It was due to open in April 2020. However due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this was delayed until 2nd October 2020, when the opening day films were “After We Collided”, “Bill & Ted Face the Music”, “Cats & Dogs 3:Paws Unite”, “Tenet”, “The Trial of the Chicago 7” and “Trolls World Tour”. Seating capacities are: Screen 1 88, Screen 2 62, Screen 3 77, Screen 4 82 and Screen 5 86.

Recent comments (view all 2 comments)

alexbraid on April 8, 2016 at 4:45 am

The Regal was a cinema within the J. B. Milne Theatres circuit owned and operated by JBM until his death in 1968 when Kingsway Entertainments aquired the company. In 1959 JBM took over the Playhouse Peterhead from Caledonian Associated Cinemas and eventually the Regal switched to bingo while the Playhouse continued as a fulltime cinema.

David Lloyd on January 30, 2018 at 5:40 pm

It would seem that the Gala Bingo that currently occupies the site has just closed. I’m not sure what the future holds for the building now.