Ster Century Cinemas

Background

Ster Century is a Slovak cinema company, formerly known as City Cinemas.

The brand was formerly used in the UK, Spain, Greece, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic as a division of the South African cinema chain, Ster-Kinekor. Their UK head office was based in Camberley in Surrey.

There was one Ster Century cinema in Dublin, Ireland, and six in the UK: Basingstoke, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Leeds, Norwich, and Romford. The Dublin Liffey Valley Shopping Centre cinema - the first Ster Century to open - was one of the largest in Ireland or the UK, in terms of footfall. Of the six UK based sites, Norwich was the first to open in Autumn 2000.

(2000s)

Logo: We start with a black-and-white counting-down screen, counting from the number 9. The countdown screen goes to 1 and fades to a yellow-light blue gradient and segues into the close-up shot of the left side of the ring on a black background and zooms out to reveal the half saturn planet with a blue ring. The "STER CENTURY" text appears in a flashing effect ala Lightstorm Entertainment logo. The word "CINEMAS" appears in the same font as "STER CENTURY" and in spaced-out letters. Then, one of the small letters zooming out, rotates and scrolling up and forms "TRAILERS ARE SUITABLE TO THE FEATURE PRESENTATION CERTIFICATE" while it stops scroll. The logo and the text "shines" and it cuts out.

Technique: The counting-down screen from 9 to 1, the zooming out, the text flashing, the letters appearing and the shining effect.

Music/Sounds: A slower, three-note sounder of The Woody Woodpecker Show theme is heard, and it starts off loud, and when the half saturn planet and a blue ring appears, a slightly whoosh sound is heard while the music breakdown, and a single synth fireworks pitch sound, appears in sync with the "STER CENTURY CINEMAS" text and ends with the same slower, three-note sounder as the beginning.

Availability: Rare. This is shown before trailers, which can be found at White Rose Shopping Centre in the UK.