The Apollo Cinema, like The Fox, will be a neighbourhood movie house. There are about 43,000 people living within a 15-minute walk of the Apollo, and MacKinnon wants to program the cinema according to the neighbourhood's taste.

"We are getting a nice sign manufactured to put out front, a classic cinema marquee," MacKinnon, said.

The liquor licence is already in hand. The Apollo will sell local craft beers from Descendants Beer and Beverage Co., Innocente Brewing Company., Block Three Brewing Company and the Royal City Brewing Company.

"I think the timing is right for a movie theatre, a nice destination," MacKinnon said.

The last downtown movie theatre — King's College Cinemas — closed in 2006. The three partners behind the Apollo Cinema believe a single-screen movie house can work in downtown Kitchener as well as in the Beaches in Toronto.

"It is our feeling that movie theatres should be a neighbourhood thing that people can walk to," Willick said.

The partners want to tailor the cinema programming for their patrons.

"You book the theatre for your audience, not for yourself," Willick said. "So there will be a lot of testing at first to see what people respond to, but also making stuff event driven, interesting and interactive is important."

Going to see a movie remains a popular, even cherished ritual, 20 years after the rise of the commercial Internet. And the Apollo will be the first cinema in the region where patrons can buy beers at the concession and bring the drinks into the theatre.

"My expectation is that we are probably going to do a lot more business with cult stuff here, with stuff that might skew a little bit younger just because of the downtown demographics," Willick said.

To introduce the Apollo Cinema to the neighbourhood, there will be free screenings of "The Big Lebowski" on Feb. 6, "Jurassic Park" on Feb. 7 and the "Lego Movie 3D" on Feb. 8.

tpender@therecord.com