Originally known as the Cinema De Luxe, the theater opened on October 31, 1924. It was named after the design of the cinema, with mezzanine seating, making the experience more comfortable and attractive for patrons.

It was purpose-built as a cinema for entrepreneur William Kemball, who built around 40 cinemas throughout New Zealand. The cinema, designed by Llewellyn Williams, became the largest cinema in Kemball’s theater empire, seating 1,800 people.

When it opened in the Roaring Twenties, it was the boom of silent films, and the first feature film to be shown on screen was Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments.

Silent films were first accompanied by an orchestra and then, after 1927, by a Wurlitzer organ. The installation cost £10,000, which is equivalent to about $1.2 million today! When talking films arrived in 1929, Kemball installed a sound system and became the first theater chain operator to show “talkies,” as they were then called.