A recent fire at Ciudad del Este Shopping Center in the San José province of Costa Rica has forced the multiplex Nova Cinemas Curridabat to close indefinitely. The theater houses one of only two Imax auditoriums in the entire country. The extent of damage to the venue remains undisclosed.
The fire erupted Saturday morning in the hours ahead of the shopping center’s opening, per local outlet AM Costa Rica. Only employees and members of the gym on-site were at the location before evacuations began. Per a source with knowledge of the fire, no injuries have been reported and specialized engineering teams are investigating the cause of the blaze.
The fire primarily impacted the third level of the building, which mostly houses Nova Cinemas, a children’s play area and other gaming and entertainment businesses. Local firefighters contained the blaze to about 1,000 square meters, managing to keep roughly 5,000 square meters of the commercial center unimpacted.
Grupo Zeta, the company that owns the shopping center, has reportedly announced that parts of the shopping center were reopened to the public on Sunday.
No plans have been announced regarding a possible timeline for reopening the Nova Cinemas location. Despite this, online ticketing services for screenings remain available to access on the venue’s website as of this report.
Nova Cinemas Curridabat, including its digital Imax auditorium, first opened in 2017. The other Costa Rica Imax auditorium is housed at another Nova Cinemas location in the San Jose province, roughly 19 kilometers away from the Curridabat venue. There are more than 1,800 Imax screens operating worldwide.
