Celebration uses ‘Dune 2’ opening to debut theater with 38 speakers

GAINES TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — Celebration Cinema is promising a premium movie going experience with its new auditorium.

The C Premium auditorium at Celebration Cinema Grand Rapids South will host its first public showtimes starting Thursday with the opening weekend of “Dune 2.” Along with heated recliners, the theater also boasts Dolby Atmos sound and 4K laser projection.

“For movie going avids and people who really want to experience an event film like ‘Dune (2),’ which opens this weekend, this is a fantastic way to see it,” Emily Loeks, the director of community affairs for Studio C and Celebration Cinema, said. “There’s 38 surround speakers, and one of the things that that accomplishes is this really immersive experience. You just feel a rumble in the seats, you feel sound coming from multi directions and it puts you right inside of a story instead of (being removed) from the movie story on the screen.”

Celebration Cinema will likely add more C Premium auditoriums at its other locations, Loeks said.

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C Premium is part of a bigger $4 million renovation project at Celebration Cinema Grand Rapids South, which opened almost 20 years ago at 1506 Eastport Dr. off of M-6 in Gaines Township. The project includes putting in heated recliners in all theaters and adding a full kitchen and bar. Crews are also updating the carpeting, flooring and paint.

The renovations are set to be done this spring.

The project comes after a challenging few years for the movie industry, which saw shutdowns during the pandemic and production pauses during the writer and actor strikes. Movie theaters started seeing a “pretty full movie slate late this summer,” Loeks said, with titles like “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” drawing in moviegoers.

Loeks expects to see the tail end of the impact from the strikes this year, as Celebration Cinema gets ready for the release of big movies, including “Dune 2.”

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“We will see a return to a really, really robust movie slate coming up in 2025,” she said. “So we’re also just anticipating that. This is an investment for the future, we believe in movie going and the experience of bringing people together in it.”

The first public showing at C Premium will take place 4 p.m. Thursday. Loeks said “Dune 2” is the kind of movie “that you want to see on the biggest screen possible.”

“The critics and the folks who have had a chance to see this movie early are speaking about it in terms of being world building, like ‘Empire Strikes Back’ and ‘Batman.’ They’re talking about it in those kinds of epic terms,” she said.

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