The emblematic Boliche Cinema , located on Avenida Diagonal in Barcelona, has closed its doors for good, becoming one of the last neighborhood cinemas to lower its shutters for good.
What was initially announced as a temporary closure for renovations on March 5, 2024, has been confirmed as the definitive farewell of the last remaining neighborhood movie theater in the heart of Barcelona.
Before that, it had a nice history. It opened in the 50s as an old and elegant bowling alley, the Club Boliche, with lanes, a snack bar, a smaller bar in the bowling room and a tea room in one of its balconies. It would become a cinema in 1998 thanks to the Institut Català del Cinema.
After an initial closure in 2008, the cinema resurfaced on May 17, 2013 under the direction of Alfons Mas and Rafael Dalmau. Although the partnership was subsequently dissolved, Mas continued to run the project alone, keeping the essence of the neighborhood cinema alive until last spring, when it closed for alleged construction work.
Now, as El Periódico reports, the cinema is closing for good. If the premises remained abandoned and with an inactive website, now the sale of the domain and the remodeling of the space, clearly not intended to reopen the cinema, confirm the final closure, in what will be one more goodbye to the culture of neighborhood cinemas that once populated Barcelona.