Mirage Cinema on Bolshoy Prospekt of the Petrograd side was closed for repairs in the summer of 2020. Then the representatives of the company declaredthat they plan to turn it into the flagship cinema center of the network – with a modern design and the latest equipment. They wanted to complete the work faster, but in the end, the updated Mirage was opened on October 14, 2022.
The Mirage building is pre-revolutionary, although it was rebuilt in 1980. In the Soviet years here worked famous cinema “Lightning”. According to the reconstruction project, the house itself was preserved, changing only the inside.
The design project of the renovated space was developed by the DA Bureau team of Boris Lvovsky – the creators of the Birch interiors, Osteria BetullaMade in China and other well-known restaurant projects in St. Petersburg.
The architects were engaged not only in the interior decoration of the cinema, but also in lighting the facades: they thought over the location of the lamps and created special brackets for them.
In the decoration and design of the premises, emphasis was placed on lighting solutions and convenient navigation: the cinema now looks futuristic, although they tried to preserve the spirit of the place. “It was important for us to give most of the content to the main function – showing movies and communicating with people,” the DA Bureau noted.
In the musical design of the site, the emphasis was placed on modern electronic music. And in addition to everything, they updated the cinema logo – now it is different from the overall identity of the network. “We decided to add dynamics to the logo and used the Russian font,” said representatives of the cinema.
The renovated cinema is designed for 620 seats, there are seven halls – with standard armchairs and sofas for several spectators. In the future, the leaders of the network want to expand the program – for example, arrange film festivals in the Mirage on the Petrograd side.
– “Mirage on the Bolshoi” is not a standard cinema that plays blockbusters and new movies. We want to develop a new creative direction for us, reveal modern directors and interesting topics.
The organizers paid attention to food. Notable restaurant projects have previously worked in the cinema building: for example, the Frank meat restaurant or Nothing Fancy with bowls and breakfasts all day.
Now they have added a restaurant MKitchendelivering prepared food to movie theaters. Its menu is very different from the standard assortment of cinema bars: here you can order not only french fries, sandwiches and snacks, but also full-fledged dishes – beef tartare with capers, Peking chicken, pizza and even steaks. Six different wines are poured into glasses, and cocktail lovers are offered 16 mixed drinks for 520 rubles. A glass of wine costs from 300 rubles.
