The Cinema Iniesta building was located in Calle Mayor, on the corner of Calle Rosario and Moreno, on the same site as the Lacal Theatre-Cinema. In 1935, at the beginning of the era of sound films, the Iniesta Company acquired the old building.
The cinema was one of the main places of leisure in Alcantarilla, which came to have three premises and two summer terraces in the years of cinematic splendour, losing prominence in the 1970s. Film premieres were offered at weekends, with programmes handed out by the doorman to inform of the next release, and Wednesdays were producer’s day, with films advertised on the billboards on the façade of the building.
In the 40s and 50s of the 20th century, the “Empresa Iniesta” also ran the Summer Cinema in Calle Mayor and the Mercantil in Calle Princesa, the venues for the most important theatrical performances and cultural events in the town.
In 1953, after a fire broke out in the amphitheater after the screening of the film “El siete Machos” starring Cantinflas, the architect Guillermo Martínez Albadalejo undertook the restoration of the cinema, which had a seating capacity for 742 people, including the stalls, the amphitheatre and the general seating, popularly known as the “gallinero” (the gods). Next to the façade on the corner with the Calle Mayor was the Bar-Confiteria de Luisico.
In 1989, the Cinema Iniesta was demolished for the construction of a residential building.
