The UGC, due to open this week, brings a new block of 18 screens to Glasgow, on the site of the old Apollo Theatre in West Nile Street. It will be Europe's tallest cinema, a multi-storey picture house for multi-story delivery.

Ten Minute Top-Up

It is genuinely trying to be something special, redefining cinema for the 21st century. The UGC looks more like an office block than a cinema, with its glass walls and concrete pillars, topped off with an architecturally trendy peaked baseball-cap roof. The defining feature of its atrium entrance hall are the 22 escalators to take audiences up the 12 floors -- journey time to the top is nine minutes, or the length of a Tartan Short. Total audience capacity is 4319, with cinemas ranging in size from 83 to 663 seats.

Bums On Seats Big Time

According to the press blurb produced for the launch the UGC, with five film shows a day -- 90 different screenings -- there's the possibility of 21,600 people turning up, or 7.8 million a year. That's more than seven times the number of visitors to Edinburgh Castle.