The Majestic Cinema opened its doors on October, 20 1955. The Art Deco building was designed by a local architect Dayalji Pitamber Sachania and commissioned by one of Zanzibar’s cinema entrepreneurs Hassanlai Hameer Hasham after the old cinema went down in flames on February, 8 1954. The previous building, originally called the Royal Cinema, was the first luxurious cinema in East Africa. It was opened by Hassanali Adamjee Jariwalla and designed by J.H. Sinclair, the British Resident and architect of buildings such as the Post Office and the Peace Memorial Museum in Zanzibar.

Majestic the name says it all….

When built the Majestic Cinema had a panoramic projection screen and stereophonic  sound system and seating for 750 people ,including a large steep balcony for 200 people .In addition to housing the cinema ,the building also housed at various moments in time; a restaurant, a canteen selling popcorn ,sodas ,past tries and other nibbles, offices of Air Tanzania and a hotel called Pigalle. Today the building in addition to being used as a cinema hall is also used for offices by the state University Of Zanzibar. Ticket offices were originally located both at front and at rear of the cinema ,where there is now an additional building housing a small restaurant and offices.

The majestic Cinema is managed by Abdullhussein Marashi who has been working in the Cinema since 1982 taking over from his father Mr Marashi has been keeping the cinema alive for the past four decades by playing movies for small group of loyal movie fans. He also runs the restaurant at the rare building