Cinemas & movie theaters – All our local tips

Cinemateket is the only one of its kind in Copenhagen. This movie theatre doesn’t show the blockbusters running in regular theaters. Instead Cinemateket offers a wide selection of film classics, cult cinema, documentaries, short films and projects from the Danish Film School. Each month has its own theme and different genres are represented in the program during that month. So if you have a secret passion for German silent films, you might as well go and see one while you’re in Cph.

I saw “Dr. Mabuse” (Fritz Lang) in Cinemateket with a live pianist and the same old man who’s been to every film I’ve ever seen in that cinema! That’s what I call true atmosphere!

The last Friday of every month there’s a Friday Late Night arrangement. The theme is always music. The night begins with a film (about music) and afterwards the bar is open and a DJ starts the party. I recently saw the Tom Waits classic “Big Time”, so that serves an example of what kind of music movie we are talking about. In the basement there’s a Videotek where you can watch all kinds of movies made in Denmark over the years.

A good piece of advice is to buy and bring your own candy, because Cinemateket has a very narrow selection of edible goods to bring inside the theater. But maybe it is for the best not to be too tempted by enormous amounts of buttered popcorn. If you are starving after the film, Cinemateket holds a fancy restaurant called Sult (Hunger) and I have heard nice things about the place, but I have never eaten there myself since it is kind of pricey.

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Cinemateket | Bars, Cinemas, Music | Ticket DKK 55.00
Gothersgade 55 | Inner City
Tue – Fri 09:30 – 22:00, Sat – Sun 12:00 – 22:00

Folkets hus (meaning “House for the people”), is a house dedicated to all people, and have been the joy of the neighbourhood for about 25 years now. It is more or less managed by the people going there, and anyone can join in.

There is so much stuff to do in Folkets hus, and I don’t have time to mention them all, but here’s some:

Folkets Hus spillefolk: Musicians arrange the “Ramslag” with music and dancing 2 Fridays a month.

Folkets Hus Choir called Ørevox (meaning “Earwax”) sings each Monday night.

Arabian dancing and folkekøkken (same thing in Germany : Vokü, Volksküche), where volunteers serve ecological meals every sunday evening.

Entry to all events are free, and most food and coffee, you can decide yourself how much you want to pay.

The volunteers at the house are also the arrangers of “The Peacewatch” standing at Christiansborg (Cityhall), most days of the year, in protest of the Iraqi & Afghan wars.

There’s also a forum dedicated to the people interested in philosophy, they agree on a book, and then they discuss, it is held on no specific night, so ask in the café Under Konstruktion.

Café Under Konstruktion, meaning “Under Construction”, which is a wordplay, because the café is always under construction, always evolving into something more.

The Café aims to cast focus on the consumerism and conformity of the common café culture, therefore everybody who works there are volunteers, and they arrange very cheap vegan food, and most of the profit goes to political projects and the maintenance of the café of course.

Folkets hus is truly a house for the people, i hope you will enjoy it as much as i have

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Folkets Hus | Art & culture, Bars, Cinemas, Music
Stengade 50 | Nørrebro
Tue – Thu 14:00 – 23:00, Fri – Sat 14:00 – 00:00, Sun 11:00 – 23:00

Grand Teatret has been a cinema since 1913, and today, over 300 of the cinema’s total of 773 seats are still in the original cinema hall (Grand 3). There are 6 halls all in all.

The cinema is an institution on the Danish cultural scene, specifically catering for the European films audience. There is also a strong focus on the domestic film products, which of course may be of limited value to foreigners as they are mostly in Danish and – evidently – not subtitled in any language. But anyway.

The cinema has a very tasteful café and bar to visit, that offers light food (sandwich scale) and coffee/tea, wine, beer and proper alcohol like whiskey and such. Prices are very reasonable.

If you want to see a European movie of good quality, Grand (as it is known in Copenhagen) is definitely an option. And it is located less than 100 meters from Strøget near Rådhuspladsen.

See this link to some editorial, in English, about Grand Teatret.

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Grand Teatret | Cinemas, Coffee & tea | Ticket from DKK 55.00
Mikkel Bryggers Gade 8 | Inner City | +4533151611
11:00 – 21:30 daily

Sometimes it rains in Copenhagen. Or you fall hopelessly in love. Or out of love. Or that movie that you waited 7 years for was just released, and you have to see it! Then a cinema comes in handy. And Copenhagen is full of them.

The largest and best equipped cinema hall can be found in Imperial. With 1102 seats it is, in fact, the largest indoor cinema in northern Europe. The repertoire typically reflects the nature of this cinema and focus is on large productions that are visually spectacular and really benefit from this site.

Because Imperial is not only big but also of a high technical standard. Sound and picture is fantastic and Imperial is rightfully the Star Wars crowd’s temple with its créme de la créme moving pictures reproduction equipment (THX certified and digital BARCO DP100 + 70mm analog, for the insiders).

And it has nice seats too. The cinema has a small café where you can dry up, hold hands and get your lightsaber in order. 7 minutes walk from Rådhuspladsen (I checked).

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Imperial | Cinemas | Ticket from DKK 70.00
Ved Vesterport 4 | Vesterbro | +4570131211
From 11:30 daily