While all eyes will be trained on the opening of the latest IMAX Odeon Cinema a few hours from now, a short distance away in the heart of Central Milton Keynes, The Point will show its last film - just shy of three decades since it opened in a blaze of glory.
When it arrived in 1985, The Point heralded the dawn of a new entertainment age, and in the forward thinking new town of Milton Keynes, Britain's first multiplex cinema found the perfect host.
The Point not only served as an entertainment hub, offering dining, dancing and movie watching in one place, but the iconic pyramid shape, or ziggurat to be more accurate, could be seen for miles in its nightly illuminated state, alerting weary MK dwellers they were nearly home.
A survey conducted prior to the launch of The Point suggested residents considered entertainment the area most lacking in the new city.
The Point changed everything. When it opened, it delivered:
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Britain's first purpose-built multiplex cinema with 10 screens and over 2000 seats
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A 1,500 seat Coral Bingo and Social Club
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A club offering live and recorded entertainment with a capacity for 400 people
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A 130-seated restaurant, featuring a special all day fresh pasta menu as well as a full a la carte based on the best in French and Italian cuisine
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A 140-seater Brasserie, offering fresh French food throughout the day
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An American-style bar
When the doors opened for the first time – at 5pm on November 29, 1985 - the £7.5 million development threw a Thanksgiving Day themed event with American footballers, drum majorettes and pumpkin pie to wow us English folks.
Blockbuster Christmas films including The Goonies, Santa Claus The Movie, St Elmo's Fire and My Beautiful Launderette were all hosted on the wide screens.
Back to the Future debuted a week later, on December 4.
The cinema offered a complete no smoking rule, and computerised ticket sales – standard today, but cutting edge then.
These days, a trip to the movies can be an expensive affair, but in 1985, watching Michael J Fox on the big screen would have cost £1.95 a ticket.
There were still savings to be made if you wanted to be thrifty though – a matinee showing was £1.45 and under-14s were seated for 95p!
The Point was a unique development, and a revolutionary move forward in the world of cinema.
Its arrival here had a knock-on effect, and undoubtedly contributed to the closure of film houses around the area – those old enough will remember queuing to watch the latest flicks at cinemas in Newport Pagnell and Bletchley.
But even they had seen off competition in their own time - Wolverton's Picture Palace had fallen decades earlier, closing its doors after half a century of big screen entertainment, back in 1961.
The Point was necessary to kickstart a new revival in cinema-going in Britain, and that it did.
It wanted to show 'good films in comfortable, well managed cinemas within integrated entertainment centres' and the forward thinking developers made that happen.
Their wish was for those centres to spell the future of British cinema, and again they succeeded in their efforts.
How sad then, that the first complex of its type, and the first truly iconic landmark in Milton Keynes is now to be erased from the landscape.
Where the 70 foot high landmark now stands, a new retail development will rise.
Milton Keynes is a forward thinking town but needs to remember its history, not just wipe it away. Heritage is important.
As the credits roll one last time, with popcorn in hand we bid The Point a fond farewell and say 'thanks for the movie memories.'
