Pongrácz Erzsébet: The Cinemas of Budapest - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1998)

is uncertain. Nevertheless, the name Palota Movie appears on a list of the first district’s picture houses drawn up in 1913. Film factories, which were involved financially in film distribution at the time, made several attempts to acquire ownership rights to this and another two old cinemas of Buda, “but the owners’ fond insistence prevented the outsiders from getting hold of them", reported Budai Napló (Buda Diary) in 1920. Between the two world wars the cinema often changed hands or permit holders. These included Manó Pécsi, Mrs Harald Forgács, the Orion Film Company and the Baumgartner Literary Foundation, which all operated the cinema at one point or another. After its nationalisation in 1948 it operated under the name Krisztina, then from 1954 as the Diadal Cinema.

Following reconstruction in 1978-80 it reopened as a pleasant, modern, 144-seat cinema. It was renamed Tabán in 1990. In 1994, an interior room was converted into a club where audiences can drink tea and chat.

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