THIS is the inside of the new multiplex cinema set to bring thousands of visitors into Blackburn town centre every week.

Builders are busy putting the finishing touches to the Vue 10-screen cinema, which occupies the top two floors of a £20million leisure complex next to the town's railway station.

And managers at the cinema, part of a national chain which runs some of the country's largest picture houses, today promised the best possible experience for the area's movie fans.

It will open on Friday at 9am, just in time for the release of the new Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire movie. The film will play 16 times on Friday and 19 times on Saturday and Sunday.

The cinema's largest screen holds nearly 350 people, while the smallest holds fewer than 90.

Sound and vision engineers are now testing the state-of-the-art equipment housed inside the cinema's projection gallery to make sure visitors get the best possible cinematic experience from the very first showing.

Stuart Shepherd, one of four duty managers at the cinema, said: "Everyone is really excited about the opening.

"It's a fantastic building and everything is state-of-the-art.

"Everything has been designed with customers in mind.

"Each screen has stadium seating, there are boxes for wheelchair users and we will have films with subtitles and audio description too."

A gala opening is planned for next week when VIP guests will get to see an advanced screening of Jodie Foster's new film Flightplan.

Films showing from Friday include Harry Potter, The Libertine, Nanny McPhee, In Her Shoes, The Brothers Grimm, Elizabethtown and Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.

Advance screenings of the Exorcism of Emily Rose and Mrs Henderson Presents are also planned over the next week.

The ground floor of the cinema complex is home to a 24-lane bowling alley called Bowlplex.

The town's established cinema, the Apollo five-screen centre in King William Street, is also showing Harry Potter.

Bosses of Apollo, based in Walton Summit near Preston, are reviewing the operation in Blackburn on a week-by-week basis but have said they are 'realistic' about the future.