One of the interesting things from the history of Bioskop Balkan is that one of the first film screenings in “Hotel Bulevar”, as the building was then called, was a silent film about the wedding of the royal couple, Aleksandar Obrenović and Draga Mašin.
Aleksandar Obrenović married Draga Mašin on July 23, 1900, and this decision cost him his life. Draga was not of noble origin, she was a widow, 12 years older than him, who could not give him an heir. One of the five conspiratorial groups that executed the married couple on the night between May 28 and 29 and carried out the “May Coup” started right from the “Hotel Bulevar” tavern, where they patiently waited for the moment of action, which would end the Obrenović dynasty and change the course of Serbian history.
Ten years after the screening of the film about the wedding of the royal couple, the sound film “Chronomegaphone Gomon” was also broadcast. After that, a permanent cinema called “Grand cinema of the Gomon family” started working in the hotel. After the First World War, a permanent cinema “Opera” was opened in this place, where mostly cowboy and adventure films were shown.[1]
[1] From the text in the daily newspaper Danas: https://www.danas.rs/beograd/bioskop-balkan-prikazan-i-film-o-vencanju-obrenovica/