Indonesian Film Festival in 1955 and was a supporting theater when the city hosted the 16th Asia Pacific Film Festival in 1970. Around 1960, the cinema's name was changed to Megaria during the presidency of Sukarno, who carried out an anti-Western policy and thought that the word metropole was too foreign. In 1984, the Kartika Chandra theater became the city's first cinema to apply the cineplex concept of having multiple theater screens. Megaria followed suit in 1986 and added a second screening space behind the already existing one. Despite this change, the theater did not enjoy the same success as Kartika Chandra and forced it to bankruptcy. The complex would soon be absorbed into the emerging 21 Cineplex theater network, managed by the company Subentra. Megaria officially became part of the network in April 1989 and was renamed Metropole 21. The 21 Cineplex subsequently dissected the main large screening hall into three separate cineplex by removing the balcony seats of the original theatre — making Metropole 21 as a cineplex with 4 screening rooms; 3 in the main building, and the 4th one is in separate building behind the secondary building. The main stairs which leads to the second floor lobby, which originally leads to the demolished balcony seats, was repurposed as a videogame arcade, and later repurposed as the cinema's office. Its name later changed back to Megaria 21. The governor of Jakarta declared the Megaria building as an architectural heritage site in 1993. Proximity of its location to offices of the three dominant parties during the New Order—the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), the United Development Party (PPP), and the Functional Groups (Golkar)—made Megaria a popular gathering location for students during the Reform movement in the late 1990s. Contrary to popular belief, Metropole is not the oldest movie theater in Jakarta. The oldest movie theater in Jakarta is Grand Theater, established in 1930 on the corner of Jalan Kramat Raya and Jalan Kramat Bunder, however in extremely poor condition and survived by offering low budget movie (usually horror or erotic). The Megaria building was listed for sale on 8 March 2007 for a price of (). Although the city government did not oppose the sale and allowed for a possible change in the building's function, it forbade the new owner from altering the appearance, ornaments, or main structure. The sale was canceled in 2008, and the 21 Cineplex group