While reading through the Guardian newspapers discussion of the new tax laws effect on the film industry, I noticed a story interviewing a Cinema owner. That, combined with the recent posting from Ned (a Theatre owner), made me think of how hard it must be to operate a cinema and keep it as a going concern.
In Edinburgh, my local cinema is a family run business and has been for a long time, the Dominion is an excellent theatre offering plush leather sofas and foot rests and even electric leather recliners. Its a wonderful place to watch a movie, but how attractive is it all really?
Mark Cunningham bought and restored the Palace Theatre in Cinderford, Glouctershire in the UK, and talks about how hard it really is. For me, some of this was quite a revelation.
Film distribution companies charge anything from 25 to 50% of the box office takings depending on the film. For the most popular movies it can be higher. Mr Cunningham recently paid 58.5% to show one of this year’s top childrens hits.
No prizes for guessing that one. 58.5%? That’s one hell of a lot of money, however, you would expect the box office takings to be quite high for good movies. So how much can he make?
Box office sales last year were √Ǭ£58,000. Add to that the kiosk sales and advertising which took his turnover to √Ǭ£76,000. Running costs, including the distribution company payments and staff wages left gross profits at…√Ǭ£13,000. That was then eaten away by improvements on the Theatre.
It is a single screen theatre, and when he opens the second screen shortly he does hope that this will bring more revenue with less outgoing costs. Still, with that little profit and an eighty hour week, it’s certainly not a job for those who don’t really love the medium of film showing on the big screen.
Anyone out there work in a theatre or cinema, own one, or does Ned want to come and give us some actual inside knowledge of what it is like to run a cinema? Would you want to enter this business? Despite all that, I would still love to.
I want to own one. Can someone tell me where I can go to get the info needed (i.e number of employees, annual revenue, etc.). I will operate a 5-8 screen theatre.
Having looked into this myself, I can tell you that the longer a film runs, the lower the take is my the distributor. Keep in mind there is no rental fee, shipping fee, etc. They take a percentage of the box office and the rate that movies are making money now, you do the math!
I now that the one of our local theatres has 12 screens .. they sell out most Friday and Saturday nights … there is money out there … you just gotta hang in there!
It’s a tough business, and it’s getting harder. London’s The Other Cinema – quite probably the best arthouse cinema in the West End, perhaps all of London – closed a few weeks ago, despite a campaign of support from many of British film’s best known names. Its management company, City Screen – who run the Picturhouse chain of arthouse cinemas, including Cambridge’s Arts Picturehouse and The Cameo in Edinburgh – said they couldn’t afford to pay the increased rent. It’s not clear exactly how hard they tried to keep it open. The staff weren’t given much notice of the closure.
They claim they want to re-open it in the new year, and there’s still fundraising efforts going on. But the suspicion is that the allure of prime West End real estate – compared with an old, borderline profitable arts cinema – will be too much.
I wish I’d gone to it more often (hell, I knew one of the staff, I could have got a discount). Ironically, it may have been a generally pleasing trend that accelerated its downfall; I get the impression that more alternative, foreign and documentary films have been shown at multiplexes in the past few years. Now, that’s probably just due to the success of certain individual films (a few years ago, I had to see Being John Malkovitch and Crouching Tiger at a Picturhouse cinema; this year, I can’t even remember which chain multiplex I saw Eternal Sunshine or Hero in). But even as a short-term trend, it may have taken too many audience members away from the niche cinemas.
I don’t know what the solution is, other than shouting at people to go and support their local cinema. It’s a shame.