Former cinema owner comments on Avoca theatre

Avoca Picture Theatre

I have read with interest your articles (CCN January 14) regarding the Avoca Beach Picture Theatre.

My wife and I owned the Kincumber Ritz Cinemas from 1997 to 2007 and then had to close through lack of support and ever-rising rent. When we bought the business, it was only a single screen, but to survive we had to convert to a twin cinema. Because the cinema was rather wide it was possible to divide it, by putting up a wall one metre off the middle to create one big cinema and one smaller one.

Even then, in 1997, we could have done with at least another cinema because restrictions put on us by the fi lm distributers made it hard to make a living. In my opinion, because Avoca only has one screen, the cinema cannot survive, so it will eventually have to close its doors and the Avoca Beach Theatre Preservation Society won’t have their precious cinema at all.

The only way for Norm and Beth Hunter to continue in business is to expand. Having said that, I do feel their plans are too big and would spoil the area and a smaller expansion would be better, to have two more cinemas and not four. I understand that to have the apartments, cafe and Gallery/shop/function area would bring in the necessary revenue to subsidise the cinemas when nobody comes. Perhaps this could be done also on a smaller scale. We have retired now and still live in Kincumber, but nearly every time we go to the local shopping centre, someone will come up to us and say how much they miss “their” cinema and we closed over eight years ago, so I can imagine the public reaction if Avoca was to close. That would be a great shame.

Email, Jan 20, 2016 Peter Wilkinson, Kincumber