The small town cinemas holding on at the edge of the world

The iconic cinema at Geraldine.

Alex Casey talks to the owners of some of the country’s smallest cinemas about how they’re surviving – and even thriving – in 2024.

To sit in the foyer of Ethel’s Cinema in Akaroa is to feel smack bang in the epicentre of the 600-strong Banks Peninsula community. The coffee machine hums as groups of white-haired ladies bustle in and out, some heading to the library right next door. Charming interruptions punctuate my interview with owners Brigid Rennell and Mark Bamber, be it a beaming woman with a new baby, or Rennell’s own dad flaunting his raffle win (mini Lindauer and chocolates).

The experience feels so far away from the soulless, cavernous mall multiplexes of Christchurch and other major centres that it is hard to believe they are both trading in the same product at all. It also feels a lot like a glimmer of light in all the doom and gloom headlines for cinemas post-Covid, which report declining attendance around the world, with some projections suggesting numbers will still not have reached pre-pandemic status by 2027.

Here in Aotearoa, it is a similar story. Neil Lambert, chief executive of Silky Otter cinemas, told RNZ that the market was still about 25% below what it was in 2019. “You can put the maths together: little content, higher costs in a business and interest rates, and it’s a struggle,” he said this year.

And if it has been “a slog” for a fast-growing luxury chain, then how are the independent cinemas in our small towns surviving – and some even thriving – in 2024?

‘It is like our extended lounge’

Brigid and Mark at Ethel’s in Akaroa took over the business from former Jimi Hendrix producer Jim Marron in 2020 – an ideal lineage, but not an ideal time to be dealing in confined spaces and getting people out of the house.

“We were interested in taking it on and making sure it continued because it was such a vital asset in a very small community,” says Rennell. “We wanted it to become a hub where everyone would come, see a movie, have a meal, and have a chat.”

With a cosy cafe offering local wines and freshly made pizzas, Ethel’s offers much more than movies. “It is like our extended lounge, everyone is welcome to just come and hang out,” says Bamber. There’s a regular group of locals who come for pizzas on Thursdays, and another group every Friday afternoon. “It’s the coolest thing to hear people chatting across the tables and laughing with each other – that to me proves that we’ve really done what we set out to do.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ethels Cinema Akaroa (@ethelscinema)

They show a wide range of films for a town of just 600, mixing big releases with the specific tastes of the community. “We have a lot of people here who are very proactive in the environmental area, so we try to get as many movies in that area as we can,” says Bamber. They recently showed a Christian film after a local emailed in requesting it. “So I found it from Australia, brought it in, and had 30-odd people come to see it – you wouldn’t get that at Hoyts.”

Another personalised service you wouldn’t get at Hoyts is this: nothing at Ethel’s is automated. “We could, but we don’t,” says Bamber. “Because people might ring and say they’re running late, so we can always wait for them to start it.”

‘We’re effectively the town hall’

Draw a line from Ethel’s to the opposite coast and you’ll land on The Regent in Hokitika, a 380-seat art deco theatre built in 1935. Purchased by Westland Community Centre Incorporated in 1977 after they fundraised to save and restore the building, it remains community-owned to this day. “We’ve had thousands of hours put into this theatre from volunteers over the years,” says manager Hayley Kirby. “Quite frankly, we wouldn’t have survived without it.”

Kirby has been managing The Regent for nearly two years, and her “sole focus” has been relating the building back to the 3000-strong community again. That means catering to the intrepid tastes of West Coasters with the Bike Night film festival, as well as inviting the whole town to a beach party for the release of Moana 2. “I try to make a big deal out of things like that, because we don’t have an awful lot going on here for the kids.”

Te Awamutu's Regent Theatre cinema. Photo / Dean Taylor

There’s also so much more going on at The Regent than just movies. Last year it hosted concerts from Salmonella Dub, King Kapisi and Hollie Smith, and got 360 locals in to watch the Rugby World Cup. “I’ve really pushed and pushed to get the community to actually leave their houses and come and share the space together,” Kirby said. “And I’ve tapped into a whole other part of society that doesn’t normally use it or think about it.”

Kirby wants to emphasise just how much The Regent represents to the town, and what a loss its closure would be. “Without us, the school kids wouldn’t have a big, professional stage to do their end-of-year shows, and the other community groups wouldn’t have a place to be able to raise money with their Christmas variety shows. People don’t actually realise how much of an impact it would have on the community if we lost it, because we’re effectively the town hall.”

Holy moly Hokitika, that was not expected. 200 to Moana 2 I hope you enjoyed the experience. Sorry for the delays on the till, I thought id be lucky to get 100. Thank you to you all!

Posted by Hokitika's Regent Theatre on Friday, November 29, 2024

‘If I didn’t do it, no other bugger would’

In another historic cinema even further south, Pat Walsh has had to cut down screenings at the 100-year-old Geraldine Cinema to just a few days a week. There are a few influencing factors, but he says illegal downloading in the provinces has taken a huge chunk of his business in recent years. “I’ve even had people blatantly walk in here and take photos of all the posters, and then say out loud, ‘We’re just going to go home and download all these movies for the kids’.”

He is also up against the five-screen multiplex in Timaru, the largest nearby centre which, Walsh says, has soaked up a lot of Geraldine’s business. “People live out in these smaller areas, but they don’t use any of the local facilities any more,” he says. “They’ll get in their car and drive to Timaru because they’ve got the stupid idea that the shopping is cheaper – even though they’re spending 30 bucks on fuel. And then of course they go to the movies in Timaru too.

“I hear it from the young ones here who come in and say, ‘You’re not a proper cinema, the one in Timaru is a proper cinema,’ and I say, ‘Why is that?’ and they say, ‘It’s got the proper popcorn’.”

But with a ticket price of just $14 for adults and $9 for children, Walsh argues admission to the 100-year-old cinema remains reasonably priced. “If you were to come to the movies here during the Second World War, and you sat in the circle upstairs, it works out to about $40 in today’s money, and about $16 downstairs,” he says. “But what’s happened is all these people have grown up being weaned on television and now they can’t put a monetary value on the movies.”

Cuth Knight outside with his car, year unknown, thanks to Garry the Barbour for dropping this photo in.

Posted by Geraldine Cinema on Saturday, January 7, 2023

Walsh also finds the provincial palate isn’t always one suited to independent and world cinema. “You could have the best and most wonderful film in the world screening at your cinema, but the people on the street just won’t even register it,” he says. “I’ll go down to the pub full of farm workers and truck drivers on a Saturday night and they’ll ask, ‘What’s on the movies?’ and I’ll say, ‘We just had The Sound of Music on’ and they’ll say, ‘Is that a good one?’”

Despite cutting his hours and working another day job, Walsh is “hanging on” to the Geraldine Cinema for as long as he can. “I’m having a big argument with the council at the moment because they want to pull it down on me, so I’m not the flavour of the month right now,” he says. “But at the end of the day, if I didn’t do it, no other bugger would, and it would be gone … I just hope that one day the town will realise how lucky they are that it’s still here.”

‘You can’t run a normal cinema on Stewart Island’

New Zealand’s southernmost cinema, serving a population of just 440, is The Bunkhouse Theatre on Stewart Island. It is also a place that has come to play a crucial role in relaying the history of the island to tourists. Owner Penny Golias and her late husband, Pete, took over The Bunkhouse in the 2010s and quickly realised they would need a point of difference. “You can’t run a normal cinema on Stewart Island, because visitors to the island aren’t there to see a film,” Golias explains.

To make the cinema viable, they set about making an original film called A Local’s Tail, which combined a friendly canine protagonist named Lola and extensively sourced historical footage and photographs from locals to tell the story of Stewart Island. It had a red carpet premiere in 2012 to an audience of 53 locals and the star of the show, Lola the Staffy, despite a near-miss after they realised the 40-minute film would take a week to download.

“We did an emergency dash of our editor and director across to the mainland. So while everyone was having champagne in the foyer, he was getting a flight in from Invercargill. We whipped him in the back door and plugged it in, and off it went.”

A Local’s Tail has been playing regularly during the summer season on the island ever since and made a star out of Lola the Staffy (who, sadly, died two years ago). “She has photos with people from all around the world,” says Golias. “She rang the bell to take people through to the cinema, she would walk the red carpet and so forth – she was a real part of the whole cinema experience.” Lola even got a photograph with Prince Harry when he visited in 2015.

Golias has since downsized to a 21-seater theatre in her own home after her husband Pete died, but will still be showing A Local’s Tail in a scaled-back setting this summer. “People can sit down and have a coffee and a chat with me and I can tell them about the history of the place. It’s just a real personalised, individual session, and then they can still sit in the cinema seats and enjoy the old popcorn machine. It’s a full experience, rather than just a movie.”

A Local’s Tail aside, there’s still the odd cinematic treat for the locals, with the Show Me Shorts film festival being one of the sellout events of the year. “We are one of the only locations around New Zealand that show the entire film festival, and it is always a full house,” Golias says. “To leave the island is hard for some people and it’s a very expensive journey to go to the movies elsewhere, so this gives residents access to something that they wouldn’t get otherwise.

“We still get the popcorn machines and the ice creams out and people still love the community experience, which you just don’t get watching Netflix.”

‘A gemstone in the New Zealand experience’

Rennell and Bamber in Akaroa have put Ethel’s on the market this year, and look back at their time running the cinema with a huge sense of pride. “We feel really privileged to be a part of that kind of experience for people, whether they’re locals or from overseas,” Rennel says. “These small cinemas in our small towns are not only the basis of a lot of community activity, but they are kind of a gemstone in the New Zealand experience.

“We have so many tourists coming in who are just completely blown away by the experience because they don’t have anything like it where they are from.”

Beyond the unique historical value of these cinemas, Walsh in Geraldine says they also provide a social function that is getting harder and harder to find in his town of 3000. “I go to the pub down the road here, and it’s the most unsociable social place in Geraldine,” he says. “You walk in there and it’s full of people, but they’re all sitting around staring at their phones. You could spend a whole night there and nobody would even say boo to you.”

He says the cinema remains an invaluable source of connection. “When you get the cinema full of people watching a comedy, and they’re all laughing and it bounces off each other,” he says. “If they were sitting at home staring at their TV set in the corner of their lounge, they wouldn’t even probably grunt at it.” Rennell agrees: “I don’t know what the next five or 10 years will bring, but I think humans being together in the community is going to be pretty hard to replace.”

Going to the cinema is a communal experience. Photo / 123rf

At The Regent in Hokitika, Kirby worries too about increasing social isolation. “Since Covid, everything’s based from home and I think that people really need to find those communal experiences, whether it be a movie, whether it be live music, and fall in love with that again. I’d just hate to see a world where people go home from work, sit at home, go back to work, and there’s no social engagement at all with these cool, creative, tangible experiences.”

Despite openly admitting to being someone who didn’t know much about movies or the cinema industry before she started the manager job in 2023, it’s not long before Kirby is quoting Martin Scorsese from the back of her business card: “Movies touch our hearts and awaken our vision, and change the way we see things. They take us to other places, they open doors and minds. Movies are the memories of our lifetime, we need to keep them alive.”

She pauses. “All those memories he’s talking about? They all start in movie theatres. And if we’re not careful, we are going to lose them.”