New Lynn residents furious over loss of local cinemas

New Lynn residents say a new cinema complex at WestCity mall in Henderson may be new and improved, but when it comes at a cost of losing their local movies, they can do without.

In six days, four of the New Lynn Village 8 movie theatres will shut, before the whole complex closes its doors in June.

The CEO of Village Force Cinemas, Joseph Moodabe, said with new movie theatres opening in the Westfield New Zealand's Westcity complex in July and the establishment of another cinema complex at St Lukes next year, the theatres at New Lynn would not be viable.

The New Lynn cinemas had been successful in previous years, but had recently been affected by the opening of movies at the IMAX entertainment in Queen Street, he said.

"There is no way that New Lynn would remain as a viable economic unit. The market is not big enough," Mr Moodabe said.

One angry resident, Lorraine Barnett, of Titirangi, said this was "business bullying" and planned to fight the cinema closure.

Locals would travel twice the distance to watch movies and public transport users would have to use two forms of transport to get to another theatre.

She said residents choose to live in New Lynn because it was close to things like restaurants and movie theatres.