The sign outside Starlight Cinema is a familiar sight for Taupō goers. Photo / Dan Hutchinson
OPINION
Starlight Cinema in Taupō closes on February 29 after more than 40 years, its building scheduled for demolition, with no firm relocation plan. Film reviewer Jen Shieff weighs in on why small-town cinemas are a necessity, not a nice-to-have.
Does it make business sense to have a cinema in a town of Taupō's size, and does it matter if Starlight has gone forever?
The short answer to both questions is yes.
It makes business sense, providing the scale is right and the movies and facilities on offer meet the market. Without a cinema, Taupō will be a complete cultural desert.
Cinemas provide a focus for a community, while encouraging local cultural life.
A visit to a cinema not only provides entertainment, but is usually cheaper than subscribing to a streaming service and cinemas provide many benefits: they enhance learning opportunities through links with local schools and colleges, contribute to the vitality of town centres, to local economies through audience and visitor spend, to local suppliers’ businesses and last but not least, they provide jobs.
Rick Keehan from economic development agency Amplify Taupō is an avid cinema-goer and says it’s a shame that the cinema will be closing.
“The cinema has been a great entertainment option for Taupō and especially offers a great option to entertain during wet weather and school holidays.
“It will be a great loss for the Taupō District community as well as impact options for tourists while visiting our amazing region.
“Amplify would love to support the establishment of a new cinema, ideally with the current Starlight owners; however, a new operator coming to town would also work… we would help anyone interested in getting something established.”
Smaller towns than Taupō have cinemas that have strong community support and provide a cultural heart.
Many cinema-goers enjoy going to a movie where they are surrounded by others who are laughing or crying at the same time as them, finding it’s reassuring in a reality check sort of way.
People might meet friends to share the movie-going experience, or engage in a chat with strangers afterwards, with wider, different discussions from the ones at home.
Some cinemas have not met the need the public has shown since the early days of the Rialto cinemas to combine good food and beverages with their cinema experience and to have a bit of luxury in the surroundings.
Not meeting that need is one reason those cinemas haven’t survived.
Streaming has undoubtedly had a negative impact on cinemas, but has definitely not killed them.
Since 2018, Netflix has been giving films a three-week limited release in cinemas before they become available on their streaming service.
Now, along with Warner Bros, Apple and Amazon Prime Video, to name a few, it occasionally does simultaneous releases, providing opportunities for both cinema and at-home viewing.
There’s a vast digital Bermuda Triangle into which movies can disappear if they are only streamed. Cinemas are still their home.
Movies are being made again post Covid-19, Hollywood’s screenwriters have had their dispute resolved and movie-goers are returning.
Successful cinema owners all over the country have put great ideas into practice, providing good food and beverages, on-site or through another business next door and they’ve created a bit of old-time glitz and drama along with a level of comfort as good as, or better than home, often with reclining seats.
The Taupō District’s population is 41,500. Even tiny Taihape, with a population of 1800, has its Majestic Cinema and Dannevirke, population 5640, has its Regent, both screening movies most days of the week.
They’ve adapted to their market, and in the absence of the latest projection equipment, Dannevirke only shows classic movies and Taihape, showing a limited range of the latest films, has a fundraising page inspiring the community to donate to the purchase of digital projection equipment.
Digital isn’t the latest technology; laser is state of the art, but out of reach for most small cinemas.
There’s a cinema on Waiheke Island (resident population 9420) which has a quirky old sofa type of cinema run by a charitable trust.
Wānaka (resident population 12,400) also has two, Paradiso and Ruby, and Arrowtown (resident population 3000) has Dorothy Brown. Taumarunui, with a population of 5000, supports its Regent Cinema.
What is it about going to the cinema?
There’s something about sitting in pitch-darkness, with those collective laughs and gasps, with tension and emotions reigning supreme among a group of people all there for the same reason: wanting an escape from the everyday, which incidentally is the slogan of the Lighthouse Cinemas in Wellington.
The Globe Theatrette in Ahuriri, Napier (population 67,500), is an independent cinema with 47 seats in a plush interior, providing relaxed surroundings with custom made leather armchairs and couches generously spaced for viewing comfort.
Masterton (population 30,000) has two cinemas, the Screening Room and the Regent, both privately-owned, the Regent offering the same range of movies as Starlight and the Screening Room offering more arthouse and indie treasures as well as a selection of the more usual films, with local craft beer, wine, bubbly or a milkshake and gourmet pizzas from the cafe next door.
A cinema modelled on the Globe Theatrette or the Screening Room would work in Taupō.
So would a cinema like the Basement Cinema in Rotorua (population 78,200) which offers indie movies, a few of the usual films and it also streams, as Starlight used to, the National Theatre Live and Metropolitan Opera Live.
Its cinemas are small, around 20 seats, giving viewers a feeling of being in a preview alongside the movie’s producers, a far cry from the enormous Reading Cinema multiplex a few blocks away.
The Basement’s comfortable lounging seats mean no jostling for arm room and all seats offer unobstructed viewing.
It’s a diversified business, run in conjunction with a climbing wall, another business needing a high stud, a fun combination which clearly works.
Taupō has in the past two years had a limited selection of films from the Italian film festival as it goes around the country, but none from the French film festival’s line-up, which is a pity.
A full range of those films would appeal to the well-travelled in the Taupō community.
For a town or city to have a cultural life of any kind, at a minimum it needs to be able to offer people the opportunity to go to a cinema.
Some may prefer watch at home, or in a hotel or motel, overlooking the limitations of the small screen and not caring about the lights being on or having those inevitable interruptions.
But many prefer a big screen cinematic experience, an escape from the everyday.
If Taupō can no longer offer people that choice, it would no longer be serving its residents or its visitors as well as it could, which would be a shame.
Taupō is better than that and its people deserve better.
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