Regional cinemas look to big budget movies to stay alive in 2023

The death of cinemas has been predicted before but for regional operators the combined hit of Covid and streaming could well send them under.

The Bowen Summergardens Cinemas in North Queensland has been running for more than 60 years. Australian movie heroes Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman and Baz Luhrmann have visited the cinema. Picture: Contributed

The future of regional cinema operators could hang on the next three months, which will show whether audiences are still willing to shell out for a big-screen experience or if the combined blows of Covid and streaming puts movie-going outside of the cities into terminal decline.

Steve Goddard, manager of a three-screen complex in the coal mining town of Emerald, said the cinema business was “100 per cent ruled” by content and April to July featured a steady run of potential blockbusters.

“We’ve got Guardians of the Galaxy, we’ve got Little Mermaids, Supermarios is here now, Dungeons and Dragons, John Wick, Shazam! is here now,” he said.

“As far as names are concerned, they are huge names, they don’t get any bigger.

“I’ve never seen a bigger year.”

He needs the big-budget flicks to deliver because operators are increasingly reliant on a select few hit releases to carry them through after haemorrhaging patrons to streaming services, which boomed during the Covid era, and the shock of lockdowns, which crushed business.

In 2019, combined cinema admissions across Australia hit 84.7m people, data from Numero and the Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia revealed.

In 2020, that number collapsed to 28.2m.

The number is crawling back again but there is still a long way to go to return to pre-pandemic levels.

In 2022, admissions were 57.9m.

Box office receipts are also down.

In 2019, Australia’s gross box office was $1.2b.

In 2020, receipts fell more than 65 per cent to $401m.

In 2022, the number was $940m, still 27 per cent off the 2019 figure.

Mr Goddard said the industry was in a “holding pattern” to see whether the streaming boom would dissipate and the big screen would return as a dominant player in the entertainment space.

“We are sort of marking time, waiting for that to happen,” he said.

“We are existing, not going ahead at the moment.”

Ben de Luca has owned the two-screen Bowen Summergardens picturehouse for 60 years and said a return to the pre-virus box office would be difficult.

For one thing, there are now fewer screens open for movie-lovers, particularly in the regions.

Screens in Roma, Moranbah and Ayr have shut and Mr de Luca is struggling to fill his own long-established theatre, even with hit movies.

Over three sessions last Thursday for Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, he sold about 200 tickets.

The Bowen Summergardens Cinemas in North Queensland has been running for more than 60 years. Australian movie heroes Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman and Baz Luhrmann have visited the cinema. Picture: Contributed

“It’s pretty ordinary,” he said.

Mr Goddard said he was a long way from the “golden era” of 2005-2015, in which he sold about 66,000 seats a year.

“There’s going to have to be some big big movies for us to make 40,000 this year because I have started so slowly,” he said.

“We will make it but only just.”

In 2022, he sold about 38,000 seats.

In a sign of how movie-going culture has changed, Mr Goddard said high-quality “second-tier” movies like Ben Affleck’s Air, due for release this week, sold 500-700 seats in the “old days” but now delivered about 200 tickets.

A note from Australian movie director Baz Luhrmann to Bowen Summergardens Cinemas owner Ben de Luca. Picture: Contributed

Ostensible blockbusters are also less reliable.

He has already suffered two flops this year: Magic Mike’s Last Dance and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

He said pre-2019, movies such as these delivered 1500-2000 tickets but now only put through 400-500.

Mr de Luca is confident regional cinemas will survive but Mr Goddard is more circumspect.

“The small operators have already gone,” he said.

He noted the Emerald complex had survived in part because of federal government assistance during Covid.

“It’s sad because if you lose your cinema, there are a lot of reasons for doctors, nurses, lawyers and teachers not to come to those towns,” he said.