Regent Entertainment Pty Ltd, in charge of Ballarat’s Regent Cinemas, enters liquidation

The company in charge of a historic Ballarat cinema which closed with little notice this week has suddenly entered voluntary liquidation.

Regent Cinemas on Lydiard St, Ballarat Central. Picture: Regent Cinemas

The company running one of the largest regional Victorian theatres has entered liquidation.

Regent Entertainment Pty Ltd, which runs the Regent Cinemas in Ballarat, on Tuesday submitted documents notifying ASIC it had appointed an external administrator.

SMB Advisory liquidator Justin Howlett said the company had entered voluntary liquidation in what was a “very emotional time” and said the business “suffered significant losses during the Covid lockdown period”.

“Despite glimpses of rebounding, the well-document(ed) difficulties faced within the cinematic and entertainment industries appear to be key contributing factors to the company’s demise,” he said.

“Whilst it is still early days, a main focus will be to explore all avenues in which the business may be able to reopen, and we are working closely with all major stakeholders and a number of interested parties in this regard.

“We are aware there may be customers who hold vouchers, and we are working diligently to quantify exactly how many people may be affected so that we can contact them and assist them through this process.

“Likewise, we are liaising with all former staff of the business to ensure they are fully aware of their position and the support available to them.”

Mr Howlett said the business had 20 employees.

It’s understood a private dispute might also have contributed to the cinema’s woes.

The cinema in 1969. Picture: CATHS

According to the Cinema and Theatre Historical Society, the first “Regent” on Lydiard St came into being after Hoyts Theatres director Frank Thring Snr brought dreams of “opulent” theatres from the US and began to establish chains across Victoria.

The April 1928 opening of the Ballarat Regent was heralded as a “glorious event” in a “theatre palatial”, and the curtains were parted to the national anthem and a projection reading “The Regent Bids You Welcome”.

CATHS said it was “unlike anything seen previously in regional Victoria”, with the Victorian Heritage Council calling its 1950 seats “large even by metropolitan standards”.

But the cinema interior was damaged by an inferno in January 1943 and consequently closed, only to be rebuilt as an institution still admired among Ballarat’s architecture.

The second Regent, designed by architects Cowper, Murphy & Appleford, opened in October 1943.

Hoyts screened its last film at the venue in May 1971, and Village Theatres Ballarat managing director Jack Anderson bought it three years later.

It reopened in 1976 and over two decades was expanded to have nine screens and 1752 seats.

From then it was independently run by the Anderson family and has been on the Victorian Heritage Register since 2010, which still refers to the cinema as “one of the largest” in rural Victoria.

A screenshot of an email posted to Facebook by a Ballarat resident noting that Regent Cinemas would close on June 25, 2024. Picture: Facebook

But news of another cinematic setback reached Ballarat social media users on Monday evening when a resident with a birthday party booking posted a screenshot of an email to Facebook, apparently from the cinema’s management, saying that as of the following day, the venue would “cease operating”.

The cinema then posted a statement at 8pm on its own page, which said: “It’s with a great amount of sadness that we have taken the decision to cease operations effective immediately.

“We have arrived at this point after a great deal of consideration and as result of a number of factors that have contributed to the heart breaking decision to close the business.

“We would like to thank the Ballarat community for their support over the years.”