Palace Cinemas chief Benjamin Zeccola talks movies, Melbourne and Netflix
THE rise of streaming services like Netflix have people sounding the death knell for movies and videos. So what does the king of Melbourne’s Palace Cinemas empire think about the trend?
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MOST people who dream of a life in the movie biz fancy seeing themselves on the silver screen, but Benjamin Zeccola is happy sitting in front of it.
Screening movies has been the family business since 1965 and despite the recent rise in online streaming services, Mr Zeccola said people weren’t ready to give films the flick just yet.
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The Palace Cinemas chief executive told the Leader people would always come to the movies because “it is the best way to see a film”.
“I love Netflix as well and watch loads of shows on there but come the weekend, I’m looking for something else to do and I want do something a little more social,” he said.
“There are some films that are just better shared and I think that’s why cinema continues to be so important to so many people.”
And a 2009-10 report by the Australian Bureau of Statistics found going to the cinema was the top cultural pastime in the country.
Mr Zeccola found himself king of the Palace Cinemas empire after his father Antonio handed over the crown in 2013.
The 45-year-old from Brighton has spent a lifetime preparing for the role.
Crawling around the floor of his father’s theatres cleaning up popcorn and ticket stubs is among his earliest memories.
“I remember being four years old and being handed a box and told to ‘go and clean up that auditorium’,” Mr Zeccola said.
Although many people, including his mother, urged him to have a plan B, staying in the family business was all he ever wanted to do.
“People would tell me ‘cinema is pretty fickle, you’ll probably want to have a back-up plan’, but from the time I was seven years old I was pretty determined I was going to help my dad run the family business,” he said.
“I just wanted to run cinemas, I wanted to be in them; I love the physical places, I love the escapism of the films you watch, the whole experience is just unreal to me.”
His children Luca, 11, Chloe, 9, and Chiara, 6, have no pressure on them to become the third generation Palace rulers, but the two oldest have already started their work experience.
“They join me on weekends and we go and clean cinemas between sessions,” he said.
“That was the way I grew up and it’s really a great way to teach a work ethic to a child.
“Plus, children love being productive — they’re at their best and behave their best when they’re helping me clean cinemas.”
Mr Zeccola’s three siblings also work in executive roles in the company, whose stable of cinemas includes Dendy Brighton, Palace Brighton Bay, Palace Como in South Yarra and Palace Balwyn.
“We get along really well; we might have a little argument then go and have a coffee and it’s all fine,” he said.
Mr Zeccola’s older brother Antony is in charge of business development, while younger sisters Elysia and Stephanie are in charge of film festivals and marketing respectively.
“Elysia spends a lot of time watching movies and travelling to film markets overseas — she has a pretty cool job,” he said.
And Antonio is still “very much involved” in the business he built from the ground up more than 40 years ago.
Antonio’s father, Giovanni, spent his days in the small Italian village of Basilicata working as a cabinet maker but on weekends he transformed church halls into movie theatres.
“He would hand-paint the posters and travel on the train to Rome to pick up these massive film cans, so my father was exposed to it in that way and when he came to Australia (in 1956) it was his dream and passion to continue that,” Mr Zeccola said.
Antonio rented suburban town halls around Melbourne to screen films imported from Italy before eventually taking over some of the city’s disused picture theatres, including the former Metro Malvern.
“I loved that cinema, that’s where I grew up,” Mr Zeccola said.
“It was an Art Deco beauty like the Astor, but unfortunately it was knocked down in about 1989.”
A few shops, including a Nando’s, now occupy the Glenferrie Rd site.
“Can you imagine, a beautiful cinema in the middle of Glenferrie Rd and they just bulldozed it and built a couple of shops,” Mr Zeccola said.
Determined not to see another period picture palace bite the dust, Mr Zeccola took on the role of a Hollywood hero and stepped in to save The Astor after a bitter dispute broke out between the owner and manager of the beloved St Kilda venue about three years ago.
“I went in there and said ‘is there any way we can help solve this?’ because it was unacceptable that we were going to lose The Astor as we know it,” he said.
“We bought the business and came up with a new rental agreement with the operator and ... Melbourne got to keep The Astor.”
Keeping the romance of the big screen alive for the audience was important, Mr Zeccola said.
During the recent renovations at the Balwyn cinema, $20,000 was spent on uncovering long-forgotten Art Deco windows on the building’s upper storey.
The renovations also included new seats hand-built in Spain and Catherine Martin-designed wallpaper inspired by The Great Gatsby.
It’s all part of putting on a show — the plush decor, decadent candy bar offerings and showings of international films, ballets and operas along with mainstream flicks.
“You can’t always go to France or Europe every year or every five years even, but with the (film festivals) you get to experience things you just can’t regularly experience,” he said.
And his fiery passion and drive — perhaps the product of his Italian heritage or his love of James Bond films — helped Mr Zeccola through several gruelling battles for the right to make cinemas a classy affair.
“Adults expect to be able to enjoy a glass of wine with their entertainment experience,” he said.
“We had to fight through VCAT for every single liquor licence.
“Liquor licensing told us we couldn’t do it but we never take no for an answer so we persevered and now in just about every cinema in Victoria you can enjoy a glass of wine.
“Our focus on people, comfort and respecting people as educated adults has changed the way cinema-going occurs (in Australia).”
Aside from showing films, Palace also helps make and distribute them.
Award-winning Australian films such as Japanese Story, Lantana and Head On might never have been made if it weren’t for Palace’s backing.
“By virtue of having these fantastic cinemas with sophisticated audiences we are able to support certain Australian films and provide them with a place to be played and an audience,” Mr Zeccola said.
For a man who has seen countless films and spends a chunk of his working week watching and assessing them, going to the movies is still something Mr Zeccola enjoys.
“I never get sick of it; chefs still enjoy eating, don’t they?” he said with a smile.
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