Give Us Back Our Cinema

Blandpebbles

With all the talk of the harbour as an amenity lost to the public for so long it got me thinking about the Ormonde cinema.

As I understand it, the roof is made of asbestos so extremely expensive to remove and rebuild however as a greystones landmark and the scene of many a blossoming relationship in yesteryears it would be nice to have it back.

Not to mention the removal of the need to drive far to watch a movie.

Bring back the 11pm late show on a Friday!

What do you think? Mission impossible?

LEIN

Worth a shot BP. Noting to lose and all to gain.

Alan_P

I'd love to see it back too. I can't believe that Bray and Greystones between them wouldn't support a cinema.

BTW, Superquinn have planning permission for a new store and a 6 screen cinema on the Southern Cross in Bray, which would be better than driving to Dundrum :- but it's not clear if they intend to proceed.

Annasopra

Sounds like a good idea; I never knew Wicklow Town used to have a cinema until recently when I came across the ruins


I think the cinema owners still live in Greystones - someone told me that it was rented to Michael Jackson privately about 5 years ago

FirstIn

Isn't it owned by Graham Spurling? I believe he owns/runs the Dundrum cinema and perhaps a few more. Good chap by the way.

Taltos

Also think this is a great idea.

Remember watching Star Wars there - and 007 - and Ghostbusters three times I loved it so much.

Was great when they did it up and put in the nicer seats.
Only challenge I see is the turn-over - with one screen and hence limited viewings I can imagine many families would prefer a day out at an omni-plex with all that entails - crowds - screaming everywhere etc.

Would still love to see it - just hope it can be financially sustainable.

Tiradon

Nice idea but it is notoriously difficult to run a one screen cinema these days, hence the closure of so many small cinemas around the country with generally only large multi-screen cinemas remaining. As far as I'm aware, the cinema pays a certain percentage of gate receipts to the film studios (the more popular and newer the film, the higher the percentage) so only a small part of the money we hand over goes to the cinema. Considering the overheads that would be incurred, namely staff, light & heat etc, it begins to make no commercial sense. That's why multi-screens can do well as the more films you show the more the overheads per film comes down. It's a balancing act, do you show a very new and much anticipated film, fill the cinema but take a small percentage, or show older films, gain a larger percentage and hope enough people come to see it. I would love for the cinema to come back but alas, I fear it will never be.

jaffa20

Yeah, it's pretty crap that the only cinemas to choose from are Dundrum or Arklow. Too far:(

Jammyc

jaffa20 wrote: »

Yeah, it's pretty crap that the only cinemas to choose from are Dundrum or Arklow. Too far:(

And Dun Laoghaire, if you don't drive.

woodsy2

I would absolutely love to see the cinema back, I recently moved to america for the summer. There's around 3 or so similar sized cinemas where I'm living and it's great to be able to just wander down in the evening (as we once did) and watch a movie.

I suppose what's extra difficult in this case is the fact that the cinema building is in private ownership, so it's not "just" a matter of lobbying the council to re-open (a la GUBOH).

If I'm allowed to pitch a mad scenario, especially if the cinema as it is would be financially un-susaintable, that with the owner's permission it could be run voluntarily one or two nights a week, with the admission thus being enough to cover expenses minus wages. Hmmm, I'm getting a bit ahead of myself, just dreaming a bit


Anyway, to summarise:

the_bigman

Agreed. Great place. Wonderful to just wander in on a quiet night. They could show classic films or something?

Charlie-Bravo

play a classic like Back to the Future - or how about this: anyone remember Harold's X cinema showing the Rocky Horror Picture Show every Friday night???? - Before you say anything, I did not go there every week and no, I'm not a crossdresser :eek: