Starting a Community Cinema

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daveyhairbear

Hi All,

I have an idea to start a community cinema and would like any ideas/advice you can give..

I live in a small town of 30,000 people and whilst we have various local "Arts" facilities films are rarely, if ever, shown.

There is a large city with a number of large multiplex cinemas not too far away but by the time you have driven there through the traffic and parked you are talking half an hour minimum of your time. On top of this is the high cost of a ticket, food etc...

I'm therefore starting to wonder whether a "part time" community cinema would be a viable proposition?

The idea would be to hire a local hall on a semi regular basis, maybe once weekly, and show both current and indie films.

Projection would most likely be via some sort of digital projector/DVD in order to keep costs down. I'd be looking to charge something like £2.50 to £3.50 per person admission as I think this is all the locals would be willing to pay!!

At the end of the day I wouldn't be looking to make any real profit, just enough to cover costs and invest in expanding the project.

Is this sort of thing viable? How do you go about hiring films for public performance? Are there any other "licences" needed? Are lottery grants etc available to get such projects off the ground? If the project were organised as a "Film club" would there be any benefits?

I'm a newbie on here so please feel free to shoot this down in flames if it's a silly idea...
 
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Over 15 years ago I was a manager at a movie theater and the idea of booking local films will cost you a lot more than you think. It's hard to compete with the exclusive deals that the actual theaters have on showing a film in your region.

The idea of indie films is more viable (and cheaper), but it's harder to draw in an audience to see a movie that doesn't have Bruce Willis, explosions, super heroes, or Jessica Alba in the romantic comedy.

Creative, alternative marketing is key to drawing in people. Sympathy towards the local artists can interest patron of the arts. Does the local high school/community college have a media arts class? If so, try to get some student films in the mix and all the free marketing that comes from schools.
 
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Hi sonnyboo, thanks for the reply!

There are a number of independent filmmakers locally but I think I'd need to show the "bruce willis" type films in order to make the project viable.

Anyone local who wants to see an indy film will make the effort and travel to the local big city. If I show a "hollywood" film then the masses would come, a number of whom would also return for the indy offering.

How does film distribution "work" in the UK? A number of "Community centres" in the area show films which are only a month or two old, as do some of the small independant cinemas.
 
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i ran a similar project for a while in sydney. we had a large rehearsal space for bands that we were running illegally and not-for-profit to give back to our local arts scene. it was in a disused warehouse. me and a friend lived upstairs and we had a room downstairs for bands to rehearse, and another room for artists to hire out as studio space.

after a while we started running a movie night there. we built a big screen and mounted a projector in one of the rooms. we'd mostly show music documentaries and cult films and a handful of local underground cinema. we treated it as just a night where we'd show movies to some like minded friends. it was entry by donation gold coin donation. the amount was up to the patron. and it really became the night of the week we all looked forward to. we enjoyed being programmers and introducing everybody to the films we loved. if the turn out sucked, which it usually did, we didn't mind because it wasn't a business. so this thing can definitely work, it just depends how far you wanna take it and how legit you need it to be.
 
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I've lived in two different small towns that had theaters like you are describing. Both of them got set up as non-profits (which might get you a price break on ordering prints) and selling memberships to a "Friends of [X] Theater" group. Both were very successful (by that I mean they showed films regularly and for a smaller fee that what it costs to go to the multiplex). Both charged about $5 which is ridiculously cheap, and a lot of people will go to see films there just because it is cheaper.

I think you have a great idea and I wish you the best in getting it off the ground!
 
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Maybe mix it up with second-run bigger films (if even that's affordable), and also the more independent stuff?

Best of both worlds, really, and even if people aren't interested in "arty indy" films there'll be a lot of people willing to shell out a few bucks to see second-runs.
 
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