By Cara Waters
At a time when movies can be streamed in the comfort of your own lounge, Mark Walker is getting ready to open a small independent cinema in Collingwood.
Eclipse Cinema, a 64-seat, single-screen affair, will open on Thursday in a Wellington Street warehouse that was once home to the Sherrin football factory.
Mark Walker at his new independent cinema in Collingwood. Credit: Justin McManus
“The City of Yarra being the most artsy and progressive local government area in the country, not having an indie or art house cinema has been something lacking for quite a while,” Walker says.
The aim is for Eclipse Cinema to stand out with niche programming. Walker plans to attract cinephiles with screenings of historical drama the Grand Tour, the Iranian-Canadian absurdist comedy Universal Language and the award-winning documentary about Jewish settler communities in the West Bank No Other Land.
Tickets will cost $24, and Walker says he’ll sell top-quality food and drink. A tapas menu will be available alongside homemade choc tops and popcorn. The wine list will include bottles of Pommery champagne.
“I’m hoping that the local community can drive me to make it viable for me to program films that might not be seen anywhere else, or films that are a little bit more avant-garde,” he says. “My goal is to be an art house cinema in the vein of Carlton Movie House or the Valhalla, back when those smaller single screens did capture that niche audience.”
Walker says single-screen cinemas became economically unviable but digital technologies have changed that, and people are ready to head out to see quality programming.
“There is definitely a market for niche cinema. I find that the streaming options are limited,” he says. “Often people don’t know where to look for more niche films, or they’re not available.”
Eclipse Cinema’s opening will buck recent trends in which new cinema openings are mainly by larger chains with multiple screens.
Natalie Miller and co-owner Barry Peak at FoMo Cinemas in Brunswick East. Credit: Chris Hopkins
Data from Screen Australia shows cinema attendances sank from a near record 91.3 million admissions and $1.26 billion in box office revenue nationally in 2016 to 55.4 million admissions and $951 million at the box office in 2024.
There are now 2244 screens across 456 cinemas, as opposed to 2121 screens across 498 theatres in 2016. The figures reflect the closure of independents and growth of multiplexes.
Eclipse Cinema will join a handful of independent cinemas in Melbourne, including the Thornbury Picture House and FoMo Cinemas, which opened last year in Brunswick East.
FoMo co-owner Natalie Miller says that despite the rise of streaming there is still demand for independent cinemas.
“There’s an audience out there, as witnessed by the recent Melbourne International Film Festival, where they’ve had thousands of people go through their doors,” she says. “There is a certain audience that probably don’t want to go to the big multiplexes and have that experience; they want a more intimate experience.”
Miller, who also operates the Nova cinema in Carlton, says Nova is back to where it was before COVID-19 lockdowns but FoMo is still a little slow because it is new and people are still discovering it.
“Overall, the cinema industry has bounced back, and a lot of it’s to do with product ... If we’ve got good films, audiences are definitely coming back.”
She says cinemas will survive streaming because people crave a communal experience.
“The cavemen used to sit in a cave with people sitting around them listening to stories. People have always wanted to be together with other people. When you laugh, it’s very hard to laugh alone.”
Watching a film in a cinema is a totally different experience to sitting at home, she says.
“I think cinema will always be with us.”
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