After 99 years the final curtain has come down on Dungog Cinema.
Built in 1912, the cinema is the oldest purpose built cinema still operating in Australia.
But all that changed on the weekend after the completion of AGOG, the two-day-long feast of foreign films, with proprietors Brett and Kim Hopson saying it just wasn’t viable to keep the cinema operating any longer.
Since buying the business off Ken Reeve in November 2007 the couple said they were having good patronage, but the last eight months has been a struggle.
And compounding the situation is a change from 35mm film to digital with a $70,000 cost to purchase a new projector.
“The big producers of film are making it really tough for us small operators to keep going,” Brett said.
“There just aren’t enough copies of 35mm films being made any more and we can’t afford to spend $70,000 on new digital equipment.
“And by the time we do get the film it is already out on DVD, people have gone to the bigger cinemas to watch it or downloaded it onto their computer.
“If we can’t get a film in the first four weeks it is released, then it’s not worth getting.
“And the distributors won’t work with us to help out.”
The cinema has a 1.3k digital projector but all the big film studios – Paramount, Sony, Disney and Fox – are only making 2k films.
The couple said they have enjoyed their time as the cinema operators but “financially it hasn’t been all that good for us”.
“We just can’t afford to lose any more money and we’ve done our best to keep it going,” Brett said.
“We’ve had the business for sale but it has come to the stage where we just have to get out.
“We were hoping to get Red Dog to show during PedalFest but we couldn’t.”
Kim Hopson said the business had been good for the kids and they helped in the canteen with son Luke being the projectionist.
“We learned how to make choc tops and the kids knew what flavour all our regulars liked,” she said.
“We tried a lot of different things over the past 12 months but it all went downhill since Avatar came out on 3D.
“It took us three months to get it and by that time nearly everyone who wanted to see it, already had.”
Any money the couple made from the cinema was put back into the business.
“We survived off our jobs and didn’t draw a wage as we tried to build it up,” Brett said.
“We aren’t upset that we’ve lost money, but feel we have let Dungog down.
“It’s a big part of what we have been doing for the last five years.
“Except for the last six to eight months every weekend has been spent here at the theatre.
“We have some very devoted patrons who would come to every movie we showed, but the world’s changing and if people can’t see it straight away, they will go elsewhere.
“And a lot of people now have Austar and home theatres and don’t go out to the cinema anymore.”
Brett and Kim are grateful to David Smith who did their website at no charge, Dungog Film Society and Robert Pollock for their ongoing support and the patrons who came week in and week out.
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