Closure threatens Taupō 's identity
Starlight Cinema in Taupō closes on February 29 after more than 40 years, its building scheduled for demolition, with no firm relocation plan. Film reviewer Jen Shieff weighs in on why small-town cinemas are a necessity, not a nice-to-have.
Does it make business sense to have a cinema in a town of Taupō 's size, and does it matter if Starlight has gone forever?
The short answer to both questions is yes.
It makes business sense, providing the scale is right and the movies and facilities on offer meet the market. Without a cinema, Taupō will be a complete cultural desert.
Cinemas provide a focus for a community, while encouraging local cultural life.
A visit to a cinema not only provides entertainment, but is usually cheaper than subscribing to a streaming service and cinemas provide many benefits: they enhance learning opportunities through links with local schools and colleges, contribute to the vitality of town centres, to local economies through audience and visitor spend, to local suppliers’ businesses and last but not least, they provide jobs.
Rick Keehan from economic development agency Amplify Taupō is an avid cinema-goer and says it’s a shame that the cinema will be closing.
“The cinema has been a great entertainment option for Taupō and especially offers a great option to entertain during wet weather and school holidays.
“It will be a great loss for the Taupō District community as well as impact options for tourists while visiting our amazing region.
Smaller towns than Taupō have cinemas that have strong community support and provide a cultural heart.
Many cinema-goers enjoy going to a movie where they are surrounded by others who are laughing or crying at the same time as them, finding it’s reassuring in a reality check sort of way.
People might meet friends to share the movie-going experience, or engage in a chat with strangers afterwards, with wider, different discussions from the ones at home.
Some cinemas have not met the need the public has shown since the early days of the Rialto cinemas to combine good food and beverages with their cinema experience and to have a bit of luxury in the surroundings.
Not meeting that need is one reason those cinemas haven’t survived.
Streaming has undoubtedly had a negative impact on cinemas, but has definitely not killed them.
Since 2018, Netflix has been giving films a three-week limited release in cinemas before they become available on their streaming service.
Now, along with Warner Bros, Apple and Amazon Prime Video, to name a few, it occasionally does simultaneous releases, providing opportunities for both cinema and athome viewing.
There’s a vast digital Bermuda Triangle into which movies can disappear if they are only streamed. Cinemas are still their home.
Successful cinema owners all over the country have put great ideas into practice, providing good food and beverages, on-site or through another business next door and they’ve created a bit of old-time glitz and drama along with a level of comfort as good as, or better than home, often with reclining seats.
The Taupō District’s population is 41,500. Even tiny Taihape, with a population of 1800, has its Majestic Cinema and Dannevirke, population 5640, has its Regent, both screening movies most days of the week.
There’s a cinema on Waiheke Island (resident population 9420) which has a quirky old sofa type of cinema run by a charitable trust.
What is it about going to the cinema?
There’s something about sitting in pitch-darkness, with those collective laughs and gasps, with tension and emotions reigning supreme among a group of people all there for the same reason: wanting an escape from the everyday, which incidentally is the slogan of the Lighthouse Cinemas in Wellington.
For a town or city to have a cultural life of any kind, at a minimum it needs to be able to offer people the opportunity to go to a cinema.
If Taupō can no longer offer people that choice, it would no longer be serving its residents or its visitors as well as it could, which would be a shame.
Taupō is better than that and its people deserve better.