General News
4 December, 2024
Eight weeks until closure: Mount Isa Cinema set to shut doors
The city's historic movie theatre will close at the end of January unless a last-minute sale can be brokered.
The doors of Mount Isa’s only cinema will close permanently at the end of January as the long-time owners prepare to retire.
Graeme Saunders, who bought the then Star Theatre in 1998, said he had been unable to find a buyer for the historic business and will shut the doors for good on Wednesday, January 29.
“If I had my way we wouldn’t close because it’s still a good business, but we’re all worn out,” Mr Saunders told North West Weekly.
“It’s been on the market for more than a year and we haven’t been able to sell it.”
Mr Saunders, who has operated the now-named Cinema Mount Isa with his wife Lenore and daughter Jodi for a quarter of a decade, said he was hoping for a white knight to emerge and buy the business, but conceded that it would likely be closed in eight weeks’ time.
While the movie business has changed over the years, putting more strain on independent cinemas around the country, Mr Saunders said Cinema Mount Isa was still drawing crowds.
“It would be a great business for a younger couple,” he said.
“I’m in my 70s and have just gone through treatment for prostate cancer ... if I was 10 years younger I probably wouldn’t sell.
“We had a buyer lined up last year and, just as we were about to do the deal, Glencore announced it was cutting 1200 jobs.”
Mr Saunders said other parties had shown interest but the big banks were reluctant to finance business loans in Mount Isa.
When the Saunders family took over the cinema at the beginning of 1998, things were much different.
For starters, there was just one theatre – which seated 570 people – and you couldn’t watch the latest releases at the same time the big cinemas were showing them.
“We’ve made a lot of changes over the years,” Mr Saunders said.
“When I first took over we had a company that ordered movies for us but they were just no good. I ended up working out how to do it myself and we eventually negotiated to get same-day releases, which meant that the big movies were being shown in Mount Isa on the same day they were coming out in Brisbane and Townsville.
“Did you know that when we first took over they didn’t even make the popcorn in Mount Isa?
“They’d make it in big batches in Townsville and send it to Mount Isa in massive bags and the cinema would just re-heat it.
“We purchased a popcorn maker and put a lot of money into the business.”
At the turn of the century, Cinema Mount Isa would undergo its biggest transformation as the Saunders’ renovated the building so it would have three different theatres.
“It took about a year to do but we converted it into a triple with three screens – 300 seats in number one and 130 seats in the back two (theatres),” Mr Saunders said.
The long-time Mount Isa City councillor said he purchased the business after quitting Mount Isa Mines.
“When we had that dispute in 1995, I thought, I haven’t got a future here, so I’ve got to get out of here,” Mr Saunders said.
“Mick Murray used to be the secretary of the race club and he was working for Thinee’s Real Estate, John Thinee, in those days. He rang me up and said there was a good business for sale.
“I hadn’t been to the movies in 20 years but we had lunch and I asked him to get me the figures and when I saw them I thought, ‘yeah, we could do something here’.”
Graeme and Lenore were already owners of a busy newsagency, so it wasn’t a major step for the family to buy the cinema.
However, after putting in an offer in 1997, Mr Saunders said he heard nothing back until January the following year when he was in Tamworth on council business.
“We were there to see how they put up Tent City for the Country Music Festival,” he recalled.
“We had flown to Brisbane and had hired a car and were on our way back when I got this call asking if my offer was still on the table. So I told them I was on my way back and to draw up the paperwork.
“I hadn’t actually looked at the place properly – I’d only seen the books.”
After poor ticket sales in their first week as owners, Mr Saunders said he gambled by bringing back the hit 1997 film Titanic.
“It had already been shown in Mount Isa for a limited time but there was a lot more hype and the city cinemas were still showing because it was so popular ... I remember the first week it screened we had people lining up out onto the street to see it,” he said.
While the COVID pandemic nearly killed the business as it shut for almost half of 2020, Mr Saunders said he would look back on his time with fond memories.
“You could write a book on how COVID nearly killed the cinema industry but we somehow got through it,” he said.
“It’s been a great business to us and paid us a good wage over the years.
“We’ve had so many good kids come through this place and we always get compliments from the community about the quality of our young workers.
“We’ve had entire families work in this place, starting with older brothers and sisters and working down to the youngest.
“Ideally, the cinema doesn’t close at the end of January but we can’t keep running it because we’re worn out.”