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2019 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

10. The Multiplex in Australia

Author : Stuart Hanson

Published in: Screening the World

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

Hanson considers the development of the multiplex in Australia, as an example of a mature multiplex market, second only to the USA—in which domestic exhibitors dominate, having benefitted from greatly increased cinema attendance. Australia makes a fascinating case study of the development and diffusion of the multiplex cinema, not least because companies like Hoyts, Village Roadshow, and Greater Union have utilised their established market dominance in Australia to export the multiplex and influence developments across the world, via aggressive and extensive expansion into Europe, the USA, and Asia-Pacific.

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previous chapter The Multiplex in Germany and France

next chapter The Multiplex in Japan, South Korea, and China

Jock Given, “The Multiplex Era,” in American–Australian Cinema: Transnational Connections, eds. Adrian Danks, Stephen Gaunson and Peter C. Kunze (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018).

Screen Australia, Cinema Industry Trends: Historical Overview of Admissions Since 1901. https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/fact-finders/cinema/industry-trends/historical-admissions (accessed 10 January, 2019).

Ibid.

Screen counts are taken from: Film Weekly: Motion Picture Directory 1950–51: 72–96; Film Weekly: Motion Picture Directory 1960–61: 40–60; and Film Weekly: Motion Picture Directory 1971: 20–27 (Sydney: Film Weekly PTY. Ltd).

Dodona, Cinemagoing Asia Pacific 2004 (Leicester: Dodona Research, 2004), 24; and Cinema Industry Research Australia & New Zealand 2018 (Leicester: Dodona Research, 2018), 3.

See Given, “The Multiplex Era.”

The multiplex was expanded to a 17-screen megaplex in 1999 but closed in 2014 and demolished. Hoyts opened a new 13-screen multiplex on the site in 2016.

Quoted in Andrew L. Urban, “Cracking the Nut,” Screen International 734 (9 December, 1989), 24.

Ibid., 24.

“Filmgoers Flock To Oz’ First Multiplex,” Variety 324, no. 10 (31 December, 1986), 23.

Blake Murdoch, “Hoyts, CIC Buddy Up To Spread Multiplexes Through The Suburbs,” Variety 324, no. 3 (13 August, 1986), 61.

Ibid.

The complex opened officially on 7 January 1977 with US film star Gregory Peck in attendance. For a consideration of the complex’s projection facilities and films shown, see Peter Fraser, Sydney in 70mm—Part Three The Multiplex: Hoyts Entertainment Centre, https://www.in70mm.com/news/2016/louden/index.htm (accessed 20 January, 2019).

Hoyts Theatres, Advertisement for Entertainments Centre, Variety 291, no. 1 (10 May, 1978), 49–52.

“6 Reasons Why Hoyts Australia is One of the Top Grossing Cinema Chains in the World!” Variety 282, no. 12 (5 May, 1976), 71.

“Hoyts Chain in Turnaround Via Lift from Sydney Septplex,” Variety 291, no. 1 (10 May, 1978), 53.

Queensland Government, Queensland Heritage Register: Village Twin Cinemas (20 January, 2016). https://apps.des.qld.gov.au/heritage-register/detail/?id=602101 (accessed 20 January, 2019).

It closed in 2000 and was subsequently demolished to make way for apartments.

“Aussie Screens,” Variety 323, no. 1 (30 April, 1986), 61.

“Village Roadshow Finds Middle Titles also Getting Results,” Variety 327, no. 1 (29 April, 1987), 58.

It was closed in October 2013 and demolished a year later to make way for a hotel.

“Greater Union Cinema Div. Back to High Profile Status,” Variety 330, no. 13 (20 April, 1988), 39.

In 1998, it was refurbished and re-opened with 16 screens. See Western Australia Cinemaweb. http://www.ammpt.asn.au/CinemaWEB/SITE/view.php?rec_id=0000000404 (accessed 28 January, 2019).

In 1989, Hoyts’ CEO Peter Ivany acknowledged that this target was “slightly optimistic” and was 6–12 months behind schedule. See Variety, “Hoyts Shoring Up Firm, Cuts Debt Before Next Round of Expansion,” 335, no. 1 (26 April, 1989), 124.

Dale Turnbull, “Australia Rebuilding; Theatres In Plazas Share Lobby Like In U.S.,” Variety 253, no. 8 (8 January, 1969), 129.

See Dale Turnbull, “Confidence: It Builds Theatres,” Variety, 257, no. 8 (7 January, 1970), 6.

Dodona, Cinemagoing Australasia 2006 (Leicester: Dodona Research, 2006), 6.

Ibid., 7.

Screen Australia, Cinema Industry Trends: Multiplex Sites by Exhibitor. https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/fact-finders/cinema/industry-trends/screens-and-theatres/multiplexes-by-exhibitor (accessed 19 January, 2019).

Both cinemas were subsequently reduced in size, with Castle Hill becoming ten screens in 1999 and Macquarie eight screens in 2000.

The complex was run by Greater Union but was built as part of the Multiplex Cinemas Partnership, with Village Roadshow and WBIT.

Sandy George, “Greater Union’s Mega Hit: 30-Screen Complex Woos Moviegoers in Adelaide Suburb of Marion,” Film Journal International 101, no. 3 (1 March, 1998), 80, 253.

Ibid., 80.

Quoted in Blake Murdoch, “A Greater Union: Leading Aussie Circuit Plans to Double Its Screen Count,” Film Journal International 100, no. 1 (1 February, 1997), 100.

Matthew Bailey, “Shopping for Entertainment: Malls and Multiplexes in Sydney, Australia,” Urban History 42, no. 2 (2014): 309–29.

Ibid., 312.

Screen Australia, Cinema Industry Trends: Screens by Type of Location, 1985–2017. https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/fact-finders/cinema/industry-trends/screens-and-theatres/type-of-location (accessed 19 January, 2019). ‘City’ refers to the central business districts (CBD) of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth; and ‘Suburban’ refers to the cinemas in non-CBD areas of those five cities.

Ibid.

Jock Given, Rosemary Curtis and Marion McCutcheon, Cinema in Australia: An Industry Profile (Melbourne: Swinburne Institute of Technology, 2013), 11. http://apo.org.au/system/files/34831/apo-nid34831-88216.pdf (accessed 24 January, 2019).

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, of Australia’s 24.6 million population in 2017, 65 per cent lived in Greater Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth. http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/3218.0Main%20Features12016-17?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=3218.0&issue=2016-17&num=&view (accessed 26 January, 2019).

Screen Australia, Cinema Industry Trends: Screens by Type of Location.

Karina Aveyard, Lure of the Big Screen: Cinema in Rural Australia and the United Kingdom (Bristol: Intellect, 2015), 22–3.

Screen Australia, Cinema Industry Trends: Screens by Type of Location.

See Given, Curtis and McCutcheon, Cinema in Australia, 21.

Screen Australia, Cinema Industry Trends: Multiplex Sites by Exhibitor.

Given, Curtis and McCutcheon, Cinema in Australia, 24.

See Michael Kitson, “The Rise of the Boutique Cinemas: New Trends in Cinema Exhibition,” Cinema Papers 107 (December, 1995): 14–17.

Screen Australia, Cinema Industry Trends: Multiplex Sites by Exhibitor.

Dodona, Cinemagoing Asia Pacific 2004, 49.

“Reading Enters Oz,” The Film Journal 99, no. 2 (1 February 1996), 94.

George Sandy, “Readings in Australia,” Film Journal International, 101, no. 4 (1 April, 1998), 45.

Don Groves, “Oz Exhibs Battle Rookie in Suburban Screen Skirmish,” Variety 365, no. 1 (4 November, 1996), 19.

Ibid.

Francesca Dinglasan, “Justice for Reading?,” BoxOffice 136, no. 1 (1 November, 2000), 150.

Ross Jones, Developments in the Cinema Distribution and Exhibition Industry: Report to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (March, 1998), 48. https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/The%20Cinema%20Industry.pdf (accessed 22 January, 2019).

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Film Distribution and Exhibition Code of Conduct, 13 August, 1998. https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/film-distribution-and-exhibition-code-of-conduct (accessed 26 January, 2019).

Francesca Dinglasan, “Reading And No Longer Waiting For First-Run Films,” BoxOffice 136, no. 12 (1 December, 2000), 50.

Susan Lambert, “The Upside From Down Under: A Look At Australia’s Booming Exhibition Industry,” BoxOffice 133, no. 8 (1 August, 1997), 28.

Dodona, Cinema Industry Research Australia and New Zealand 2018, 4.

Dodona, Cinemagoing Western Europe 2001 (Leicester: Dodona Research, 2001), 60.

Dodona, Cinema Industry Research Australia and New Zealand 2018, 4.

“Ten Giants: Hoyts,” BoxOffice 124, no. 12 (1 December, 1988), 26.

Patrick Frater, “China’s Wanda Buys Australia’s Hoyts Multiplex Chain,” Variety (2 June, 2015) https://variety.com/2015/film/asia/chinas-wanda-buys-australias-hoyts-1201510298/ (accessed 23 January, 2019).

Dodona, Cinema Industry Research Australia and New Zealand 2018, 3.

Title: The Multiplex in Australia
Author: Stuart Hanson
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Book: Screening the World
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-18994-5

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-030-18995-2

Copyright Year: 2019
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18995-2_10

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