Whangamata Cinema (Coromandel)
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Address:
708 Port Road Whangamata Contact Person: Ron Slater (to Oct 2021) Phone: +64 7 865 6566; Office 07 8657161 Website: www.cinemathames.co.nz |
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Details
Capacity: 180
Screen: Single, DCP. . No plans currently for 3D
Sound: 5 + 1 ultra stereo
Seating: Flip-up seats
Snackbar: Small snackbar. Numerous nearby cafes and bars.
Accessibility: Level from street, with three low steps to negotiate
Capacity: 180
Screen: Single, DCP. . No plans currently for 3D
Sound: 5 + 1 ultra stereo
Seating: Flip-up seats
Snackbar: Small snackbar. Numerous nearby cafes and bars.
Accessibility: Level from street, with three low steps to negotiate
Geoff's Review
Situated in the main shopping precinct (Port Road) of this retirement/summer holiday Coromandel town, the Whangamata Cinema can be easily found, with its faded pink facade and emphatic 'cinema' legend. Owned and operated in Whangamata for over 50 years by local identity Ron Slater, this cinema faces an uncertain future and in December 2019 it was still up for sale.
The Whangamata Cinema exemplifies the numerous problems encountered by other provincial cinemas: constraints of the single screen, the vagaries of film distribution in New Zealand, and the fickle younger audience.
In the meantime, it caters for the summer influx with a daily programme of mainstream films. Summer brings a temporary population increase of between 30,000-40,000 holiday-makers, including flocks of young teens, attracted to Whangamata's golden beach and river estuary.
There is also a sprinkling of art house titles (tending towards the middle-brow) for older film-goers, who comprise the year-round, local population. They also gather twice a month for the Whangamata Film Club. Nevertheless, there have been times when the cinema has closed in quiet winter months--but largely due to the lack of titles, rather than audience indifference.
Ron Slater represents an older generation of cinema-owners; men and women have dedicated their lives to bringing film to the less-populated parts of New Zealand, and a generation who were more interested in promoting film-going as a community activity than merely an opportunity to sell over-priced popcorn. An newspaper article from 2013 (Waikato Times, Jan 22) describes his long dedication to to the job,"Ron Slater lives at the beach but rarely sees the summer sun, the surf or the sands. Instead, he spends up to 18 hours a day in January shut in a darkened room entertaining tens of thousands of Whangamata holidaymakers. Ron is the owner, manager and projectionist of the Whangamata picture theatre and in January he screens as many as seven shows a day, a total of 243 screenings in 38 days ..."
October 2021 Update: Owner Ron Slater has retired from the Whangamata Cinema, with the last screening under his management, after 48 years, on October 27. There are new owners of the building but it is not yet clear whether the cinema will persist.
Jan 2022 Update: The Cinema sign remains on the building but it appears that Whangamata no longer has a cinema; in its place there is a bakery and a clothing store.