Netflix and other streaming services won’t kill the cinema industry and are in fact complementing rather than competing with the theatrical business.
Independent Cinemas Australia is inviting federal MPs and the wider community to visit local cinemas throughout next week in an attempt to raise awareness of the pandemic's impact on its members and secure greater financial support.
The response of Australian cinemas to the pandemic has inspired new research from the Queensland University of Technology about the connection between audiences and the big screen experience.
As long as people get back into the habit of going to the cinema and exhibitors can put trailers in front of them, the NSW independent sector should recover "quite well", according to Independent Cinema Australia president Scott Seddon.
Australia's independent exhibitors warn that more than 50 per cent face being forced to shut down permanently in the next six months unless they get urgent relief from the Federal Government.
The January 19 bushfire relief and recovery fundraiser, which saw distributors and exhibitors donate $2 from every ticket sold that day, raised $654,838.
The current Sydney lockdown and the tightening of restrictions across the country has dealt another blow to exhibitors.
Independent Cinemas Australia president Scott Seddon addresses the challenges facing cinemas in negotiating with landlords, cash-flow problems with JobKeeper and the need for a coordinated industry-wide approach when cinemas re-open.