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In a time where you can stream any movie or TV show directly into your lounge room, you might wonder why people would bother going to the cinemas. But it appears Brisbane is in the middle of a cinema boom.
In the past few months, a multi-million-dollar cinema complex has opened at Newmarket on the city's northside, as well as Dendy cinemas at Coorparoo in the city's east and the Elizabeth Picture Theatre in the CBD.
Surprisingly, there is more to come.
Initial approval has been granted for a seven-cinema development at Wynnum on Brisbane's bayside and an eight-screen cinema complex is to be constructed at the South City Square project at Woolloongabba.
With endless options available, why are people still choosing the cinemas for entertainment?
Independent Cinemas Australia president Scott Seddon said it was about the experience.
"It really comes down to the fact that people have a basic need to get out of their house," Mr Seddon said.
"They don't want to live their entire life stuck in a room watching all the content that they see on a mobile phone or a tablet.
"They want a chance to get into a cinemas where they're in a comfy seat, watching a bright picture on a big screen where the phone isn't ringing, notifications aren't coming up on the screen while they're trying to watch the movie, and people aren't asking what's for dinner — all those distractions."
Reading Entertainment managing director Wayne Smith said the Newmarket location was carefully selected to be a cinema site.
"Newmarket has all the ideal attributes we'd typically look for in a location," Mr Smith said.
"A high-profile position, arterial road way access, plenty of parking and a solid underlying city fringe population."
The Sourris brothers have been in cinema management for generations, and with so much development in the pipeline, they are doing what they can to stand out in the market.
The brothers refurbished the New Farm Cinemas in 2014, and last year turned the old Irish Club in the CBD into a boutique cinema, known as the Elizabeth Picture Theatre.
Now they have their eyes set on restoring the Red Hill Skate Arena into a five-screen movie theatre, but plan on keeping its unique exterior.
The arena has been neglected since being gutted by fire in 2002.
"They're old buildings — they've got history and I think it's important to retain that history," Stephen Sourris said.
"Particularly with Red Hill — it's got a lot of graffiti and surprisingly a lot of those graffiti artists are now famous and the graffiti that was done at Red Hill, some could classify as works of art.
"We definitely intend on retaining all the graffiti and all the elements of the building."
Mr Seddon said the cinema industry had survived every threat over the past century, and had evolved to stay relevant.
"We had television, then we had colour television, we had VHS, we had DVD, we had cable TV," he said.
"Each of these threats have come along, but the thing they have in common is they're all various forms of in-home entertainment.
"That chance to leave and go to another place is what cinemas has been offering for over 100 years and what it continues to offer."
Topics: film-movies, small-business, company-news, business-economics-and-finance, brisbane-4000, qld, newmarket-4051, red-hill-4059, australia
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