LOCAL AND UNIQUE – INDIE CINEMA REVIVING MARKET TOWNS

Melton Mowbray is a quintessential historic market town with a population of only 27,000. Famed for its pork pies and cheese festival, it’s retail could be kindly described as adequate at ZA ￡40-50 psf prime and boasting only Boots and WH Smith together with the standard out of town fare of Tesco, Morrisons and Sainsbury.

Yet standing on the corner of King Street, is the art deco Regal cinema; an outstanding example of a small local cinema operated, since it’s construction in 1934, as an independent cinema. After declining audiences, it was converted to bingo in 1979 before being re-opened as a 216 seat single screen cinema by the remarkable John Merryweather in 2002. He operated it as a much loved local cinema for a decade before the business was put into liquidation after his death. The following year, the Mundin family decided to lease the building and reopened – to great local acclaim - the restored cinema in 2013 with 110 seats including 16 luxury seats, 5 sofa's for two and 84 standard seats. It now operates as a cherished local offer with a turnover of about ￡0.5 M pa and frequent queues.

“Beautiful boutique independent cinema where care is taken to ensure that you always have a unique movie experience. A sharp contrast to the soulless chain cinema experience. Plus they have an excellent sweet, cake and drinks bar. Only here do they allow you to take in a bottle of wine in an ice bucket to drink through the film!”

The Mundin family first restored and operated the 99 seat Ritz Belper in 2006, then Melton Mowbray, followed by the 170 seat Savoy in Heaton Moor (2015) and now, it is rumoured, the Rex in Wilmslow. Led by John and Amanda, their son Jacob and wife Bryony operate Melton Mowbray and son Louis and fiancé Sophie operate Heaton Moor.

For them, “a single screen in a busy market town is perfect for us”; the borough has a 67,000 population and the nearest multiplexes in Grantham, Loughborough, Leicester and Nottingham are roughly 15- 18 miles away and public transport in the evenings is particularly poor. With the one screen, the Regal represents a screen density of 0.67 screens per 100,000 residents as opposed to the UK average at 6.0 screens per 100,000 people.

The Regal Melton, as an indie offer, shows ‘off date’ films (about 4 weeks after release) resulting in much cheaper film distributor percentage payments and a more varied programme as agreed with the community than would have been permitted by distributors under the normal ‘day and date release’ arrangement.

And the switch from 35mm to modern digital has lowered the capital costs enabling small local cinemas to now look at costs of about ￡90/100,000 for seats, sound and projection.

The UK independent cinema market is flourishing with the three ‘boutique chains’, Picturehouse, Everyman and Curzon, engaging in a flurry of openings in smaller places, frequently against the ‘conveyor belt’ multiplex competition. And the indie operators are quietly expanding. Charles Morris, for example, operates 6 independent offers in Yorkshire & Cumbria under Northern Morris Associated Cinemas. In London, there are a number of great indie offers including those at Dalston, Finchley, Kensal Green, Whitechapel and Crouch End.

And Melton Mowbray town centre is vibrant with a widely praised entertainment offer.

“This cinema is brilliant. It is decorated in art deco style. You walk up the stairs and into a reception area. Here you can book tickets, buy drinks, sweets, home made cakes etc. There are 3 types of seating; the 'posh seats' with loads of room, very comfortable and a drinks holder. Sofas for 2 people with a little table to put your drinks and then the 'normal' seats which have plenty of leg room. Once in the cinema you are shown to your seats. All the staff are very friendly while still being professional. We always feel that our trip to this cinema is more than just going to see the film”.