Earlier this month, it was announced that the Oban Phoenix Cinema would be closing, with all staff made redundant. It was a familiar tale.
Bathgate Cinema is to turn into the building’s original purpose as a place of worship. The New Picture House cinema in St. Andrews was to be turned into a luxury sports bar at the hands of Tiger Woods and Justin Timberlake until opposition reversed track. Belmont Cinema in Aberdeen, Edinburgh Filmhouse, and Dundee Contemporary Arts cinema are fighting for the funds to continue screening. Their hopes lie in the generosity of the public to spare the support.
Scotland’s cinemas are dying out. But the problem doesn’t lie with us. Cinemas across the world are stuck in a broader trend of closing shop, from the average chain to the most independent and passion-driven arthouses.
It’s a sign of the economic times – luxuries like cinema trips are the first things to become scarcer, and cinemas can only compensate for this shift through ticket price rises and marked-up confectionary. It’s a cycle where the problem buries itself deeper.
We’re stuck in an infinite nostalgia loop… where is the culture of tomorrow?
In times of strife, our relationship with cinema and the arts becomes more convenient, more........