Sir,
It comes as no surprise that there is little interest in building a large, single screen cinema in Tenby.
Any GCSE business studies student with a broken calculator could predict that the capital expenditure on such a site would be nigh-impossible to recoup in a reasonable timeframe, given the size of catchment area and likely occupancy rates over the course of a full year.
However, that same 16-year-old business studies student - had he done his research into the market - would have also found that there are other models for cinemas which have proven very successful elsewhere, and which would be viable in Tenby. A cinema comprising four, smaller screens, each seating 50-75 people, represents a way forward.
Many local 'community' cinemas have gone down this route in the face of competition from multiplex, stuff your face with overpriced popcorn, mass-market cinema chains.
These smaller cinemas are more nimble, able to cater to multiple audiences - showing old classics, kids movies, hollywood blockbusters and art-house movies in parallel. As such, their smaller auditoriums are full to bursting, whereas had they been restricted to one single screen (and thus one market segment) they would have found the cinema threequarters empty. These community cinemas often also serve food, or have a small bar, allowing movie-goers to make the visit to the cinema more of an event (and spend that little bit extra to keep the operating margins viable).
It is not that a cinema cannot work in Tenby. It is simply that outdated concepts of what a cinema should be, and rigid 'in the box' thinking seem to have hitherto prevailed.
David Blackwell,
The Old Vicarage,