By Parker McKenzie
Tom and Cynthia Schouten, the owners of Metro Cinema in Boronia, have a lifetime of association with the silver screen that they don’t want to end anytime soon.
The pair said since the Covid-19 pandemic, their business has been “smashed” and without a change in patronage, they aren’t sure if Metro Cinemas will still be a part of the Boronia community in six months.
Mr Schouten estimates that since the Covid-19 lockdowns in Melbourne, business at the cinema is down over 50 per cent.
“It’s a special little place, just walking into the foyer it feels homely,” Mr Schouten said.
“The two biggest things have been people getting into the habit of watching through streaming and the older audience still being concerned about their health.”
Other factors like delays in filming and production during the pandemic impacting what “product” is available to cinemas to screen and rising electricity costs are creating further challenges for the business.
Mr Schouten said he hopes the local community will answer a ‘call to action’ and support their business so a community asset isn’t lost forever.
“Every independent cinema is facing that at the moment, we’re all in the same boat,” Mr Schouten said.
“There’s a whole there’s some good product coming through over the next year, so we’re just going to get there.”
He asked the local community not to forget about going to the cinema because they need their support currently.
“It’s soul destroying, it rips me apart,” Me Schouten said.
“We get the locals here. We had Bob and Sylvia come to announce they were getting divorced, we’ve had people get engaged here.”
The couple met while working for competing cinema companies, have worked across the state at different theatres and have ran Metro Cinema as a family-owned business since 2005.
“We just love the place and we love cinema. We’ve been in the industry for ages,” Ms Schouten said.
“We just love movies, but it’s just seeing people come up, chatting to them to them even if they’ve had a bad day.”
In the past — before streaming services — films would often take 90 days to release on DVD or video and sometimes longer.
Mr Schouten said most films reach streaming services 40 or 45 days after release, giving people less incentive to rush to the cinema.
“The thing is, we just want people to come. We don’t want to be like a kid in Oliver saying more, please,” he said.
“I don’t want to be bankrupt and I’ll deal with it properly, but we don’t want to go out of owing money to people. “
“If we were to shut, I could hear what everyone would be saying,” Ms Schouten said.
“They’d all be saying, oh no we loved going there.”
Metro Cinemas Boronia is located at Dorset Square, Boronia.
