Graham Spurling, whose family own the Movies@ chain of cinemas, says he isn’t one to have regrets, yet in 2011 the lease for the cinema at the Square in Tallaght in Dublin was one that got away.
United Cinemas International (UCI), which had operated at the Square for 20 years, had shut its doors after the landlords did not renew the lease. Movies@ was outbid on the premises by Irish Multiplex Cinemas (IMC).
A decade on, Spurling gets to rectify that loss. After IMC exited the Square last year, citing Covid-19 and “significant rent” as the reasons, Spurling made his move. Movies@Tallaght will open before Christmas.
The cinema is undergoing a “multimillion-euro” refurbishment. The foyer and screens will be overhauled, and two VIP rooms are being installed with a mix of sofas, recliners and a bar.
Opening a cinema in a pandemic, less than 18 months after commentators were tolling the industry’s death knell, could be seen as a risky move. Yet Spurling is a firm believer that cinemas have a future.
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“It is a big venture for Movies@ and we are probably unique in Ireland at the moment, but I don’t think we are alone in planning new openings,” he said.
The Tallaght business brings the Movies@ chain to five. The group rents space at the Hammerson-owned Dundrum and Swords Pavilions shopping centres and owns the properties housing a seven-screen cinema in Gorey, Co Wexford, and a four-screen cinema in Dungarvan, Co Waterford.
Tallaght will be its biggest cinema with 13 screens, though Dundrum, which has 12 screens, should continue to be its biggest earner — it had pre-pandemic revenues in 2019 of just under €8 million.
The family entered the trade “by fluke” when Spurling’s father Osborne bought the old Ormonde cinema in Greystones with the intention of turning it into a hardware shop. “The man who previously owned the cinema said to my father, ‘Would you not think about putting a cinema upstairs?’ It all started in 1977 or 1978. I spent my late teens and early twenties selling tickets and cleaning up after people.”
In 2004, in an effort to win the Dundrum contract, the Spurlings joined forces with the O’Gorman family, who also owned an Ormonde cinema in Stillorgan, to set up Movies@. In 2018, the family bought the O’Gormans out after Andy O’Gorman, one of the group’s founding partners, decided to retire.
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The pandemic has taken its toll. The latest accounts for Movies@Dundrum, to August 31 last year, show that revenues fell by almost 40 per cent, from €7.9 million in 2019 to €4.8 million. The group had a loss before tax of €544,000. The Dundrum and Swords cinemas shed half of their staff, falling from just over 100 employees to about 50. The company availed of the government’s Covid-19 support schemes, which Spurling said helped it to retain as many staff as it could.
The accounts also show that the company worked with Hammerson, its landlord at Dundrum and Swords, to receive a 50 per cent reduction in its rent for nine months from April 2020. In normal times, it has paid an annual rent of €1.3 million on Dundrum and €750,000 at Swords.
With the big film studios postponing release dates in 2020, it wasn’t until the reopening in June this year that Movies@ started to find its feet again. The reduction in audience numbers due to 50 per cent capacity requirements was partially offset by more viewers at off-peak times. Concession sales, which usually account for about a quarter of revenues, have also been strong.
Staff numbers are now at about 75 per cent of pre-Covid payroll, but will grow further with the opening of the Tallaght cinema.
New releases such as the James Bond film No Time to Die and the sci-fi epic Dune have tempted large audiences back. “We’ve had the best October. We were up 145 per cent as an industry in Ireland on the same month in 2019. The big driver is Bond obviously, which has taken in more than €80 million at the UK and Irish box office,” Spurling said.
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He is hoping blockbusters such as The Eternals, Spider-Man: No Way Home and The Matrix Resurrections will keep audiences coming back over the Christmas period. “The Movies@ flag is flying slightly above half mast as we come out of this Covid hiatus, but I’m very positive about where we are sitting,” he said.
At Tallaght, the company has signed up to a 25-year lease with an annual rent of €750,000, according to the commercial property price register. Once that cinema is up and running, the business will turn its attention to revamping the Dundrum and Swords outlets in mid-2022.
Another possible project could be the renovation of the art deco Ormonde cinema in Greystones which is vacant but still owned by the Spurlings. “We will have to look carefully at the market in Greystones and whether there is a room for a cinema. We’ll see,” Spurling said.