Facing difficult times, Ster Kinekor – South Africa’s premier cinema company − is set to close nine theatres and lay off 236 staff.
The movie theatre industry has been hit by a succession of crises in recent years. This includes the impact of the Covid pandemic, which kept audiences away, the suboptimum economic environment, and strikes in Hollywood.
Strikes in the movie production industry resulted in releases being delayed.
Load-shedding was hitting some venues that did not have backup generation capacity. Economically stressed consumers were also not able to go to the movies as often as they may have done in the past. Streaming services were also proving stiff competition for the cinema.
In January 2021, Ster Kinekor entered business rescue as a result of the Covid pandemic and the lockdowns associated with it. In November 2022, it was able to conclude that process following a capital injection from Blantyre Capital and Greenpoint Capital, asset managers in the UK and South Africa respectively.
However, straitened circumstances are to see closures of the following venues over the next six months: Bayside (Western Cape); Cedar Square, Maponya, Matlosana, Southgate, and Sterland (Gauteng); Boardwalk and Shelly Beach (KwaZulu-Natal, and Mimosa (Free State).
Another group of theatres may also be closed. These include Secunda, Wonderpark, Bedfordview, Cradlestone, Mooi River, N1 City, Rosebank Nouveau, and Rustenburg.
[Image: Myke Simon on Unsplash]