Petition to save cinema

This month, Event Cinemas announced the curtains at the King Street cinema would close permanently on December 5.

“It’s really been a people’s theatre,” Ms Francis-Coan said. 

“I have friends from high school who got into film making and were able to launch their films there. 

“I’ve been to lots of film launches here, where people introduce the films.”

Ms Francis-Coan said she had been seeing films at the Tower for more than 20 years, and currently attended at least once a fortnight. 

With an apartment construction boom underway in the city, she said the move to close was “ill-timed”. 

“With the light rail close to completion and these apartments … under construction, I can only see the market growing for a cinema here in this space," she said.

In addition to screening all the blockbusters, the cinema also hosts several film festivals, including the Japanese, Italian, French and Real Film festivals. It is also home to the Newcastle Film Society. 

“For the film festivals, the nature of this theatre is quite different. I don’t see people wanting to go to a film festival in a shopping centre,” Ms Francis-Coan said. 

On November 12, she launched an online petition to save the Tower Cinemas. By November 16, it had already had well over 3000 signatures. 

“If there is one thing the petition shows, there is community interest,” she said. “I have had people reaching out and wanting to help.

“A lot of people have commented on the petition.

“It has generated enough interest that it is now a community matter.” 

Ms Francis-Coan will soon present the petition to Event Cinemas in the hope they will extend a lifeline to the cinema. 

An Events Cinema spokesman told Fairfax Media the company had “no immediate plans for the site” and all Tower Cinemas’ staff would be offered ongoing employment at its cinemas at Kotara and Glendale.