I've been going to to this cinema since 1977. I've attended many premieres there over the years. I started doing all-nighters there when the Scala closed. The landlords, Zedwell LSQ Ltd and parent company Criterion Capital, need to be publicly shamed.
1) The question remains why any need a movie theater they don't go to.
This has happened before. In the US in the early '60's, for example, there were over 17,000 theater structures in the country. By the late '60's, that number had shrunk to about half. People had stopped going to
2) movie palaces. Movie distribution had changed, as had theater exhibition economics.
Now, with streaming, things are changing once again. I can't speak to the Prince Charles specifically, but movie attendance is down everywhere. Something's got to give.
How well attended the cinema is is irrelevant here. The building owners want to sell up so they can build new commercial premises on the land. The cinema could be selling out every performance every day and generating £millions and it wouldn't impact this situation one iota.
Just signed, can't quite believe they'd want to close it.
I've seen so many films here and had great fun with colleagues on sing nights too.
It does sometimes feel that parts of London are being ripped away.
This is news I could have done without. ☹️ I'm surprised I haven't heard from them being a life member. It would be a devastating loss to London's film culture if it was forced to close. Going to my local Cineworld to watch The Brutalist today. It will be like the Marie Celeste. Still open, though...
Jesus fucking Christ- what do they think will happen when everything that makes London London is turned into an investment opportunity for irredeemable cunts?
I've had some of my favourite film experiences in that place. Seeing Akira on the big screen for the first time and entering a kind of religious trance. Watching One Cut of the Dead with @jasonhazeley.bsky.social and having to physically hide because I was laughing so much.
One Cut of the Dead is so good - but so few people have seen it. I keep trying to convince my closest friends to seek it out - although with streaming as it is - it's going to be harder to find. I don't think I stopped laughing through the entire second half of the movie - pay off is huge.
I'll be there next week for my birthday, to watch David Lynch films. It's such a beautiful decrepit thoughtful little place, that seems to shimmer with love for film.
What a great way to spend a birthday, I did this with Hitchcock movies on my 30th at the electric ballroom it was fabulous. Sad to hear another iconic building is fighting for survival, I'm currently fighting to keep buildings open closer to home but I will share the message .
Electric ballroom is the nightclub my bad, Electric Cinema I meant - I mean could you get a better aesthetic to watch Hitchcock movies with a cocktail in hand.
In the same way that
@musicvenuetrust.bsky.social have been campaigning - successfully it seems - for large arenas and stadia music venues to pay a levy to support grassroots music venues, we need a similar transfer of revenue from streaming giants to cinemas.
Pretty sure that was where I saw The Acid House. Not many big screens have got the cojones to show a bloke being pegged, @irvinewelsh.bsky.social wielding a yard broom and Gary McCormack dancing in Adidas break pants.
I saw Miami Connection at the Prince Charles, and it was one of the greatest cinema experiences of my life – you ever laugh so much the back of your skull aches? That. It was glorious
Comments
This has happened before. In the US in the early '60's, for example, there were over 17,000 theater structures in the country. By the late '60's, that number had shrunk to about half. People had stopped going to
Now, with streaming, things are changing once again. I can't speak to the Prince Charles specifically, but movie attendance is down everywhere. Something's got to give.
Theaters go because they can't generate the revenue to survive. People don't go to the movies as much. Behavior's changed
It's not the same thing as preserving architecture. The
Personally, I'd rather subsidize British artists directly than a movie theater no one goes to, but, of course, it's not my call.
No one’s willing to pay the freight necessary. Government would need to intervene, but then one’s up against all the alternative uses.
I've seen so many films here and had great fun with colleagues on sing nights too.
It does sometimes feel that parts of London are being ripped away.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/jan/28/prince-charles-cinema-threat-of-closure-london-cult-venue
FFS!
Fuck me sideways, what is it with you Poms who try and save a culture from the bottom up; whilst allowing the ‘leaders’ to roll in their billions.
Love
The Antipodes
Signed anyway, losing the PCC would be devastating.
ask old Prince Charlie to help out.
This news is sooooo fucked.
@musicvenuetrust.bsky.social have been campaigning - successfully it seems - for large arenas and stadia music venues to pay a levy to support grassroots music venues, we need a similar transfer of revenue from streaming giants to cinemas.
Screw the landlord.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpZu69OB2KM