Potential buyers vie for cinema

Announcing the closure two weeks ago, the cinema’s board of trustees said: “We have been struggling with a massive decline in footfall alongside a rise in costs over the last few years.

"Unfortunately, numbers have declined even further during the last few months, and it is with great sadness that we have had to close the cinema as it had become insolvent.”

The cinema ceased trading on May 29. Earlier in the year its board had launched a ’use it or lose it’ appeal.

The joint provisional liquidators, Blair Milne and David Meldrum of accountancy firm Azets,  said: “We will market the property and assets for sale and try to find a buyer keen to continue operating a cinema on the site."

This week, the spokesperson updated The Oban Times, saying: “There has been an encouraging number of ‘expressions of interest’ for the assets of Oban Phoenix Cinema. 

"There have not been any formal bids, however. The cinema has only just been placed in provisional liquidation and remains closed. 

"In the meantime, the joint provisional liquidators are encouraging any other interested parties to contact Azets as soon as possible via email: martin.mcgrellis@azets.co.uk.”

The Oban Phoenix Cinema can trace its roots on the site back to the 1950s via different operators through to the Highland Cinema which closed in 2010.

In 2012, following extensive fund-raising and widespread celebrity and community support, the venue reopened as the Oban Phoenix Cinema, an independent community-owned cinema and registered charity offering a wide range of films, events and venue hire.

In light of the closure, on her visit to Oban on June 6, the Green MSP for the Highlands & Islands Ariane Burgess considered the challenges facing community-owned venues.

She said: "Community ownership can bring a new lease of life to valued assets like local cinemas but volunteers and community groups need much better support from central and local government to be able to thrive. Oban Phoenix Cinema has huge potential but the volunteers behind these projects need ongoing support, training and excellent business advice which is often hard to get."

In March, the UK Government Community Ownership Fund saved six "vital" community assets from closure, including Edinburgh Filmhouse, which opened in 1979, but became rundown over time and had to close in 2022. It received £1.5million and is due to reopen its doors again this year, with the newly refurbished venue aiming to screen the best new films from across the globe.

The then UK Government Minister for Scotland Donald Cameron, Lord Cameron of Lochiel and former Conservative Highlands and Islands MSP, said: "It was a pleasure to visit the Filmhouse, Edinburgh, and see first-hand just how much it meant for them to be awarded £1.54 million to help reopen this much cherished venue."

The post-pandemic financial climate has been harsh on the silver screens of Scotland. Multiple cinemas in rural areas and even in major urban centres have closed down, some being saved, and others not being so lucky.

After Covid-19 forced people to watch movies at home, many did not return to the cinema once lockdown was lifted. Only a year later, the rising cost of living hit household budgets, and cinemas’ energy bills. Revenues in the UK cinema industry rose by eight per cent in 2023, but inflation rates have risen as high as 11 per cent.

Beloved cinemas have closed in Ayr, Edinburgh, and Clydebank, and then been reopened by new owners. Perhaps the Phoenix could be in the same process.