Opening night for any “director” is equal parts excitement and nervousness, but Luke Warburton will be feeling just as relieved that his latest cinema project has finally debuted.
The young entrepreneur, who also owns Bribie Cinema, is looking forward to welcoming big-screen entertainment back to Caloundra.
Strand Cinema Caloundra will have three of the four cinemas operating from this Wednesday, November 24 – one more than initially expected – following the change of ownership and the subsequent renovation that began late last month.
The five-cinema complex – the major tenant of The Strand building on the corner of Bulcock Street and Knox Avenue – closed unexpectedly after July 22, due to “unforeseen circumstances”. In September, the cinemas’ Facebook post confirmed that the “temporary closure” would be permanent.
At the time, that meant no more affordable film fun in the town, where movies have graced screens since 1931 and been a big part of growing up in Caloundra and visitor experiences.
Cinemas have operated in The Strand since the complex opened in 1980, and under the previous operator Nick Struik since 1996.
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With the revamped Strand Cinema Caloundra, Luke previously told Sunshine Coast News he was committed to creating a high-quality movie experience, with great customer service, that was value for money and would see customers return.
The popular $10 one-price-ticket-for-all will remain – less than half the price of some general admission movie tickets for latest releases elsewhere.
The refurbishment work on the five-cinema, 500-capacity venue, costing “hundreds of thousands of dollars”, began on site on October 22.
While Luke’s contagious upbeat energy is as present today as when he first took on the project, the tiredness in his voice reveals how much time and effort has gone into the past four weeks of organisation and commitment to getting it right.
“It’s all systems go. We’re getting there. We’re on track,” he said as work continued around him.
“We’ll have Venom (Let There Be Carnage), No Time To Die and (Marvel Studios’) Eternals. We’re opening with some good films and then the week after that Dune starts and the week after that is the (school holidays).
“So, it’s non-stop.”
Ticket sales also had begun for various movie sessions. And the Sunshine Coast Film Festival will have the first Caloundra encore screening of I’m Your Man: a German film that is officially nominated in the foreign language category at the Oscars on Sunday, November 28, at 2pm.
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“The website is live and we’re selling tickets,” Luke enthused.
“We’ve sold tickets already for the first week, so we’re on track.
“I’m happy with one ticket sold.
“It just means that it’s been received. The message is out there that we’re back.
“I knew that this site would always work. It just needed some fresh blood to come in, see what they were doing and just improve on it, really.”
Luke said that since the Sunshine Coast News announcement of the cinemas re-opening, many patrons and local businesspeople had been in touch or reached out with their well wishes.
“We went from 0 likes on Facebook to close to 500,” he said.
“A lot of people are subscribing to our weekly emails for our website, too.
“It’s all happening.”
But like most big openings, Luke has so many last-minute items on his to-do list, and not everything has quite gone to plan.
“We lost a projector – that’s somewhere between Melbourne and Brisbane,” he said.
“We’ve got things scheduled, just in case that doesn’t arrive in time. But that’s OK. It should arrive in the next week or two.
“Everything else is on track.”
