British exhibitor Manero Cinemas boss talks expansion plans, sector challenges and Gail’s Bakery recipes | Articles

“Wherever there’s a Gail’s bakery or The White Company, I want to put a cinema there,” says Tony Mundin, managing director of expanding British cinema chain Manero Cinemas.

Cinema chain Manero Cinemas has just acquired its sixth location – the Northern Light cinema in Sale, Greater Manchester, in north-west England.

“Sale was very attractive,” says Mundin. “Sale hasn’t had a cinema for a very long time. It’s 50,000 people, no cinema. Sale, like all cities, has its challenges, but it’s tilted towards the affluent, and Greater Manchester is absolutely vibrant.”

Northern Light is taking over the building, which is currently managed by retailer WH Smith, as part of a revitalization of the area led by developers Altered/Space, who will own the cinema.

The three-screen cinema will show art-house, independent, foreign and classic films, as well as new releases. The cinema positions itself as an “affordable luxury” venue, with the average ticket price at Manero being £9.81.

Manero Cinemas is a family business. Mundin, who previously owned a packaging supply business for high-end retail stores, opened his first cinema in partnership with his wife in 2006. The cinemas are located across the Midlands and North of England, in Wilmslow, Heaton Moor, Melton Mowbray, Belper and Wirksworth.

“The bigger the parking lot, the bigger the problem for the cinema”

The UK exhibition sector has been struggling with rising operating costs, Covid-related disruptions, changing audience habits and supply issues following last year’s Hollywood strikes, with Picturehouse announcing closures and parent company Cineworld reportedly planning to liquidate up to a quarter of its UK cinema estate.

“It’s difficult, there’s no doubt about it,” Mundin admits. “But the main reason is that everyone is fighting for content. I can prove that the cinema model is not broken, because when we have the right content, we can’t get a ticket, it’s full. From inside to outside 2 has a chance to be one of the 10 greatest films of all time.

“But we usually have a series of films that we can show every week and we haven’t been able to do that. It’s a side effect of Covid, and the strikes last year left a gap. We’re in that hole now – but if you look at the second half of this year, it’s looking great.”

Outside of arthouse productions, Mundin found that films aimed at older audiences were the most successful, such as: Bad lowercase letters“We programmed it for 15 shows at one of our locations and in those 15 shows we lost five seats. It’s phenomenal. Give us The King’s Speech, three times a year, that kind of movie.”

“There’s another major problem,” he continued, “and that’s communicating with theaters and distributors about what’s playing. On the surface, the studios’ marketing budgets haven’t changed, but what they get for that marketing money is a lot less. TV advertising costs three times as much as it used to, and it’s the same across all media.”

However, “luxury” boutique offerings such as Everyman point to some positive green shoots for the UK exhibition. The chain took over former Tivoli cinemas in Bath and Cheltenham in late 2023, with further venues due to open in London’s Stratford Cross and Lichfield this winter. Manero Cinemas is also looking to expand, but will do so cautiously.

“We’re a small company, our overhead outside of our theaters is incredibly low,” Mundin said. “We don’t have a headquarters, we don’t have a corporate structure, it’s very much a family business. We’re moviegoers ourselves. We feel strongly that this business is about one thing and one thing only, and that’s the audience.”

He continues: “We are self-financed – we are trying to borrow money wherever we can to do this, so we will use all our reserves to build the Halls. Then we will need time to recover to do the next one. That gives us a very secure base. Given the ticket price and our overheads, we are not paying off a huge debt, which is why the likes of Cineworld have problems. We are quite a safe bet, but we are quite conservative in the way we approach things.”

“We’re not going to stop at number six – we’re going to keep going. What we’re looking for, what we think people want now, is smaller auditoriums, smaller seats, good service and a little more intimacy. Good drinks, good seats, nice people and that’s what we try to offer. The bigger the parking lot, the bigger the problem for the cinema.”

Mundin doesn’t rule out moving to a downtown location, but admits, “It’s a tougher sell. It’s not cheap, but it’s a reasonable rent that will allow us to make some money.”

The reason Gail’s Bakery is important is the demographic it represents. “You look at what else is in town, what retailers and restaurants are doing,” Mundin says.

He has concerns about the possible impact that the Labour government’s proposed initiatives could have on the exhibition sector, such as what the abolition of inheritance tax relief for family businesses could mean for the future of the Manero chain, and the government’s plans to end zero-hours contracts, outlined in the King’s Speech today.

“Most of our staff are employed on zero-hour contracts and that suits them just fine,” he explains, adding that a significant proportion of the cinema staff are students from schools and universities.

“Scapegoat, Planet of the Apes AND Quiet place (The first day) were bankers as far as I was concerned. They all fell short of expectations. If I had booked staff in advance for those three films, I would have had way too many. Looking at how they did, we are able to react,” said Mundin. “The flip side of that is that To the left side (2) He has gone completely crazy, so we are recruiting as quickly as possible.”