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Cinema on brink of closure breaks ticket sales record

Light House, an independent cinema that has been fighting to stay afloat, notched its most profitable month of ticket sales in almost 30 years this month.

The Wolverhampton-based theatre saw a rise of more than 100 per cent when compared with the same month in 2018.

Light House chief executive Kelly Jones said the success is due to a number of high-quality, popular films throughout the month. She added, however, that the battle to save the company is “not over yet.”

Jones said, according to the Express and Star: “It’s fabulous. We came back from the Christmas shut down and went straight into long queues and high ticket sales.

“We have had such a good quality of films so it was sort of inevitable it was going to be busy. We’ve had Mary Poppins and we’ve got Bohemian Rhapsody coming back too. We’re really proud to be screening them. It’s created a phenomenal month. We’re really pleased.”

Last year, senior staff at the cinema made an urgent plea to locals and businesses for increased support after a council subsidy worth £73,000 was withdrawn. An appeal labelled #SaveLightHouse was launched in an effort to prevent the venue from closing down.

Jones added: “We’re still in quite a bleak position in terms of deficit but this has improved our position. Fingers crossed it keeps going.

“Of course, film ticket sales will never fill the gap, we need other income streams but we’ve got so much coming up. There’s a lot of high profile stuff happening over the coming months, such as Deaf Fest, a fantastic Ted X talk, and we’ll be making a big announcement imminently about an exhibition in August.

“We’re really happy with how things are going. It’s all really positive. But we would encourage the community to keep supporting us, and not forget we are here, so we can carry on opening.”

Image: CchrisS