A community cinema is the latest venture to help bring the buzz back to a Valley town.
Community group Bacup Now, in partnership with the town’s Royal Court Theatre, will launch regular screenings from next month, starting with Toy Story 4.
The aim of the project is to enable Valley families to benefit from extremely cheap seat prices, from no more than £2, for classic and recently released movies. Public votes on the cinema’s Facebook page will decide what is shown.
1980s classics Labyrinth, starring David Bowie, and Santa Claus the Movie have already been confirmed for cinema dates in November and December, at just a pound a ticket.
Alan Boon, of Bacup Now, says they want to offer residents the chance to get the big screen experience without having to travel outside the borough and spend a small fortune.
Alan said: “We’ve been without a cinema for a very long time. Bacup Now has got together with the Royal Court Theatre and after quite a long discussion - months in fact - we thought we would try and set up a cinema inside the theatre.
“The theatre have bought a new screen for us - it fills the full curtain.”
He said they have already sold more than two-thirds of tickets for this summer’s smash hit Toy Story 4, and they are hoping to get more seats.
He added: “We intend to put on a minimum of one film a month - usually on a Sunday, although the Christmas film Santa Claus the Movie is on a Friday.
“We have set the admission price as low as we can. We wanted to create a cinema where the kids that cannot go to Bury or Burnley without spending £20 each, can come.
“Sometimes they’re going to be seeing films before they come out on DVD. They can sit down for a couple of hours, nice and safe and watch a film for a pound.
“There’s nothing like the big screen experience. I’m 67 and it goes back to the cinemas that I remember. We want to try and create that sort of atmosphere again. There will be confectionery there and we are going to try and do deals. We are hoping kids will come down with, say, a fiver. It builds something up in the community and a sense of beloinging and without feeling like a second class citizen.”
Alan said the project has been made possible by grants and donations from Rossendale council and Bacup Now.
He added: “Leigh Brown and Sadie Thompson from the theatre have been absolutely superb and Judith Schofield from Bacup Now also.
“All we want to do is make enough money to put on the next film.
“You don’t even have to come.
“ Just ‘like’ the page and comment if you want to suggest a film then we will run polls. If we were to start getting full houses we would have to look at seriously considering how we expand.”
To get involved, suggest films or buy tickets for Toy Story 4 on Sunday, October 6, Labyrinth, on Sunday, November 3 or Santa Claus the Movie, on Friday, December 20, visit the Bacup Cinema Facebook page.
