If you want to see an Australian film in a cinema, your best bet is usually an arthouse or independent cinema. The Palace chain, Cinema Nova in Melbourne, the Hayden Orpheum and Dendy cinemas in Sydney, Luna in Perth, and similar venues around the country are where local films find their most receptive audiences.

These cinemas are also under significant financial pressure, and their future is far from guaranteed. That should concern anyone who cares about Australian film culture.

The Pressures

Arthouse cinemas face the same challenges as all cinemas, competition from streaming, declining regular attendance, and rising operating costs, but they feel these pressures more acutely.

Their programming model depends on a loyal audience that values the cinema experience enough to leave the house when they could watch something at home. That audience exists, but it’s aging and not being replenished quickly enough by younger audiences.

Operating costs have risen significantly. Rent in inner-city locations where arthouse cinemas typically operate has increased. Energy costs are high. The cost of maintaining projection equipment, building amenities, and meeting accessibility requirements all add up.

And the supply of content that’s suitable for arthouse programming is volatile. In some years, there’s a strong pipeline of independent and art-house releases. In others, there are gaps where the programming struggles to fill screens with compelling new content.

What Makes Arthouse Cinemas Important

Beyond being venues for Australian films, arthouse cinemas perform cultural functions that multiplexes don’t. They curate their programming, creating a viewing experience that’s informed by taste and knowledge rather than purely commercial considerations.

They host events: Q&As with filmmakers, themed retrospectives, panel discussions, and community screenings. They build community around cinema in a way that a multiplex with twenty screens and a popcorn factory cannot.

For Australian filmmakers, arthouse cinemas provide the venue where their work is most likely to be seen by an engaged, attentive audience. A screening at Cinema Nova or Palace Central is qualitatively different from a screening at a suburban multiplex, and that quality of audience attention matters.

What’s Working

The arthouse cinemas that are thriving have found ways to diversify their revenue and deepen their relationship with their audience.

Food and beverage has become a significant revenue stream. Licensed bars, quality food offerings, and event catering have transformed many arthouse cinemas from pure screening venues into social destinations. Cinema Nova’s bar, Palace’s dining cinema format, and similar offerings generate revenue that subsidises the programming.

Membership and subscription models are working well. Regular audiences who commit to a monthly fee in exchange for discounted tickets and member benefits provide a predictable revenue base that helps with financial planning.

Event programming, including live music, comedy, special screenings, and private hires, brings in audiences and revenue outside the regular screening schedule. The venue itself, often architecturally interesting and centrally located, has value beyond just showing films.

Community engagement, particularly partnerships with local schools, community organisations, and cultural groups, broadens the audience and creates goodwill.

What Australian Film Culture Loses Without Them

If arthouse cinemas decline significantly, the impact on Australian film culture would be serious. The venues for new Australian films would shrink further. The events and community activities that build film culture would disappear. The spaces where filmmakers connect with audiences would be gone.

Multiplexes would not fill the gap. Their programming is driven by commercial metrics that don’t favour Australian independent cinema. Streaming platforms can distribute Australian films, but they can’t replicate the communal experience of watching a film in a room designed for the purpose.

What Would Help

Government support for independent cinemas, whether through rates relief, energy subsidies, or direct operational funding, would help address the cost pressures. Some state and local governments already provide this, but the support is inconsistent.

Film funding bodies could do more to connect their production investments with exhibition outcomes. If Screen Australia and the state agencies supported theatrical campaigns for funded films more robustly, it would benefit both the films and the cinemas that screen them.

The industry could advocate for policy measures that encourage cinema attendance, such as cultural tax deductions for cinema tickets or subsidised ticket programs for students and seniors.

And audiences can help by showing up. Every ticket purchased at an arthouse cinema is a vote for the continued existence of a cultural space that cannot be replaced once it’s gone.

The Resilient Ones

Despite the pressures, several Australian arthouse cinemas are not just surviving but thriving. They’ve adapted to the changing landscape, diversified their businesses, and deepened their connection with their communities. They’re proof that the arthouse cinema model can work in 2026, but it requires creativity, business acumen, and genuine love for the medium.

Support your local arthouse cinema. See a film there this weekend. Bring a friend. Buy a drink. It matters more than you might think.