Greece's open-air cinemas face struggle to survive switch to digital films

25/8/2014

By Helena Smith

Owner of Cine Thision, regularly voted best outdoor cinema in the world, fears latest transition

They have survived the advent of television, a devastating economic crisis and a construction boom which has transformed the cities. But now Greece's open-air cinemas – the quintessential delight of the country's long summers – are grappling with their most dangerous challenge so far: the digital age.

Even in their worst hour – the arrival in the 1980s of home video – the cinemas somehow pulled in the crowds. Under the moonlight, buttery popcorn in hand, audiences still turned out to watch blockbusters and classics.

But the global switch to digital projection poses a new challenge. For operators like Thomas Maniakis, whose family-run Cine Thision beneath the Acropolis in Athens holds the distinction of being repeatedly voted the best outdoor cinema in the world, it is one change too many. "Digital technology simply doesn't work outdoors under the moon and stars," said the 75-year-old projectionist in a booth stacked with spools of film. "The quality is dreadful."

Maniakis first began working as an assistant to a film technician at the age of 17. For many he is the doyen of operators in a country where summer cinemas were once the jewel in the crown of every neighbourhood square.

He enthuses Cine Thision was the first outdoor movie theatre to embrace the web, the first to introduce padded seating and tables, the first to lay on the time-weathered mix of blockbusters and all-time classics.

"We have done everything to ensure comfort and keep abreast with technology," he said. "But this latest change is keeping me awake at night. The pressure from studios and distributors is great because making digital movies is so much cheaper. My fear is that it is going to drive us out of business."

Precisely because they were once so many – in the 1970s there were more than 700 summer cinemas in Greece, five times more than today – outdoor cinema owners are represented by a union that has done its utmost to keep the sector afloat. Unable to appeal to a government dealing with the country's dire economic plight, they recently pleaded with distributors for help.

With new digital projectors costing €50,000, the switchover for most operatives is prohibitive. "The switch to digital cinema projection is hugely expensive," said Alkis Gounaris, who heads the Union of Summer Cinema Exhibitors.

"Unlike winter cinemas, open-air movie theatres work just three months a year and with the price of tickets not more than €8 they barely make a profit. Most would be working five to six years to make that sort of money," he said, adding that the vast majority of cinemas this summer had seen a 20% fall in attendances because of bad weather and the World Cup.

"In other countries distributors give (financial) incentives to cinema owners because they pay next to nothing for digital movies and want to project them. In Greece that is not the case. Our own appeals have not even got a response."

A third of the 140 open-air cinemas in Greece that had undergone the conversion had encountered problems, Gournaris said. "Those who have made the investment have faced terrific economic difficulties," he said. "There is a real danger that they will have to close."

This month the operators were extended an unexpected helping hand from Hollywood director Martin Scorsese, a passionate campaigner for celluloid. "Film, even now, offers a richer palette than HD. And we have to remember that film is still the best and only time-proven way to preserve movies," he said in a statement after Kodak agreed with major Hollywood studios to continue its production of film stock. "We have no assurance that digital informaton (sic) will last, but we know that film will, if properly stored and cared for."

In his booth beneath the illuminated temples atop the Acropolis, Maniakis calls Scorsese's intervention a potential life saviour. "Our only hope of surviving this change will ultimately come from directors themselves," he said. "What Scorsese has done is not just positive, it could save those like me who are going to resist digital."

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