Uncertainty Remains over Future of Picturehouse Ealing

No update provided after December launch date missed

The new cinema has been 'coming soon' for a long time

Despite the promised launch of Picturehouse Ealing this December not occurring, there is still no information available about when the cinema complex is to open.

The eight-screen multiplex was due to be the centrepiece of Berkeley’s Filmworks development and the project’s web site still states categorically that the cinema is set to open, but uncertainty has grown since Cineworld, the owner of Picturehouse, filed for bankruptcy.

We have asked Picturehouse and Ealing Council for an update, but none of these organisations have yet been able to provide further information.

Picturehouse last made a public statement about the Ealing venture in August 2022 in which it apologised for earlier delays and said that the venue would be opening at the end of the year. Since then, the company’s social media accounts have been quiet on the issue and, although a web page exists for Picturehouse Ealing, no listings information is available.

There has been no substantive update on the position of Cineworld, which owns Picturehouse, since it filed for Chapter 11 in the US which gave it protection against its creditors, other than the company issuing a denial that it was in talks with AMC Entertainment. This raised the possibility of a merger between the two largest cinema chains in the world with AMC, which owns the ODEON group, being the bigger. ODEON launched a nine screen cinema at Park Royal last year on the site formerly occupied by Vue Cinemas with ample parking making it attractive to many Ealing residents.

Cineworld has said that it is looking for a buyer for the business in its entirety which would rule out a sale of Picturehouse as a separate operation even though analysts believe it is performing relatively well compared to the rest of the group.

The financial problems of the group may mean that distributors are requiring up front payment for titles and insisting on prompt payment of invoices contributing further to cashflow difficulties.

A person involved in the cinema industry locally told us, “There is a big question mark over the future of the multiplex concept globally, not just in Ealing. They are dependent on a steady stream of blockbusters to fill seats but the output of the industry has fallen and more content is going straight to streaming services. If Picturehouse had opened this December, as it had originally intended, it would have Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Avatar: The Way of Water as its main titles. These are solid earners but possibly not enough to sustain an eight screen venue.

“Looking forward to 2023, there is a string of Disney/Marvel spin off titles which will also be well-watched but there won’t be queues down the street to see them. It may be that the model is permanently broken and venues with a smaller number of screens are the only viable way of operating. Even more nimble venues face huge challenges in the form of price competition and rising costs, so I can see why there may be a reluctance to commit to the large investment an opening of Picturehouse in Ealing would represent. ”

A visualisation of what the Ealing cinema would look like. Picture: St. George's

A similar situation has arisen in Chester where a Picturehouse cinema was due to open in the new Northgate shopping centre. As in Ealing, there has been no word on the plans since August and the council says it is "monitoring the situation".

The centre of Ealing went without a cinema from 2008 until the launch last year of The Ealing Project. In addition to the ActOne cinema in Acton, which is planning to add a second screen, and the ODEON in Park Royal, the provision of places to see film locally has improved significantly.

Ground was broken on the Filmworks project in 2016 with the new cinema very much at the heart of the project and a pledge from the then leader of the council, Julian Bell, that it would be opening.

Subsequent announcements promised a launch in 2019, 2020 and the Summer of 2021 but the pandemic added to the delays. It had been originally hoped that the cinema would start operating last Spring as flats in the film-themed development were being marketed but this deadline was shifted until the end of the year and now, perhaps ominously, there is no date being promised at all.

A spokesperson from St George (Berkeley) said, “As an area steeped in rich cinematic history, the Filmworks cinema opening is a priority for us. We are working with Picturehouse to understand how the restructuring of the Cineworld global business might impact timings of its completion and hope to provide further information in due course.”

January 11, 2023