Kyabram movie-goers considering where to watch Hollywood blockbusters Oppenheimer and Barbie are being urged by Plaza Theatre committee chair Lisa Ratcliffe to wait until the movies hit the big screen of the historic Allan St venue.
She is hoping film fanatics will ignore the hype of the box office hits — at least for a while — and will wait for the movies to appear on the big screen of their home-town theatre.
As far as Oppenheimer goes, the wait will not be significant. It will appear at the Plaza on August 19, but Barbie will not be shown until early September.
“We are a 100 per cent community-run theatre and all seats are only $12,” Ms Ratcliffe said.
“We really do rely on people being patient, and with these two movies we would like to think people will consider waiting to watch them at the Plaza.”
Kyabram Plaza Theatre, because it does not show movies on a daily basis, is considered a ‘sub-run’ cinema, and is forced to wait until four weeks after the release date to show the latest movies.
While Kyabram people may be a little late to the party if they decide to watch the record-breaking films at the Plaza Theatre, they can rest assured — at least in the case of Barbie — it will be worth the wait.
Having accompanied my own two Barbie fanatics to a cinema last week and sat through the 113-minute story, I can thoroughly recommend it for all ages and genders.
After all, any movie featuring Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling and Will Ferrell, with the sharp-witted narration of Helen Mirren, is a must see.
After speaking with Ms Ratcliffe, she has been convinced to keep my powder dry on Oppenheimer until August 19 and watch it from the same seats I saw Return of the Jedi, James Bond’s Octopussy, John Travolta in Staying Alive and Christopher Reeve in Superman III 40 years ago (all four were released in 1983).
There was no hope of that happening with Barbie, courtesy of an eight-year-old member of my household (and her Barbie T-shirt-wearing mother) who just couldn’t wait any longer to see Barbie and booked us in for a 7.30pm session at another cinema on a Sunday night.
Barbie has already left all four of my 1983 favourites in ‘her’ wake, as far as ticket sales go, Return of the Jedi’s $250 million gross take dwarfed by the $560 million that the pink-themed film took around the world in its opening weekend.
Even the three-hour-epic that is Oppenheimer has passed the earnings of the third movie released in the nine-part Star Wars series.
Barbie’s opening weekend takings were the biggest for a movie directed by a woman — Greta Gerwig, the soon to turn 40-year-old who partnered her Australian lead to create the surprisingly “message-filled’’ feature film.
As you might expect, the theatre where I watched the story of the 64-year-old doll was dominated by a fanatical female presence, mostly dressed in pink.
Tulle skirts, love heart-shaped sunglasses and long blonde wigs were the go-to accessories for the movie buffs who watched a film that was filled with humour, not-so-subtle female empowerment messaging and a familiar face as the creator of Barbie — Ruth Handler, played by Rhea Pearlman of Cheers bartending fame.
Mrs Ratcliffe said she had been surprised by the success of Barbie, but she knew Oppenheimer would be a big one.
“I didn’t realise how big Barbie would be,” she said, encouraging people to experience Oppenheimer at the Plaza on Saturday, August 19 at 7.30pm (second showing on Tuesday, August 22) and wait for an announcement on the date of Barbie.
“That is where we are a little bit disadvantaged,” she said.
Ms Ratcliffe said she hoped the hype of Barbie would still be around when it arrived at the Plaza.
She said the committee, which will meet in August, had not yet considered staging any “fancy dress’’ event around its showing.
"We have our August meeting coming up and will be looking at some ideas for the school holidays,“ she said.
“A Barbie event is something we will consider, but the holidays don’t start until the end of September.”
Mrs Ratcliffe said she watched all her movies at the Plaza and would not be drawn to another venue for either of the new-release smash hits.
In the meantime, Harrison Ford returns as Indiana Jones in the Dial of Destiny and Tom Cruise is back again as Ethan Hunt in Mission Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One.
“We only have Mission Impossible for the one night (Saturday, August 12),” Mrs Ratcliffe said.
“We would normally screen it on the Tuesday as well, but we have St Augustine’s doing a rehearsal for their Aladdin Junior production.”