ABOUT & CONTACT

Welcome to Central Cinema, Alexandra

Our boutique cinema has forty comfortable stadium seats, state-of-the-art digital projection and the highest quality sound and vision.
 
We are community owned and operated, a not-for-profit incorporated society, managed and run by volunteers who manage all of the day-to-day cinema tasks. Thanks to their help we are delighted to be able to offer high quality and current films to people in Central Otago.
 
Our movies screen in the Otago Daily Times Theatre, which is a multipurpose facility for educational, cultural and cinematic experiences located in the pavilion at the rear of Alexandra’s museum, Central Stories Museum and Art Gallery.
 
Tickets are available on this website or by coming to the box office up to 30 minutes before any movie. No phone bookings, sorry. If you need to contact us send an email to info@centralcinema.co.nz or message us via Facebook.
 
 

Volunteer

Central Cinema is run by the community for the community. We are always on the look out for new volunteers to help with ticketing, screening (free movies!) and all the other jobs associated with running a cinema. Be involved as much or as little as you like, and in a way that fits in with your schedule. Full training is given. Contact volunteers@centralcinema.co.nz if you are interested in learning more. (PS You must be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 to volunteer for a role that involves interacting with our customers).
 
Our Patron is Sam Neill.

Find Us & Contact

Find us at 21 Centennial Avenue (behind the Museum), Alexandra 9320
 
Email info@centralcinema.co.nz
Facebook facebook.com/CentralCinemaAlexandra

Pricing

Members $10.00
Non-members $15.00
Children $10.00 (15 and under)
Adults accompanying children $10.00 (at school holiday matiness)
Students with ID $10.00
Groups - 15 and more $12.00
Groups - 25 and more $10.00
NT Live Events $20.00
Online booking fee $1.00

Sir Sam Neill, Patron

“Going to the Movies! That’s a different experience than watching the telly, or going online. We come together. We share the experience. We are a real audience. And a community without a cinema is the poorer for it. That is why I support Central Cinema. We need it; we need cinema; we are a community.”

~Sir Sam Neill, Patron, Central Cinema


Supporters

     

Our History

Central Cinema Inc. (CCI) was established as an Incorporated Society in 2006. The following year we started screening movies from The Orchard Garden (a restaurant on the outskirts of Alexandra) on a monthly basis. A year later, when we could see that people really did value and were supporting the cinema, we started screening three times weekly from a meeting room at Central Stories Museum and Art Gallery in the centre of Alexandra.
 
In 2007 we joined forces with Central Stories Museum and Art Gallery, and the Central Cultural Centre Trust (the group that then owned the Central Stories building) to develop the old and unused sports pavilion overlooking Pioneer Park into a multi-purpose community theatre which could be used for film, lectures, drama, music, poetry readings, student education, corporate functions and so forth. Extensive fundraising took place over the next few years culminating in the completion of a 40 seat boutique theatre and ancillary rooms in March 2013.
 
Support from our members, cinema-goers and many funding organisations meant we were able to purchase the latest state-of-the-art projection and sound equipment so that we can screen films in all formats – 2D / 3D DCP’s (the replacement for 35mm reels), e-cinema, art house movies, children’s features, documentaries, DVDs etc.