Before the cinema industry was delicensed, anyone wishing to show a film that was less than 10 years old or more than 33 minutes long had to have a licence, and existing licence holders could oppose an application if they feared their own business would suffer. This led to a virtual monopoly by the two multinational chains, Kerridge Odeon and Amalgamated. (I say multinationals because Amalgamated is merely an outlet for Twentieth Century Fox products, and Kerridge Odeon is half owned by Rank Odeon, a subsidiary of Fox.)

These two chains between them virtually tie up the film distribution process in New Zealand, as each distributor sells its first-release films to its own preferred chain. This monopoly made it very difficult to set up independent theatres, and although independents did exist, they either struggled in competition with the chains, or were in part owned by one or other, of them.