Academy Aims High

We asked John Hart to tell us what their aims in setting up the Academy theatres were. His reply: "Quality films." It is their intention to avoid the haggling over first release "commercial" films, and by working through their own distribution network, to provide their audiences with quality alternative films, especially foreign films.

Hart went on to explain, "Lang and I are taking no money out of the Academy theatres until we have got them into an absolutely very strong financial situation. We had to borrow, obviously, to open this place - we're going to be sure to put a real block of concrete under it by taking nothing out.

"We could have put a couple of projectors in here that would have been much the same as anywhere else in Wellington, we could have bought second hand seats and done them up, we could have done a lot of things which would have meant we could start taking profits right away.

"It's the fact that we bought this colosally expensive machine and everything that goes with it, as well as new seats; we've made this theatre a very expensive operation."

And it is this concern with quality, both of films and with the theatres themselves, that has resulted in Wellington's new Academy.