Cinema Operations Manager

Stan James

Andrew Skinner has always been a movie buff. Now he’s in charge of 10 screens and even decides what style of films they will reflect.

Three months ago the 28-year-old Victorian arrived to become Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas state operations manager.

“The Palace company has cinemas all across Australia and is a powerful force in the arthouse and international film market,” Mr Skinner says.

“I’m responsible for the company’s whole business strategy – building works, marketing, IT, films and programming, you name it. There are others involved but the accountability is on my shoulders.”

It’s his first dalliance into arthouse cinema after working in a lot of different cinemas over the years.

“I’ve always been a movie buff,” he says. “Forrest Gump, Notting Hill, and the recent In Bruges really won me over.”

The movie business has been in his life since he left high school.

“I went to university for six years and finished my Master of Business last year,” he says.

“As a young fellow I was tearing tickets as part-time usher in Dandenong while I was studying psychology at university.”

But movies beat psychology and he did a management training course and “got a few lucky breaks”.

“Village Cinemas was expanding and looking for people to open different styles of cinema. I got some good opportunities and grabbed them by the horns,” he says.

Cut to several years later, as they say in the movies: “I sat next to the managing director of Palace at the football. He was the boss of Village when I started and asked how I was doing,” Mr Skinner says.

“I had been running a consulting company for a year and really missed the movies. We arranged to meet and he offered me the Palace job. It was luck.”

He admits there are not many jobs like his, although there are some companies expanding.

“In Australia we are saturated with screens everywhere. They’ve closed the less profitable ones in Adelaide but we’re adding screens. We believe in the Adelaide market,” he says.

The company has converted the former Imax into a modern, giant-screen cinema and is adding two, new digital cinemas.

“When I came here in June to have a look around it was amazing to see the city centre and the way it was set up with the shopping,” Mr Skinner says.

“It is very sparse, not one central place where everyone goes, as they do in Melbourne.”

Mr Skinner believes the Adelaide City Council could do more. “They need to be much more active in turning the city into a destination – for anything,” he says.

“Outside the city it’s easy to get around with very traditional multiplexes. Apart from The Trak there are not a lot of arthouse cinemas.”

“When I saw this place and its potential I was happy to come on board. The market was there and we have to deliver what the customer wants.

“The strategy was for Palace Nova to not be defined as specifically arthouse although that is an essential core of its audience.

“We wanted to be defined more as sophisticated cinema, where people can come to films that are quality, rather than specifically arthouse.

“We are never going to show Adam Sandler or Rob Schneider movies. We’re happy to show mass appeal movies such as Body Of Lies and WALL-E.

“We are trying target the more sophisticated movies, more than mainstream, with cinematic glory, I suppose,” he laughs. Films are selected by a panel including Skinner, two Melbourne members and a Palace representative.

“All the movies we have chosen since July, when I started, are films that have appeal in a quality way. We want people to trust us,” he says.

Mr Skinner says Palace Nova could expand. “Cinemas are based on rent deals and if we get a good rent deal and a location we’d certainly love to jump in where we can deliver something valuable to the customer.”

In the U.S. the move to digital cinemas is on. Studios and cinema owners have agreed on a $US700 million investment in digital and 3D conversions.

“Digital is a huge investment and it’s inevitable,” Mr Skinner says.