Oatmill struggles with restrictions

LOST OPPORTUNITY: Shane Fulwood thinks the cinema would have almost been operating at cost last Monday.

Elsie Adamo

A FLIP-FLOP in government Covid-19 restrictions this week resulted in the Oatmill Cinema Complex missing out on an estimated $8000 in revenue in one day.

Due to an increased limitation on capacity for cinemas across the state, the business was forced to turn people away from sessions on Monday when their permitted capacity was slashed from 75 per cent to 25 per cent.

With the change happening at the cinema’s busiest time of year, cinema manager Shane Fulwood said the drop in tickets available to sell would have seen them lose an estimated $8000 just on Monday.

“It was a nightmare,” Mr Fulwood said.

“We had problems with people travelling from out of town, people who had booked for half the family who did not have tickets for the other half and we had to turn them away.

“We were paying double time for staff, for a quarter of the revenue we would usually make.

“It was a day where you think we are doing it for our customers and not to make a buck.

“I do not think we would have necessarily been better off just closing, but it would have been awfully close.”

But better news came on Tuesday, as Mr Fulwood said SA Health contacted the cinema to alert them to a change to re-increase capacity for seated entertainment venues.

While it may not be the lifting of capacity restrictions which were originally planned, 75 per cent capacity should allow for most movie goers to find seats, for now.

“That will make it manageable for us,” he said.

“I would take 75 per cent any day of the week over 25 per cent which is difficult on patrons, and economically difficult.”

When asked if he was worried about future changes in restrictions, Mr Fulwood said it was hard to understand why decisions were being made.

“If I knew why the restrictions had been changed again today, I may be able to answer that, but I honestly do not know what the difference was between today [Tuesday] and yesterday [Monday],” he said.

“The last change we only found out at 7pm the day before and people had already bought tickets for the next day.

“Because it changes so quickly, we cannot guarantee what people are expecting.”

Mr Fulwood is encouraging people to have patience and to plan ahead to avoid disappointment.

“It pays for patrons, particularly if you are travelling, to either get your tickets online or ring us beforehand,” he said.

“Even just getting people through the door is a slower process now, people previously could rock up three or four minutes beforehand and get into a session.

“It is taking us longer to process people now due to the extra compliance.”