Palace Cinemas (Australia)

Palace Cinemas is the fifth largest major cinema chain in Australia, with various locations in CBD and inner suburban areas of most capital cities. Palace Cinemas currently comprises 24 cinemas with 180 screens and more than 550 staff. Its head office is based in the Melbourne suburb of South Yarra, close to its Cinema Como flagship.

In 2015, the chain saved The Astor Theatre which remains the southern hemisphere's oldest continuously running single screen theatre.^[1]

Palace Cinemas[]

The Palace Cinema chain operates in most states, except Tasmania and the Northern Territory. They exhibit films of either a mainstream, classic or an arthouse type, but the cinemas are usually focused on one film type or the other. The mainstream cinemas usually have several auditoriums that are fitted for projecting RealD 3D films, but unlike other major chains this is only on one or two dedicated screens. Initially Palace used Dolby 3D for several years before converting to the cheaper 3D format. Due to a recent decline in demand for the format, Palace now rarely shows films in 3D as of mid-2016.^{[citation needed]}

Palace operates several cinemas that originally opened as single-screen theatres, some of which have received heritage status. All, except for the heritage-protected Astor, have subsequently been renovated and internally converted to multiplex, sometimes with the original screen, remaining as the largest auditorium/cinema at each venue. The original facades, box office, candy-bar and foyers in these historic venues have been modernised and restored with care.^{[citation needed]}

In the Melbourne suburb of Brighton, Palace operates two cinemas within 10 minutes' drive of each other, making it one of the only operators in Australia to own two indoor cinemas in the same suburb. Dendy Brighton, on Church Street, is more centralised in Brighton's main shopping strip, and therefore shows commercial films. Brighton Bay, is in another smaller shopping strip on Bay Street, in North Brighton, and plays mostly arthouse films.^{[citation needed]}

In late 2016, Palace shifted their head office to a new location and used the office space from old building to significantly expand, restore and renovate the original Balwyn location into an 11-screen multiplex with three fully licensed bars. The renovation preserved the heritage-listed aspects of the building, and was the cinema's second restoration in under ten years.^{[citation needed]}

The Pentridge Cinema opened in 2020 in the shopping centre located inside the old prison in the northern Melbourne suburb of Coburg. It was the first Palace Cinema to open with a Dolby Atmos dedicated auditorium.^[2]

In New South Wales, Palace Cinemas operates four cinemas, with two more under construction.^[when?] They have two in Paddington, Sydney, one of which is the restored art-house Chauvel (Which mirrors the Astor in Melbourne programming) and the updated four screened Verona cinema. In the inner-west, Palace Cinemas also operates Norton Street cinema, which is its focus for its Italian film festival openings (due to the history of the Leichhardt). In 2017, Palace Cinemas opened its NSW flagship venue Palace Central, which has 10 normal screens and the first location of Palace Cinemas Palace Platinum, its first foray into premium content. Palace Cinemas is also constructing a cinema in Byron Bay and Double Bay, Sydney.^[when?]^{[citation needed]}

Palace does not own the cinemas in Perth outright, instead are owned and operated in partnership with Luna Cinemas. As such, the Perth cinemas are called "Luna Palace Cinemas" and have their own independent website, membership program and offers.^[3] Palace Cinema's regular nationwide membership and offers in other states, are therefore not necessarily valid at these cinemas. "Luna Palace" uniquely operates two seasonal outdoor cinemas, one in Leederville (opposite their traditional cinema) and one in Mosman Park.^{[citation needed]}

Kino Cinemas in Melbourne is also a partnership operation.^{[citation needed]}

Locations[]

Adelaide[]

Palace Nova Eastend, 12 screens (Cinema Place), host of the Adelaide Film Festival in 2020.^[4]^[5]
Palace Nova Prospect, 14 screens (Prospect Road)^[5]

Brisbane[]

Centro, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane

Barracks
James Street (formerly Centro)

Byron Bay[]

Byron Bay

Canberra[]

Palace Electric

Melbourne[]

Palace Westgarth, Melbourne

Palace Cinemas in Balwyn, Melbourne.

The Astor Theatre (Classic films mostly)
Balwyn
Brighton Bay
Dendy Brighton
Pentrige Cinema (opened 2020, located in the new shopping centre in old Pentrige Prison, First Palace cinema with Dolby Atmos auditorium)
Cinema Como
The Kino (partnership)
Westgarth

Perth[]

Cinemas wholly under the Palace banner:

Raine Square

Cinemas in partnership with Luna Cinemas.^[3] The outdoor cinemas run during the summer months only.

Luna Leederville, Perth

Luna Leederville
Luna on SX, Fremantle
Windsor Cinema, Nedlands
Luna Outdoor, Leederville
Camelot Outdoor, Mosman Park

Sydney[]

Palace Norton Street, Leichhardt, Sydney

Central ^[6]
Norton Street
Verona
The Chauvel Cinema