Australia's historic cinemas defy the streaming craze

MELBOURNE -- The marvel of cinema is an ongoing story of evolution, and in Australia reflects vestiges of an Anglophilic past. Over the last century it has transitioned from film to digital, and from black and white to color. Now, streaming has become the new normal, with 7.8 million Australian households -- representing nearly three-quarters of the population -- subscribing to at least one video-on-demand service, according to Kantar Worldpanel, a U.K.-based market data provider.

But the immersive experience of viewing a movie at the cinema has not entirely lost its allure. In the year to March 2023, more than 11.6 million Australians aged 14 or over attended a cinema, according to Roy Morgan, an Australian business research company. Most are in urban areas, but many regional picture houses have also survived -- some for more than a century.