The Labia Theatre Turns 75: A Conversation with Ludi Kraus – Episode 4
Welcome to Talking Movies. A beloved Cape Town landmark has been a hub for arts and culture for 75 years now, and to celebrate its anniversary, I sat down with Ludi Kraus at the Labia Theatre to find out more about the cinema, its evolution, and some of the stories that make up its curious history.
So what are some of the biggest challenges facing independent cinemas like Labia Theatre?
That’s a good question. At the moment, touch wood, we don’t really have any major challenges. We obviously are dependent on finding the right films at the right time, we’re reliant on our equipment.
And I’ve noticed, you know, I don’t know if we’re going through a quiet recession, there has been a lot of bolt tightening everywhere. And do you think that’s played out in terms of ticket sales? Are there any efforts to try and get people to get more into that habit of film-going and seeing it as a regular entertainment thing?
Well, cinema has always been a regular entertainment, but over the years, I personally feel that it’s become too expensive. I do appreciate that you’re sitting in an office in Sandton, you’re not in the cinema, and you work up the costs of putting on a screening, that if you look at the cost of the lamp and the projector, which is exorbitant, and you add everything up that maybe you get to a R200 ticket. But having said that, why not sell two tickets at R100, rather than one ticket at R200. So why not bring in two people to buy two popcorns and having one person and selling one popcorn. So I think that price has become a huge issue.
From what I understand, and I don’t know if this is something that is meant to be public knowledge. But when films come into the country, the percentage of the ticket price tends to be quite high in its opening weeks and dissipates as the film’s duration continues. Meaning that, for instance, like an Avatar, which plays for two months and continues to sell tickets, eventually becomes more and more profitable for the theatre or exhibitor. I’m not too sure if that’s how it works here?
That is true. Where you get a film on a day and date basis, you are committed to showing it for at least two weeks. So whether it works or it doesn’t work, you’re bound for two weeks. The rental that you are being charged to exhibit the film does escalate. So it starts high and then it drops each week. So it becomes most probably more profitable for many cinemas, although most people do go in the first and second week, where the film’s at its most expensive for exhibitors.
It becomes more profitable for a cinema if they can show it over a longer period of time. For something like an Oppenheimer, which most probably started at 65% of the box office in the first week and then 60% thereafter. I can’t remember the exact terms, but eventually it came down to 30%.
So where you were showing the 10th, 11th or 12th week, you were keeping 70% and paying away 30%. Okay, that of course excludes the VAT you have to pay, but in the beginning it was very much the other way around.
I find that such a curious tension, because on the one hand you are wanting to let people know that films are screening at the theatre, and on the other hand you would prefer that the build-up was a little bit slower almost. You would prefer like a word-of-mouth thing to happen where it really starts escalating in terms of attention by the third week, rather than putting all your efforts into pushing that the film’s exhibiting in the first week. And to me it’s just this funny sort of changing hands situation.
I think that’s been the way it is ever since I remember. You know, maybe the distributor feels that they have to get the most out of the film during the best time available for the film. Most people do tend to go in the first week or two or three of the release of a film, and maybe if you are looking to make the biggest gain as a distributor, maybe that’s the best time to do it. I agree with the exhibition, sometimes it does take time.
I very often won’t just throw in a film six times a day, particularly if I’m unsure as to how it’s going to do. Particularly unsure at the Labia, because we are so peculiar and unique, that rather start a little bit slowly, test the market, see what times it works best, and then programme accordingly in the second week. But yeah, I suppose a lot of it’s tradition, you know, that’s the way it’s been and that’s the way it is.
Yeah.
Nobody really questions it.
What are your hopes for the future of the Labia Theatre?
Well, I hope that long may the Labia Theatre continue, you know. I would hate to see after 35 years of blood, sweat and tears for the Labia to go or close or become something else. As I said earlier, I feel it does play a vital part in keeping film alive and audiences coming to the cinema, and hopefully in educating audiences to film and to the cinema and to the habit of going to the cinema. And I’m hoping that it will continue forever.