Home cinema reopens six months after closure due to coronavirus pandemic

Many cinemas have been struggling with current restrictions such as Cineworld announcing the temporary closure of all their cinemas earlier this month and Odeon reducing their opening hours to weekends only. 

Dave Moutrey, director of HOME, said: “The news from Cineworld and Odeon highlights just what a challenging time this is for cinemas, and our hearts go out to all their staff who have been affected. 

“At HOME we are fortunate that we do not rely on blockbusters to attract our core audience”

“However the knock-on effect of uncertainty in the industry means that other new release titles which we were planning to show may also be affected. 

“Since reopening, we’ve enjoyed seeing our audiences come back, and we’ve been lucky enough to see many of our socially-distanced screenings sell out, which demonstrates how much people have missed independent cinema.” 

As well as selling out socially-distanced seats at the cinema, they have also launched the Empty seat campaign where people can donate and buy tickets for the seats they are not allowed to use due to current social distancing. 

Dave added: “We’re currently holding over 700 seats off sale, each one with a potential income of up to £130 per week.”

“Our Empty Seats campaign is asking anyone who loves independent cinema and can afford to donate to do so, to help ensure that we are still here when all this is over.” 

Along, with the cinema reopening the gallery is also set to reopen on 24 October. Showcasing three illustration artists Nic Burton, Joy Yamusangi, and Mike S Redmund, and Faye Coral Johnson. 

HOME curator Bren O’Callaghan said: “From online distribution to frantic final editing and composition of forthcoming premieres, we’re fortunate in that we haven’t had to cancel any exhibitions by rescheduling and reshaping, although our opening show is an entirely new addition to the slate.”