DECEMBER NEWSLETTER – Number 95

And with that the year has almost gone!

Thank you to 32 different Volunteers (including 5 Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme students) who’ve supported us through 22 films. Almost 270 Volunteer stints, something like 1,300 hours of Volunteer time – and in those hours they’ve served over 200 beers, 150 cocktails, 400 teas and coffees, 120 hot chocolates and 270 slices of cake. We can’t thank you enough for your time in helping Billericay Community Cinema continue to provide film based entertainment to our town. 

Thank you also to you our customers and friends. You purchased 1,048 tickets for this year’s films. We’ve had a great time seeing you, and we’ve loved seeing different friendships develop, particularly amongst customers of our Sunday Matinees. 

Next year we have an exciting set of films starting with Educating Rita and The Greatest Showman in January. You’ve already chosen our films through to April (plus Psycho which we’ll be showing at Halloween…. #FrightNight). The remaining films will be made up of a mix of those that nearly won in our audience vote, others that you’ve suggested since plus a few more which are under consideration including “Save the Cinema” (2022) which follows the story of Liz Evans from Carmarthen who campaigned to save the Lyric Cinema in 1993 and “A Bunch of Amateurs” (also 2022) which follows the attempts of one of the oldest amateur film making clubs to avoid closure as membership dwindles; perhaps we’ll buzz the tower with one of the Top Gun films or bounce a few bombs with Richard Todd in 1955’s “The Dam Busters”. Who knows? (Certainly not us yet!). 

We do strive to exceed expectations as a community group. However, Cinema For All (the umbrella organisation for community cinemas across the UK) have just released their annual survey results and the average ticket price across some 1,300 community cinemas is £5.50. 

With our tickets £5 for Thursdays and £4 for Sundays we are sadly “below average” …… and we’ll try to stay that way!!!

Finally, thank you to those of your who made a donation in exchange for one of the beautiful bottle lights after our Sunday Christmas show. We’ve sent a fabulous £110 to the Billericay Foodbank. 

Have a lovely Christmas and New Year break. We’re signing off to relax and recharge – and we’ll hopefully see you next year back at the Chantry Centre.