Palace Cinemas To Take Over As Custodians Of Melb's Astor Theatre

Historic Victorian venue The Astor Theatre has dodged the death knell towards which it seemed destined after Palace Cinemas stepped up to assume custodial care of the space in order to guarantee its future.

The Astor will still close for a short period of "essential maintenance and repairs", with reopening planned for June 2015 — a far more preferable alternative than the permanent closure that had, until recently, awaited it in May.

Plenty of the old Astor that punters know and love will remain, as it will continue operation as a single-screen, 1110-seat auditorium, with capabilities to screen movies on 35mm and 70mm film as well as 2K and 4K digital projection.

"Palace Cinemas are keenly aware of the importance in preserving the Astor experience and, to that end, we see the business operating very much as it does today: one cinema, the continuation of the brilliant programming, and maintaining the building in the art deco style in direct consultation with Heritage Victoria, Palace chief executive Benjamin Zeccola said in a statement.

Upon reopening, the Astor Theatre will be wasting no time in celebrating its extension of life with a gala event and all-new exciting calendar, with further announcements due next week.

"I am very grateful that we have found a solution to keeping The Astor Theatre operating indefinitely, after a long period of great uncertainty, and that Palace Cinemas are pledging to maintain The Astor Experience that so many loyal patrons hold so dearly," Astor proprietor George Florence said.

"We are sure there will be a great sigh of relief to this positive news and we look forward to a greater Astor Theatre."

As The Astor moves into its tenure under Palace's purview, Florence is commencing work on compiling an online photographic archive to chronicle the cinema's first 32 years of operation — if you have any pics from any shows, old (scannable) items, newspaper ads, grandparents' photos or the like, send them through to astorarchive@gmail.com. See the post below for more information.