The Prince Charles Cinema will 'fight like hell' to stay open, owner says

Prince Charles Cinema owner Ben Freedman tells Yahoo UK they will "fight like hell" to keep the venue open. The beloved independent cinema in London's Leicester Square faces an uncertain future as the cinema's landlords — Zedwell LSQ Ltd — wants to raise the rent and introduce a break clause in their new contract that would allow them to demand the premises is vacated within six months.

"It's very difficult, but I think you would hope that what we're doing can exist in other places. I think the location in Leicester Square is a key part of who we are," Freedman says when reflecting on how the cinema's team is looking at the future.

"Our backup plan at the moment is to fight like hell to get a fair deal with the landlord and secure our long term future, and in a way we sort of decided we're not going to really look at other options until there really is no option but to do so."

When news of the Prince Charles Cinema's situation came to light the venue launched a petition for it to be saved, which at the time of writing has over 150,000 signatures. This, Freedman says, was an overwhelming and incredible in equal measure: "You hope it's out there. I think the response was instantaneous and outpouring which is lovely to see.

"It's a bit scary in terms of how you suddenly realise how committed people are to what we're doing, and sort of humbling in a way because you're just a little independent cinema in London. But obviously over the years —we've been there for 35 years— we've touched people.

"Short answer is it's wonderful to know that there's the support out there, but it is a big responsibility now going forward."

Having public support like this is great for the cinema because it gives them "a recognition" for the legal battle ahead, Freedman explains: "There's now a recognition that they're not just dealing with a small business that was feeling bullied. They are a huge company, a billion pound company, who — in talking to other tenant suppliers — have a way of forcing the conversation in their direction just because of the weight, the deepness of their pockets.

"Undoubtedly the law does tend to favour, at times, people who have very deep pockets as opposed to justice. And I think that now there's a recognition that we're not just a cinema, we're much bigger than that in many ways for people and then hopefully we can have a conversation on a more even playing field."

The cinema owners now must take their case to the next stage, and Freedman hopes the overwhelming support the public have shown their venue will have an impact on the result: "We now go through a process which will potentially end up in court where we will argue our case and they will argue their case, and their case is based on their last lawyer's letter — that they would like a very short lease, they would like rent substantially above what we had two independent surveyors' reports have estimated is the commercial rate. And they would like the right to give us six months notice to redevelop.

Read more: Why the Prince Charles Cinema is much more than a movie theatre

"My understanding is they have to earn that right, so they have to show that they have a very good chance of redeveloping so it's not simply there as a sort of ongoing threat to the tenant. I believe the court will decide whether they have a sensible economic reason to redevelop.

"And so having so many people that they want the cinema to stay because it provides a good service to customers and to the community, I would hope we'd then give any planning authority serious consideration as to whether they would give planning permission to such a redevelopment. And if the planning authority is giving such serious consideration and hopefully the court would listen to that and recognise that the reason for putting in that break clause is not actually because there's any realistic possibility of redeveloping."

He adds: "We are in a position where we have a war chest to fight this through, but we are nowhere near as big as our landlord. And I think they have shown on on a number of occasions is my understanding —from other tenant— that they will pursue maximisation of their profits, as I guess is their legal right, as much as possible, we've just got to battle against that."

One thing that has been said time and again about the Prince Charles Cinema is that it is an institution, one that provides a safe space for film fans to enjoy everything from classics, sing-a-longs, and films they'd never have a chance to see otherwise. Just recently the cinema held a Wicked sing-a-long at the same time as a screening of Apocalypse Now, and both screenings were full — to lose that would be a travesty.

"I think you lose personality, really, you lose what makes a place unique and it becomes heavily standardised," Freedman says. "You lose a level of humanity at times because there's a difference between a business where the owners are on site and very focused on making it right and when the owners are perhaps ultimate owners, offshore somewhere where for maybe financial reasons don't necessarily live in the country that they're providing the service.

"There are lots of businesses that come and go, and as a business you always have to make sure you're meeting the demands of the customers. But power should be on the demands of the customers, they meet people when they come in and they feel there's a personality and a humanity to the business they're interacting with — I think that's an important mix for any location.

"I think, particularly for London, and in our case, we're part of an ecosystem of cinema and entertainment in the centre of London that is unique. People talk about Leicester Square being the centre of cinema but if cinemas keep shutting down that's not going to continue."

Freedman adds: "I think that we provide something that isn't provided by any other cinema. Not just in central London, but I think in London and in the UK, and arguably anywhere else in the world, which is a mix of programming that sort of caters to everybody.

"Our only agenda is we will show any film that we'll sell our cinema as long as it's legal and that means, I think, that we have the widest range of film of any other city.

"We don't have any public subsidy and we survive on the tickets themselves, and that comes down to showing the films that people want to go and see — and if that's a black and white film with musical accompaniment, if it's a Japanese anime, if it's a Russian anti war film, if it's a Lord of the Rings trilogy, we'll do any of them.

"And I think that's important and it draws in a quarter of a million people a year into central London, which the economic footprint of that is not just the tickets we sell, but what those people do before and after the cinema. And so it needs to continue, and I think there's a difference between your local Italian delicatessen and your big supermarket — a healthy society has a mixture of both."

Yahoo UK has contacted representatives of Criterion Captial, which Zedwell LSQ Ltd is a subsidiary of, for comment.