The cinema was opened by the original owners in 1996 as Hamilton’s first “upmarket” inner city cinema playing to the decerning cinephiles of Waikato – no gumboots allowed.
The cinema had three band new 35mm Kineton projectors which were the top of the line at the time to deliver the best image possible. The projectors were matched with a state-of-the-art sound and seating and a lovely foyer to match and opened with the film MICHAEL COLLINS starring Liam Neeson, Aidan Quinn and Julia Roberts.
Despite its bar offering and up market decor the cinema struggled and was perhaps ‘before its time’. The cinema changed hands to the RIALTO group before being purchased and refurbished by its previous owner as THE LIDO CINEMA in Dec of 2009.
Over the next 10 years until the pandemic at the end of 2019 The Lido had become Waikato’s home of the decerning film goer with its Film Festival and Art House content. Unfortunately post 2020, the cinema suffered the same fate as many other businesses worldwide – diminished returns and increased costs. Despite delivering the same quality art house content and niche marketed films, the once robust audience dwindled away due to the significant growth of the streaming platforms between 2020 and 2022, the difficulty to bring back large audiences quickly due to the social distancing rules and a reduction in available content with film making also coming to a standstill and in 2023 the cinema changed hands to its current ownership.
The new owners with a collective 100 + years’ experience in cinema operation from the smallest local cinema to heading operations at some of New Zealand’s biggest chains knew the cinema could be saved but all agreed the model had to adapt. Our priority was to keep the Lido Cinemas legacy as the home of fine film and to preserve its reputation as Hamilton’s favourite Arthouse cinema. But at the same time the cinema needed to diversify and provide its services to alternative audiences. At the same time as this conversation was being had, New Zealand was sliding slowly into recession which was affecting everyone – the new owners included.
Seeing the difficulty that kiwi families were facing the new owners asked themselves “What really matters to our audience?” The answer was simply having the ability to spend time with their families and to make memories in a clean and comfortable environment at a price that allowed them to be able to afford. While we may not all remember the name of the film, everyone remembers the experience of going to their first film with their Mum or Dad, Grandmother or grandfather or a first date. It is those integrational memories that really matter and that we all want to share with our children and grandchildren. So, the new Lido Hamilton is now focused on the whole family and growing the love of film for generations to come.
But we have not forgotten the roots of the cinema. Aside from bringing in the best Family films from our customers to share, we are still scouring the globe looking for the interesting, the unusual and the thought provoking films that Lido is famous for. Whether they are made in Hollywood or Hanoi, Brisbane or Bangkok we try to bring on the best films and festivals from around the world alongside some classic content and mainstream fare to make Lido not just the best cinema in Hamilton, but the best 100% New Zealand Owned cinema in the North Island. That is a lofty goal, but we are motivated to achieve it.
Our customers are one of the most important parts of the puzzle in achieving this. From hosting a private event at the cinema to suggesting films to us that we should be showing as well as our ongoing relationship with the Hamilton film society we love hearing from our customers and do our best to integrate their ideas into our daily cinema lives.
At Lido we love movies and love being part of the city centre and as Hamilton changes, we will continue to change with it to make every experience with us better than that last.
To book a film at Lido Cinema, purchase gift cards, see what’s coming soon and to be part of the ongoing history of LIDO, simply go to our web page www.lidohamilton.com or alternately purchase a ticket in cinema. To give us your feedback or to enquire about a cinema / auditorium hire simply email us at hello@lidohamilton.com
