The Ritz at St Vincent Community Cinema

The Ritz @ St Vincent has been providing film entertainment for Gosport since May 2017, screening a wide range of films in the theatre at St Vincent College on alternate Thursdays during term time. We have screened over 100 films and are the only cinema operating in Gosport, providing a vital community resource for our audience, many of whom would struggle to visit a cinema further afield.

We are proud to screen an eclectic range of films from mainstream, audience pleasing entertainments like The Greatest Showman to independent British Films such as Limbo and Prevenge. We introduce our audiences to films they might not have come across were it not for us and strive to offer additional value to our community, such as our collaboration with Solent Brass for a concert before our screening of Brassed Off and our concert with the Portsmouth Military Wives Choir at our screening of Military Wives that will take place while this campaign is live. Our screening of the documentary Unrest gave ME sufferers the chance to meet and talk about their condition and lead to our manager, Rob, doing the Great South Run and raising £300 for ME Research UK. We have welcomed guest speakers on topics as diverse as cross Atlantic kayaking, the operation to salvage the Kursk submarine and the history of railways in Gosport. Our educational strand of film studies lectures covering the BFI top 10 films was cut short by the pandemic and we would love to revive it. In short, The Ritz is more than just a cinema, it is a community hub that provides more than just a night's entertainment.

In the past, we have made a comfortable operating profit but changes in our organisational arrangements and the drop in audience numbers since the pandemic have hit our bank balance. Sadly, we are in a position where it will not be economically viable to continue operating beyond the summer if we don't raise some additional funds. 

Our biggest expense is the need to renew our public liability insurance over the summer and we also have to renew our membership of Cinema For All which confers some essential benefits to our organisation.  Since 2020, we have been paying a small (and very reasonable) fee to the college to rent the theatre and we need to cover that expense too. Without the capital to cover these expenses, it will not be possible for us to reopen once our summer season ends with our screening of Belfast on 16th June. 

However, the good news is that we are not looking for a handout, we want to grow our audience and return to a position where we are a sustainable venture that pays its own way. We are asking all of our 2,700 Facebook followers to donate £5 through this compaign. In exchange for this donation of £5, you will receive one ticket to be used at a future screening of your choice. If all of our Facebook followers buy a single ticket we will have enough to cover our operating costs for several years! (Of course, you don't need to be a Facebook follower to buy a ticket, and you are welcome to buy more than one!)

Our regular operating costs are low and we only need to sell 27 tickets per film at £5 each to break even on an individual screening so every ticket sold really does make a big difference to us.  Because we need to ensure that we receive sufficient donations to be able to reopen, we will only receive any money if our initial total of £500 is reached. If not, everyone who has mede a pledge will get their money back. So make a commitment today to visit the Ritz and help us keep Gosport's only cinema open!