THE OWNER of a popular Burnham-on-Sea cinema said he has seen a 70 per cent decrease in revenue due to the coronavirus pandemic but he will do whatever he can to keep the venue open.

The Ritz Cinema in Victoria Street was closed from March to July as the country was in lockdown due to the rise of Covid-19.

Since reopening on July 11 staff at the cinema have put a number of measures in place including hand santizer stations and social distancing rules to keep customers safe but Pat Scott, owner of The Ritz Cinema said it remains a challenging time for cinemas.

“We lost a lot of money during lockdown as I was continuing to pay the bills but we weren’t having anyone through the door,” Pat said.

“We still have to pay the rates. We reopened on July 11 but I am sad to say there is not enough support for cinemas at the moment.

“We have been trying to survive on old movies. Some of the bigger film companies have been pulling their new films or pushing the releases back to the end of the year so we have been showing a lot of classic films and older films.

“Some of the smaller film companies have been great and have been supplying us with films but we just don’t have a lot of customers coming through the door.”

The cinema has been a popular venue in Burnham since it opened in 2014 and Pat said he will do everything he can to keep its doors open.

Pat also owns a cinema in Frome which opened in 2017 but said his plans to launch a cinema in Minehead this year have been pushed back due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“We have seen a 70 per cent decrease in revenue which is tough,” Pat said.

“People are scared. People are being advised to stay away from others so I think they are hesitant to come to the cinema.

“We will get through this, we have enough money to pay the bills and our staff.

“We started doing work on our new cinema in Minehead but sadly we are now not going to be able to get everything done in time to launch.

“We have spent a lot of money getting things sorted here so that customers feel safe at the cinema.

“Only one person can get served in the cinema at a time and we have social distancing measures in place. At the cinema we have a special seating system so everyone is given an allocated seat and will stay in that seat.”