Astor News

The Astor Theatre Future

The Astor Theatre building has been sold to St. Michael's Grammar School at auction.

Letter from The Astor's proprietor, George Florence

Dear Patrons,

We proudly announce that our wonderful Astor Theatre has today, December 6, 2007, been purchased by our local St Michael's Grammar School.

This opens enormous opportunities for both the school and our cinema operation. We currently have a few years left on our existing lease, with a long option, so for the foreseeable future The Astor Theatre will continue to screen films of its usual eclectic nature along with special events ... just as always.

All around, the best outcome has been achieved, the theatre will be secure in caring hands, prepared to protect and help it develop into a useful, long-term asset for the school and the film community. The Astor could now well survive into the 22nd century!

This has been my brief from when I started running the business - to preserve this unique part of Australia's cinema heritage for future generations to appreciate.

My heartiest congratulations to St Michael's Grammar School for bringing this wish well into the future.

Thank you for your patronage and support.

Looking forward to continuing to entertain you.

George Florence

Proprietor
The Astor Theatre

St Kilda icon set to star in new role (St. Michael's media statement)

St Kilda's St Michael's Grammar School has been successful in its bid for the site of the Astor Cinema, which was sold at auction today.

The sale means that the St Kilda Art Deco icon will remain as a much loved landmark on the corner of Dandenong Road and Chapel Street, St Kilda.

"Our acquisition of the Astor Cinema site represents a major opportunity for St Michael's. It's also a lifeline to a fantastic building that has been a part of St Kilda's heritage for over 70 years," said Head of the School, Simon Gipson.

"St Michael's has been a part of the St Kilda community for 113 years and remains on its original site, just a block down the road from the Astor," added Gipson. "We are honoured to have become the custodians of a building that holds such architectural and emotional significance for St Kilda."

St Michael's, which is renowned for its performing arts program, sees enormous potential in the building. "The School currently stages major productions at external venues such as The Athenaeum, The Malthouse and National Theatres," said Simon Gipson. "The Astor has the potential to house an exciting mix of educational and entertainment options close to our main campus. At the same time, our purchase provides us with a wonderful opportunity to responsibly protect an important part of St Kilda's heritage by restoring key elements of the Astor to their former glory."

New-Style Astor Calendar

You'll notice some changes with the latest Astor calendar!

The most obvious is that the new calendar runs for ten weeks instead of 18 or more.

All too often we have had to cancel screenings and disappoint our patrons because of changes to release dates - it's almost inevitable when booking films for four or five months ahead. Release dates these days are very fluid and films are often still in production when we are booking so far ahead which can lead to risks with the unknown nature of the finished product.

The new, shorter format will give us much-greater flexibility and will often mean that we'll be able to make last-minute changes to include just-released films before the calendar is printed.

Yes, there will still be a printed calendar although we are eager to embrace the increasing use of technology and to make as much use of internet access as possible.

The new format makes the downloadable, printable version easier to read.

And, as another part of the streamlining of our operations, the mini-reviews of films will no longer be printed on the back of the calendar but expanded versions will be available on our web-site.

You'll also notice that there will be no normal screenings on many Tuesdays - this will make it easier to have The Astor available for private-function hire. We often get requests for private screenings and the like for a few weeks or months ahead and a rigid, five-month format often made it impossible to accept such events.

Many Wednesdays will also be different with $8 tickets - often for a double feature programme! We decided to make reduced prices available to everybody on one night each week following the popularity of our Family Ticket (two adults and two children for just $32).

We hope that you'll like the changes and enjoy the advantages that the new format will make possible!

PS: Apologies for the late availability of the new version. We were somewhat hamstrung in working out the details of a special mini-season. But we are sure you will agree the result will be worth the wait.

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