Celebrating one year of The Ashford Cinema

Ashford’s popular town centre cinema in Elwick Place is gearing up to celebrate its 1st Birthday. 

The Ashford Cinema has become a firm favourite with film lovers and has established itself as a community cinema and event space by providing affordable offers and free parking with a cinema ticket as well as hosting a range of popular local community group events. 

It is also going to continue under the same management team, after the council recently agreed to extend the current contract for a further 18 months, meaning film lovers, families and local groups can continue seeing the latest blockbuster hits, attending community events and meeting friends for a drink or bite to eat.

The narrative around the cinema is changing, with a wider appeal and offering seeing attendance numbers increase, the feedback improving and the general outlook looking more positive. The Ashford Cinema team has done a great job in continuing to offer a fantastic service, while broadening the appeal and opening up the space to a wider audience.

“As we reflect on the past year, it’s hard to believe how quickly it has gone," Ben Hammond, General Manager of The Ashford Cinema, said. "Over the last 12 months, we’ve made a series of small but meaningful changes to the way we do things at The Ashford Cinema with each one aimed at creating a better experience for our guests. 

“We’ve been truly touched by the kind words and encouragement we’ve received from the community, and we’re proud of the service and welcoming atmosphere our fantastic team continues to deliver every day.

"We believe that cinema should be accessible to all, whether you're watching a film, meeting friends for dinner and drinks or using our workspaces, no matter the reason for your visit, you'll be met with a warm welcome and many more reasons to stay.

“To all our customers from Ashford and the surrounding areas: thank you. Your ongoing support means the world to us, and it’s what allows us to keep doing what we love, bringing people together through film. We’re excited about the year ahead and can’t wait to welcome even more of you to the cinema soon."

The story so far

Last year, Ashford Borough Council announced their intention to step in and takeover operating the venue after Picturehouse announced they would be leaving. The rebranded cinema opened its doors for the first time on Wednesday 24 April 2024.  

Over the past 12 months, under the day-to-day management of industry experts The Big Picture (Cinema & Leisure Solutions), its offer and fortunes, have been transformed with a range of exciting offers and events to appeal to a more family friendly and local community audience.

The council stepped in to keep our town centre entertainment offer at Elwick Place open for business. A year on from this decision we’re pleased to see this has worked well, with a busier cinema, great customer feedback and local community groups using the venue for packed-out events.

In true cinematic style, this is a great tale with several ups and downs along the way. In the face of great adversary the council, the fantastic cinema team (the real heroes of this tale) and the community, have all come together to make this story have a happy ending. 

The next chapter

This arrangement was initially for a year but has now been extended for a further 18 months. In order to continue this journey and to develop and market the cinema to any prospective new operator a full year of trading data is needed to demonstrate long-term viability.

By extending the support to The Ashford Cinema the council believe this will safeguard the immediate future of the cinema and provide the best possible platform to reach a sustainable long-term solution.