ProScreens Cinema Planning
Could a Community Cinema Work in Your Venue?
Thinking about starting a cinema in a village hall, theatre, community centre or another venue? Understanding your likely audience, ticket income and running costs is a useful first step.
Use our cinema viability calculator to explore your idea. Change the example figures below to see how attendance, ticket income and film hire costs could affect your results.
Cinema Income and Cost Calculator
Enter your estimates to calculate an annual operating result.
Ticket yield is the amount retained per admission after any VAT due. Enter costs on a consistent VAT basis. Include equipment, venue, staffing, delivery, marketing and other running costs in your annual operating costs, excluding film hire calculated separately. All starting figures are illustrative examples, not quotations.
Estimated Annual Operating Result
What Happens If Your Figures Change?
The table tests three separate changes against your plan: occupancy falling by 10 percentage points, film hire increasing by 5 percentage points, or ticket yield falling by £1.
| Assumption / Result | Your Plan | Lower Attendance | Higher Film Hire | Lower Ticket Yield |
|---|
Scenarios are calculated independently. Percentages are limited to 0–100%, and ticket yield cannot fall below £0. Admissions are averages, so calculated figures may include fractions.
Understanding Your Cinema Budget
Ticket income is calculated from your seating capacity, number of screenings, average occupancy and ticket yield. The calculator deducts percentage film hire and your entered annual operating costs.
Break-even occupancy shows the proportion of available seats you would need to sell to cover those costs. A figure above 100% means the plan cannot break even within the entered capacity.
Remember the Other Costs
Allow for venue hire, projection and sound equipment, delivery, setup, staffing, cleaning, utilities, insurance, ticket booking fees and promotion.
This simplified model excludes grants, sponsorship, refreshments, finance costs, depreciation and tax. Film agreements may include flat fees or minimum guarantees that differ from this percentage calculation.
Try a Cinema Before Committing to an Installation
ProScreens provides temporary cinema equipment hire, helping venues test audience demand before considering a permanent installation.
From projection screens and projectors to cinema sound, we can discuss an equipment setup suited to your venue and screening plans.
Talk to ProScreens About Your CinemaThis calculator provides illustrative planning estimates. Confirm actual costs and obtain the appropriate film screening permissions before arranging an event. A personal streaming subscription does not itself provide public screening rights.