Fans farewell good times at theatre | Hawkes Bay News | Local News in Hawkes Bay

Keen movie-goer Tangata Poti can remember standing for hours outside the State Theatre in Hastings to see the first screening of Star Wars in the late 1970s.

"I was only about 7 or 8 years old at the time," he said. "There was a queue for tickets going out of the theatre and down the footpath.

"It was was just a huge occasion, knowing you were going to be among the first to see movies like Stars Wars or Superman."

Last night Mr Poti and his wife, Ferne, were among about 50 people to watch the final movie screened at the former State Theatre, which for the past decade had been run under the Hastings Reading Cinemas banner.

It was a low-key affair, with no appearance from Reading Cinemas management to explain the sudden closure of its Hastings site, announced on Friday, leaving the public to assume it was forced because of low patronage.

Staff were left to front the public and work the final shift yesterday, preparing the cinema for the aptly named movie, The Darkest Hour.

People attending the film, the last after 80 years of cinematic history at the theatre, were treated to free ice creams.

Some people took photos of themselves inside the theatre as a piece of memorabilia.

"It is sad, I've been coming here for over 30 years to watch movies and we were just talking about it in the car, what it was like in the old days," Mr Poti said.

"It used to be a really big deal going to the pictures. I remember the old theatre, the wooden floors and the vinyl seats, and the sound of rolling your Jaffas down the floor - those are good memories."

The couple were also at the Hastings cinema on Saturday night to watch Sherlock Holmes, taking advantage of their club card which they said could still be used at the Napier Reading Cinemas.

"I am pretty happy to see this number of people here tonight, but last night there were only about nine people here," Mr Poti said.

Online internet previews and the availability of DVD movies had taken the shine off the movie theatre over the years, but Mr Poti was surprised there had not been any changes made to lure more customers back to the big screen.

"You could have movie marathon nights, like showing the Star Wars trilogy, or something special just to make it a big night out," Mr Poti said.

The couple were hopeful the cinema might restart under an independent operator later this year.