Tucked down an alleyway, above Little Aosta, Dorothy Browns has become known the length and breadth of New Zealand since it was opened by local Philippa Archibald in September 2001.
It’s now listed for sale, through ABC Central Otago Business Brokers’ Donna Harpur-Swain, for $750,000 plus stock.
Archibald wants to develop some of the other ideas she has, musing that may be a floating library serving the many Fijian islands, or a particular style of photographic portraits.
Coming to Arrowtown from Wellington, via a deer farm at Mossburn, Archibald created Dorothy Browns from scratch, and curated it along the way.
"In those days, [cinema] seats were really tiny and your knees bumped into the row in front ... and someone’s head was in the way."
So, she made sure there were wide, comfy, lounge-style seats instead.
And while there was space for 80 seats in the larger of two cinemas, she capped it at 42.
"I thought, ‘no, I want the comfort; the cheese boards, and wine’."
Continuing the lost tradition of intermission, Archibald also added a book shop and a gin bar to the offering, which is all now on the open market.
Harpur-Swain says it’s "a beautiful business".
"It’s 23 years old, but it feels like it’s 100 years old because it’s so iconic.
"Philippa’s done such a good job of it, the branding and the marketing - it’s known all across the country."
Archibald recalls the first movie to play in her boutique cinema was 1999 German-Hungarian co-production Gloomy Sunday - A Song of Love and Death, in keeping with her desire to play art house movies instead of blockbusters.
And while it took a little while for the locals to come to the party, soon enough she had a cult following, many of whom ‘discovered’ it themselves.
When that happens, she says, people "have a sense of ownership".
"I hear people come up and they talk to their friends and say, ‘hey, I want to show you my cinema’."
She dismisses any suggestion cinemas will die out because people would rather be at home in front of their own TVs.
"People want to go out, and they want to see movies with each other, and they want to have wine.
"They don’t want to have to be at home with the phone ringing and a kid coming in."
Harpur-Swain says there’s been a lot of interest in the business, "but I haven’t got a buyer, as yet".
