The cinema halls of the past may never return
Mohammed Nyerereh, 62, used to sell movie tickets when Opera Cinema at Accra Central was in its prime.
Pointing to a safe in the “manager’s office,” he narrates how movie enthusiasts paid 20 pesewas, at the time, to watch shows at the cinema hall.
He worked here for many years and was promoted to the rank of “operator”, which means he could decide what movies audience watch while managing technical aspects of the cinema operations.
Opera, he says, was the centre of attraction as people from diverse backgrounds came in batches to experience the hottest coloured movies.
“This was the only cinema in Greater Accra that showed movies at 12:30pm, 4:30pm and 8:30pm, seven days a week. It was the only cinema in town that showed coloured movies and it was making a lot of money at the time when there were no televisions.
“When black and white televisions started emerging, TV stations would end transmission around 9pm but this cinema was showing movies until mid-night,” he recalls.
But the once vibrant movie theater now performs multiple functions. The main cinema hall has been converted into a warehouse. Part of the building is occupied by a bank while the enclave serves a hub for electrical supplies.
The Opera Cinema summarises the story of other defunct cinemas in Accra, such as Orion at Kwame Nkrumah Circle, Roxy at Adabraka, Orbit at Kaneshie, Regal at Osu, Plaza at Mamprobi, Dunia at Nima, Lascala at Teshie, and many others in the capital city and beyond.
‘Orion’, for instance, now serves as a newspaper distribution outlet.
Rev Stephen Kobina Egon, a former chair of the Newspaper Distributors Association, tells the Ghana News Agency, on a recent visit to the centre, that some businesses and individuals have expressed interest in owning the property, but none has acquired it yet.
The vendor, who has been in business for the past 42 years, says the association sought permission to start using the old cinema house after they noticed it had been vacant, all the years.
Rev Egon says all newspapers in Accra were first gathered at the centre before they were dispatched to various locations in the city.
He recalls buying and reselling movie tickets at higher prices, in the 80s, to individuals, who wanted to attend shows, but could not gain access to the Orion cinema hall.
“I used to buy about 20 tickets when a new movie was about to premier. I kept one of the tickets for myself and sold the rest when tickets were in short supply and there was stampede at the entrance,” he said with a giggle.
Just like Opera and Orion, Roxy Cinema at Adabraka is now a pale shadow of itself.
The structure is still solid but available spaces have been taken over by squatters.
From afar, this reporter counted at least 20 women cooking and washing at the centre one Tuesday afternoon.
Vida and Rebecca, both unemployed, say they moved there recently and know a lot more occupants of the space, who live there permanently or come to spend the night after a hard day’s work.
They do not know the owners of the cinema building. They are young and have no memories of the old cinema.
Notwithstanding the state of the facilities, it is clear that emergence of new technologies caused a major disruption to the operation of these old movie theaters in Accra and other cities in the country.
The introduction of video decks, cassettes, and subsequently Compact Disks (CDs) over the years brought about the interest of individuals to watch movies in their own spaces.
Aside this factor, Mohammed says owners of the once popular cinemas no longer invested in the business because “they have already made their profit”.
He names a Lebanese businessman as the owner of Opera Cinema and other obsolete movie centres.
“Any cinema that starts with the letter ‘O’, belongs to ‘Saleh Kaptan’. He was the main man running all those cinemas, and rest such as Roxy and others belong to the government,” he says.
When the cinema business went down, Mohammed went into selling CDs, but says: “Nobody wants to buy them even at GH¢1 these days.”
He says many young people during his days got their nicknames through the movies they watched at cinemas as they tried to imitate the characters in the movies.
According to him, Muslim communities played a role in huge patronage of the cinemas because there was a centre in almost every Muslim community in Greater Accra.
He explains that the government, in the early days, saw the need to operate cinemas because movies have the potential to project a country’s image and rally citizens towards a national agenda.
Nonetheless, he believes the old cinema days won’t come back any day since “people are now living private lives”, adding that local movie productions are still struggling to catch up with international standards.
“Everybody is yearning for personal comfort in their homes. There is plasma TV and satellite channels that provide lots of content so there is no need to build or go to a cinema. Our productions these days are poor and those producing movies now lack the requisite skill to match Hollywood, Nollyhood and Bollywood,” he argues.
Although there are few modern cinemas operating in the country, Mohammed says it will not be profitable for the government or individuals to invest in the business.
“If there are plans to build cinemas, then the funds should be redirected to somewhere else because the factors that made cinemas thrive in the past no longer exist,” he emphasises.
Unlike Mohammed, Rev Egon believes people would still want to visit cinemas to while away time or spend quality time with family, therefore, there should be more recreational centres that do not only show movies but also introduce variety of fun activities.
Opinions on the relevance of cinemas may vary, but for now, the old cinema days will only remain as memories for those who patronised them in the past.
By Ernest Nutsugah
Source: GNA