Cinema closes for good despite public petition

The Odeon in Kettering has officially closed its doors

A cinema that the public tried to save has now permanently closed its doors.

The Odeon in Kettering, Northamptonshire, has shut following what the building's owner, Augur Group, described as a "significant drop" in attendance over the past five years, making the venue "no longer viable".

Last year, more than 2,000 people signed a petition to pledge their support for the cinema and prevent its closure.

A statement on the Kettering Odeon website said: "After years of making magical memories for generations of cinemagoers, we're sorry to announce that our cinema has now closed."

It continued: "We've been truly proud to serve our guests at Odeon Kettering and to bring years of movie magic to the community."

The last film to be shown at the cinema was A Complete Unknown starring Timothée Chalamet

The cinema opened in 1997 with the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, and its final screening was the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown.

Despite the closure, Odeon has announced plans for a new Odeon Luxe cinema in Northampton, set to open later this year.

The new cinema will follow a model seen in Peterborough, where a Luxe venue with over 600 seats and eight screens replaced a shuttered site, creating 60 jobs.

Augur Group now plans to remodel the Kettering site and has sent proposals for an area of "open storage" to North Northamptonshire Council.