FIRST there was Barbie, and now the Taylor Swift Eras Tour Concert Film will be hitting the silver screen near you.
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Could it be that these two blonde bombshells are helping to revive the cinema industry?
General Manager for Metro Cinemas Group, including the Bathurst franchise, Mark Hewitt, seems to think so, and he's been in the business for more than two decades.
The release of Barbie saw Bathurstians queuing at the cinema doors to figure out what makes life in plastic so fantastic.
People even had to be turned away from the Barbie premier, as tickets were all sold out on opening night, and the hype continued for the weeks that followed.
"It went on for nearly 11 weeks. Normal play for a movie is between two to four weeks," Mr Hewitt said.
"People even came to watch it twice. We need more Barbie's," he said.
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Enter Taylor Swift.
She may not be Barbie, but she is an icon in her own right.
And with the imminent release of the Taylor Swift Eras Tour Concert Film, Mr Hewitt is preparing for the cinemas to yet again, be chock-a-block.
"Tickets went on sale yesterday, and we had people lined up yesterday morning," Mr Hewitt said on September 28.
"We've sold over 120 tickets in two days. We need more blonde bombshells."
It is expected that the Eras Tour film could equal, or even surpass the level of fanfare that was experienced by Barbie, and Mr Hewitt said it's a welcome change for the cinemas.
In recent years very few movies have experienced such high levels of popularity, with the most notable being Top Gun: Maverick in 2022 and Avengers: Endgame in 2019.
COVID didn't help the intake for the local cinema, that was until the Discover NSW vouchers were introduced.
But now the movie industry has to contend with writers' and actors' strikes in the states.
"The writers' strike hasn't helped in the last month," Mr Hewitt said.
Regardless of the popularity of movies, Mr Hewitt said the cinema will always be a place that people can go to escape the realities of their own lives.
"People want to get out and do something they don't normally do, it's a fact of life," he said.
"You've got a TV at home and I'm sure you've got Netflix or Stan, but you still want to get out and experience the big screen, surround sound, in the cinema, new release."
And the best part is that catching a flick at the cinemas can even make you feel as if you, yourself, are part of something bigger.
This is because movies are typically released on the same day around the globe.
"You get the movie the same day as everyone else in the world gets this movie. And this is Bathurst," Mr Hewitt said.
"All the movies released today, they're released in America today, and you get them today in Bathurst, so it's pretty good."
But according to Mr Hewitt, the big draw card of the cinema is the community that can be created through a common interest.
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