Through the decades: The Embassy Theatre

Originally known as the De Luxe Cinema, the theatre opened on 31 October 1924. It was aptly named after the design of the cinema, with armchair style seating in the dress circle which made the experience more comfortable and enticing for visitors. 

It was purpose-built as a cinema for entrepreneur William Kemball, who had built around 40 theatres across New Zealand. Designed by Llewellyn Williams, the cinema became the biggest cinema in Kemball’s theatre empire with seating for 1800 people. 

At the time of opening in the roaring twenties, it was the boom of silent movies, and the first feature to be screened was Cecil B. DeMille’s ‘The Ten Commandments’.

Silent films were accompanied initially by an orchestra, and then, after 1927, by a Wurlitzer organ. The installation cost £10,000, the equivalent of around $1.2 million today! When talking films arrived in 1929, Kemball installed a sound system and his was the first cinema chain operator to show the ‘talkies’, as they were then called. 

This innovation brought more visitors to his theatres, but his personal spending and business debts were unsustainable during the difficult years of the Depression. By 1945 Kemball had sold all his picture theatres in the lower North Island to rival movie mogul, Robert Kerridge.

The change of ownership brought a new name and the De Luxe became the Embassy. Films continued to flourish, with a weekly trip to the pictures being the cornerstone of the social lives of many New Zealanders. 

However, in the 1960s a new trend swept in. Television became all the rage and people began to take less trips to the cinema when they could access entertainment at home.

Kerridge’s response to this was to install a new wide screen in 1970 but even the latest technology could not stem the cinema’s decline. To conserve the building in a sustainable way, the stalls were removed the following year, and the downstairs converted to offices.

The loss of the stalls meant that the theatre was reduced in size by approximately 1000 seats. The remaining part of the theatre – the upstairs circle – is still, by current standards, a grand cinema space with seats for more than 800 people. 

The grandeur of the cinema, its wide screen, superior sound system and the 20th century style are likely to be the reasons why the Embassy Theatre has endured while many other cinemas built in the first half of this century have been demolished. The building is of particularly high status and since 1985 has been the premier venue for the Wellington Film Festival.

In 1991 the building was acquired by Brierley Investments Limited, with the intention of renovating the theatre to provide a home for the Royal New Zealand Ballet. This did not eventuate, and the ballet eventually moved to the St James Theatre – another prestigious Wellington City Council owned venue. 

To save the building, the Embassy Theatre Trust was formed in 1995, and in 1997 with help from the Wellington City Council, they purchased the property. Between 1998 and 2003 the cinema was refurbished and partially restored, and the auditorium modernised. The building underwent some earthquake strengthening. In 2004 the ownership of the building was transferred to the Wellington City Council.

In 2003, the Embassy became known to the world after hosting the world premiere of 'The Return of the King', the final part of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. Nearly 120,000 people lined the ‘red-carpet’ route along Courtenay Place, and many more watched the televised procession of actors and filmmakers as they made their way to the theatre for the screening. 

The cinema also hosted a similar event for the world premiere for Peter Jackson’s 'The Hobbit – An Unexpected Journey' in 2012. The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings connection have, to some extent, raised the international profile of the building.

2010 saw the completion of the earthquake strengthening project on the Embassy. The project involved adding concrete ‘shear walls’ in key areas and steel roof bracing above the auditorium ceiling. The project used 72 tonnes of steel and came in under the $1 million budget.

The Embassy has significant heritage value. It is one of the few large-screen venues to have remained in near-constant use since its construction. It is an important landmark for Wellington, and it is one of the key heritage buildings in the Courtenay Place heritage area.

The building can be seen as part of a group of nearby performance spaces that form our city’s ‘entertainment district’, including the Michael Fowler Centre and Wellington Town Hall at the nearby Te Ngākau Civic Square, the St James Theatre and the Opera House – all of which contribute to the identity of Wellington as New Zealand’s ‘cultural capital’.

The last few decades have seen renewed interest in film. Wellington has seen new cinemas open, and old cinemas reopen, in the central city and the suburbs. Still, the Embassy remains as a jewel in Wellington’s landscape.

This year, we are celebrating the Embassy Theatre's centenary. Visit the Wellington Heritage Festival website to check out upcoming events as part of the celebration. Or, read the original story about the Embassy Theatre here.