Cinema Details

Previously The Majestic, and opened as a Kerridge cinema in 1930, the Odeon has long occupied a strategic site on Gisborne's palm-lined main street. In its grand days, it featured a marble staircase leading up to a huge auditorium of over 1000 seats but it still a magnificent venue. It also played an important in the history of cinema-going in New Zealand, for it is here that Robert Kerridge first began to build his distribution and exhibition empire.

The Odeon was long graced by the stately figure of Raey Wheeler, who began in the cinema business aged 19, working as usher, cashier and manager, until she bought the Odeon in 1990. You used to find her sitting behind the ticket counter most days, always willing to share a tale or two--such as stories about the days when there was a cinema in every little town around the East Cape. Raey died in February 2015 and at her passing the Gisborne Herald spoke of her as a 'Gisborne institution' and 'movie matriarch' See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NL47aAB2360

The Odeon continues to offer mainstream movies at the weekends and more art house fare on week nights. Well worth a visit if you are visiting Gisborne.
With The Dome and the Odeon, Gisborne has retained two very good cinemas. This is quite remarkable for a small city, a long drive from anywhere. Also check out the great Muir's Bookshop across the road; I wish we had such a bookshop in Hamilton.