Astor Theatre

Australian art deco cinema located in St Kilda, Melbourne, built in 1936. It was built on the site of a former cinema (the "Diamond", later known as the "Rex") that dated back to 1908, which was the period of the birth of film. It was one of the first suburban "hard-top" cinemas. Often colloquially just known as "The Astor", it remains Australia's longest running large-scale single screen cinema, original seating capacity 1,700, reduced nowadays to 1,150 and is home to the Barco 4K Digital Projector, the highest quality projector of its kind in Australia (able to screen the increasingly rare 70mm film). The business is privately run, currently receiving no government funding, with a lease only until 2015, after which its future as a long-running film theatre is unsure.