Majestic Theatre

Majestic Theatre is located in beautiful downtown Malanda in Far North Queensland. The Majestic is full of history—it is, in fact, a living museum. Built by the English family in 1928/29, it was constructed out of local hardwood timber, milled next door, and is held together by over 250,000 nails. It has survived cyclones, windstorms and other natural events. The Majestic played a huge roll in entertaining troops during World War 2.

Whilst it is a historic building of significance, offering a unique and very special old style cinema experience, there is nothing old about the picture and sound quality. It uses the latest state-of-the-art digital projection and sound processing equipment. For the technically minded, the cinema is equipped with a 2kw NEC 1200C digital projector powered by a 4 tetrabyte GDC server. It has the latest ultra bright super high gain screen, with a JBL digital sound processor, offering full surround sound.

This is a long way away from the old carbon arc projectors, that presented the films on the big screen for most of its life. One of the original old carbon arc projectors is on display in the foyer—one of a pair of projectors that served the cinema for over 50 years from the early 1930's until 1984. More recently the cinema used a single 35mm Simplex projector, powered by a Xenon lamp and coupled to a Cinemeccanica drive.

The Majestic can offer a cinema experience that is relatively comparable with any other cinema, but obviously in the olde worlde environment of Australia's oldest operating commercial cinema (that has not changed its appearance inside or out since it opened way back in 1929).

The Majestic is probably the only cinema in Australia that can actually claim to mirror the developement of the cinema industry into what became, for many many years, the world's biggest mass entertainment medium. When the Majestic first started, it was the era of silent movies in black and white. It has gone through and survived the introduction of colour, sound, widescreen cinemascope movies, television in 1956, colour television in the 70's, video in the 80's, DVD in the 90's, the mega onslaught of computer games and entertainment in the 2000's, and is now part of the digital revolution sweeping the cinema industry worldwide.

The Majestic Theatre is also home to Malanda Theatre Company who produce live productions periodically during the year.