Campaigners fighting to save Cambridge’s Arts Picturehouse cinema could launch a last-ditch legal challenge.
The movie lovers are calling for lawyers to take on the Competition Commission, which ruled Cineworld had to sell the St Andrew’s Street cinema or its self-branded screens at Cambridge Leisure Park.
Cineworld took over the Picturehouse earlier this year but the commission said it could not own two cinemas in the city – a decision opposed by more than 14,000 people who signed a petition.
It is hoped lawyers could be found to take on the case voluntarily – and that cash could be raised to take the issue through the courts.
Film reviewer Gavin Midgley, from Huntingdon, helped to organise the petition and admitted it was getting “very late in the day” to save the Picturehouse.
He said: “We have put a call out to people who signed the petition asking them if there is anyone they know who is a legal expert and who can take this forward.
“None of us are legal experts and we are looking for people who might know about the likelihood there is of a case being put forward.”
Cineworld shows major Hollywood releases while the Picturehouse specialises in arthouse and foreign films.
When Cambridge MP Julian Huppert raised the Picturehouse’s plight with business secretary Vince Cable in the Commons last week, the minister said he was sympathetic to residents’ concerns and suggested members of Cambridge University’s law faculty “may want to take on this issue on”.
Mr Midgley, deputy editor of the Take One film blog, said he thought the campaigners had a strong case.
He said: “The level of responses we have had indicates that the sense is that the Competition Commission has misjudged the market. They’ve got a business case purely in numbers suggesting there is an overlap between the Picturehouse and Cineworld. The experience of everyone who goes there is the opposite – they are quite different propositions, and it is clear they haven’t taken that into account.”
Cineworld is still considering which cinema to sell but the commission says it is “confident” a buyer can be found and does not believe the future of any movie houses will be “jeopardised”.
However, campaigners fear a sold Picturehouse may struggle to survive, or may be a poor imitation of the current offering.