Embassy Cinema

Situated in Thames, at the southwestern end of the Coromandel Peninsula in the North Island, the Kings Theatre opened on 20th January 1913.

It was modernised in 1956, and renamed the Embassy Cinema.

In 1998 the-then 700 seat cinema was further modernised and tripled, with a vastly reduced seating capacity: 90 seats in Cinemas 1 and 2, and 180 in Cinema 3.

In its final years it was owned by Dave and Michelle Ritchie, who had started work at the cinema in 2001 and 1996 respectively.

Unfortunately, it became a casualty of the Covid-19 pandemic, with patrons not returning in sustainable numbers once the lockdown restrictions had been lifted, and it closed on 17th March 2021. (Approaches to the town council and the Mayor for assistance proving fruitless.)

The building was offered at auction in November 2021 but does not appear to have been sold and, as of September 2025, it remains boarded up.

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