First Look: What’s The Deal With Champagne Video?

In a world saturated by streaming platforms and solo screen time, Champagne Video is doubling down on the communal nature of cinema.

The Fitzroy North venue, formerly home to Wildflower Picture House, has reopened as a bar, movie theatre and video store hybrid named for the fictional video store in Seinfeld. Jack White, who also runs Brunswick’s private screening room for hire Henkel Street Cinema, and former Wildflower co-owner Jayden Boyce are behind the project. “What I love about this space is that it gives people somewhere to gather,” White says. “It’s not just about watching a film and leaving, it’s about hanging around before and after, having a drink, talking about what you’ve just seen.”

Champagne Video houses a bar and a 30-seat screening room, though this isn’t a commercial-grade setup. The room packs JBL 5.1 surround speakers and an Epson 4K projector – gear typical of a home theatre. It’s available for private hire, with a 135-minute session priced at $100. If you’re booking a screening, there’s a 10-person minimum on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, and a 15-person minimum on Fridays and Saturdays – White’s way of keeping the act of movie-watching a collective experience. “There’s something about watching a film with other people – laughing together, reacting together – that you just don’t get at home,” he says. “That’s what I want to protect and continue to build here.” 

When not booked for private use, White runs free screenings, funding film rights through bar sales rather than tickets. “If people don’t have to buy a ticket, they’ll happily buy a couple of cocktails,” he says. “Some nights you win, some nights you lose, but we’d rather have people in than not at all.”

So far he’s shown Shaun of the Dead (2004) and The Witch (2015), but plans to largely screen “movies you would have rented from your local video store”. For him, this means classics and movies from the ’80s and ’90s. Programming extends beyond films. Regular events include monthly comedy show Glonky, and Slide Right, a live speed-dating concept where participants use a Powerpoint presentation projected on the screen to introduce a friend looking for love to the audience.

In the bar, DVD cases line the walls, with discs and VHS tapes available to rent Blockbuster-style, but without the late fees. The drinks are overseen by Boyce, who also managed the bar during the Wildflower days. Boyce leans into cinematic references with drinks including Lost in Translation (mezcal, hibiscus-and-ginger tonic, Cointreau, lime and agave), Eternal Sunshine (St Germain, gin, lime and cucumber), and Coffee and Cigarettes (Laphroaig whisky, Disaronno, coffee liqueur and Turkish tobacco bitters). There are plans to upgrade the kitchen, but for now food is limited to cinema staples: popcorn and Serendipity choc-tops, a fittingly named brand of ice-cream for filmic fare.

Champagne Video
318 St Georges Road, Fitzroy North
0402 381 939

Hours:
Wed 5pm–10.30pm
Thu 5pm–midnight
Fri & Sat 5pm–1am
Sun 5pm–10pm

champagnevideo.com.au
@champagnevideobar