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IQALUIT - When Bryan Pearson was a kid growing up in Australia, a visit to the cinema was a bit of an adventure.

A concessionaire dressed in a bright red wool coat with gold buttons and epaulets stood at the theatre entrance, while inside, music issued from a Wurlitzer organ..

Freida Pinto and Dev Patel gaze wistfully into one another's eyes in this scene from Slumdog Millionaire. Set in India, the Academy Award-winning film is about a guy from Mumbai who wins a bundle on a TV game show. - photo courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures

"It was a big deal to go to the movies," Pearson said. "Times have changed."

Today, modern movie houses compete with first-person shooter video games, a universe of satellite channels and pirated films stolen off the Internet.

Despite the struggles and the hassles of running a remote theatre, Pearson remains committed to the task.

"It's something that this community needs," he said. "There is limited recreation and it's an alcohol-based community, like so many in the North, and this is a place where you can take your kids and sit down and enjoy something with your children. You certainly can't take them to the bar. It would be a great loss to the community if they didn't have a theatre. People in Iqaluit don't know how lucky they are."

Pearson started the theatre in 1996 after taking out a $350,000 loan from the bank to rent and renovate an empty warehouse owned by the CBC. More than a dozen years later, Astro Theatre and Conference Centre offers two screens with cutting-edge Dolby Digital Sound, a combined seating capacity of 195 and "world class hot dogs."

Northern movies, such as Atanarjuat the Fast Runner, horror movies and children's movies are among the most popular in Iqaluit.

"Why the hell Hollywood doesn't produce more children's films than they do is beyond me," Pearson said.

The theatre screens anywhere from two to four new movies each week. They play twice nightly with an additional Sunday matinee.

"There are 300 or 400 films a year produced in Hollywood every year, and to keep on top of them all, we have to make a strong effort. We pay more than $500 freight for a picture and to get $500 back in the box office is not easy."

Ticket prices at the theatre are as low as $5 on cheap nights and the monthly rent for the theatre is $7,000.

"It's a struggle keeping it open," Pearson said.

Although cost-prohibitive, Pearson said he is contemplating some way to convert to digital screens, which would reduce costs and allow for live broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera and other international cultural events.

Movies screen tonight at Astro Theatre at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.