By Deluxe Cinemas · 15 October 2026
Why do Jaffas make us think of the cinema?
For many New Zealand moviegoers, the memory begins before the film: buying a ticket, finding a seat, choosing something sweet and waiting for the lights to go down. Jaffas belong to that recollection of a night at the pictures.
The National Library describes the familiar cinema association: orange-flavoured chocolate sweets, dropped onto a wooden floor, making their way noisily down the aisle. It is a small detail that connects the sweet with the place, the sound and the people around it. Read the National Library’s archive description.
Local memories survive too. Christchurch City Libraries’ At the Harbour Light oral-history record includes recollections of Saturday pictures in Lyttelton, catalogued alongside Jaffas, ice creams, snacks and intermissions. Food is part of how people remember going to the movies.
The Christchurch cinemas behind the collection
Lost Christchurch Cinemas follows four picture houses: the Regent, Savoy, Avon and WestEnd. Their archive photographs show more than buildings. There are queues, crowded foyers, staff, audiences and moments that changed the city’s cinema life.
Each cinema page brings together its recorded history and photographs with links back to the archives. Follow the Regent’s picture-palace story, the Liberty and Savoy years, the Avon’s Art Deco chapter, or the building remembered as Everybody’s, the Tivoli and the WestEnd.
- Regent Theatre, Christchurch — history and photographs
- Savoy Theatre, Christchurch — history and photographs
- Avon Theatre, Christchurch — history and photographs
- WestEnd Theatre, Christchurch — history and photographs
For the wider setting, our Christchurch cinema history timeline connects the four theatres to the city’s changing picture-going habits. The visual memories collection lets the surviving photographs lead the way.
From cinema memory to Intermission Treats
Deluxe Cinemas’ Lost Christchurch Cinema Collection gives each of those four stories a place on a collectible box. Intermission Treats are orange coated chocolate, with 90 g in each cinema box and four boxes in the 360 g Collector’s Box.
The collection uses the interval ritual as a way back into local history. A QR code on each individual box leads to its cinema’s story, so the photographs and the history continue beyond the packaging.
If you are looking for the collection, the official Deluxe Cinemas store has the product details and current availability. For the memories themselves, start with the archive photographs or the films Christchurch remembers.
Sources and further reading
- National Library of New Zealand: archive record DCDL-0006963 — the catalogue description records the connection between Jaffas and cinema floors.
- Christchurch City Libraries: At the Harbour Light — local recollections of going to the pictures.
- The linked cinema histories credit their archive photographs and original historical records individually.