Small cinemas are dead, long live the multiplexes. That would appear to be the message following the closure of the Forum in Glasthule four weeks ago, leaving two small independent cinemas in the Dublin area.

And, given that one of the two remaining - the Classic Cinema in Harold's Cross - has plans to become an eight-screen multiplex, that would leave just the Stella in Rathmines as perhaps the capital's last remaining small independent cinema.

Andy O'Gorman, whose family ran the Forum since 1977, says the cinema was profitable but "in view of the 12-screen multiplex opening in Dun Laoghaire, we decided to give up the lease. "It is the end of an era, as the Forum was there for a very, very long time. You must present customers with choice, and with only two screens, and difficulties getting product, it would have been very difficult for us to compete with a multiplex on our doorstep."

IMC, the company opening the Dun Laoghaire multiplex at the Bloomfield shopping centre, has been running a teasing poster campaign promising an October opening - but no opening date has yet been set.

Albert Kelly, owner of the Classic Cinema, says he began in the cinema business with a two-screen cinema in 1976 and "hasn't had a loss year yet". He concedes, however, that the "fashion" today is for multiplexes with lots of choice, car-parking and confections.

"You typically have four or five movies a week coming from Hollywood and, with two screens, you miss so many films," he says. "But if you have a good booker - a guy who buys in the films for you - then you can cherry-pick the best films and still make money."

Mr Kelly hopes to develop an eight-screen multiplex, costed at £7 million to £8 million, sometime next year. "A formal application will be made in January," he says."

Tony O'Gorman, manager of the Stella cinema in Rathmines, is currently adding another screen to this two-screen cinema and has plans to add a further two sometime in the future.

"This cinema was started in 1923 by my grandfather and I can't see us going up to 10 to 15 screens, as we're limited by our site. If a proposed multiplex for the Swan Centre in Rathmines got the go-ahead, then we'd have to have a hard look at what we would do."

Film critic Hugh Linehan believes smaller cinemas have been declining for a "long time" with many now "bingo and snooker halls. Some - like the Ormonde in Stillorgan - have gone the other way and become multiplexes. But the belief is that more multiplexes are on the way for Dublin, as cinema attendances are still increasing.

"Small cinemas have not been helped by a perception, whether right or wrong, that they offer little choice, and have poor sound and seating facilities. As a result, some people prefer the plexes."

Mr Kelly, who is also chairman of the Independent Cinema Association of Ireland, says that since the Lighthouse Cinema on Middle Abbey Street closed, there is a demand for an arthouse cinema in Dublin. "There have been suggestions that such a cinema could be included in a multiplex planned for the old Carlton cinema site, but there's been nothing concrete yet."

MEANWHILE, the multiplexes march on. Ster Kinekor, the South African exhibition chain, opened a 14-screen multiplex under the Ster Century brand at Liffey Valley recently and plans another 16-screen multiplex for a site in Santry. Another 16-screen multiplex is planned for a new town centre in Dundrum.

But, just as some might say the market for multiplexes in Dublin is reaching saturation point, the latest thing in the cinema world - the megaplex - appears to be gaining a foothold internationally. With between 20 and 30 screens, lots of shops, restaurants and leisure facilities, the megaplex is described as the movie experience for the next millennium. One such 22-screen giant is about to open in Glasgow and it has been variously described as "the largest cinema in Europe".

All this is a long way from April 20th, 1896, when cinema started in Ireland with moving images of prize fighters and acrobats at the Star of Erin Theatre of Varieties (now the Olympia) in Dublin.