Mr Zeccola, whose chain fully or jointly operates 22 upmarket cinemas around the country, is upset at widespread claims that the cost of movie-going excuses illegal downloading. Download frenzy over Game of Thrones ... Jamie and Cersei Lannister reunited in season four. Typical have been such comments on Fairfax websites - reacting to news of increased ticket prices – as "the higher the tickets, the more people download the movies" and "they can increase their prices as they wish; I will just keep downloading". The extent of the practice was highlighted when the new season of Game of Thrones premiered this week, with data from the fire-sharing network TorrentFreak showing Australians downloaded 5.9 million episodes last year. A recent survey for the Intellectual Property Awareness Foundation showed 27 per cent of Australians aged over 16 are streaming or downloading pirated movies or TV shows.

Mr Zeccola said he often argued with people who say they want to watch movies whenever and wherever they want, without paying for them. Benjamin Zeccola at his Palace Cinema. Credit:Craig Sillitoe "It's upsetting that people use ticket prices as a justification for stealing a film," he said. "I don't think it's any different from saying 'I need a plumber's tools now and I can't afford a plumber but there's a plumber's ute parked out the front so I'm just going to steal his tools. It won't hurt anyone'. "The truth is it hurts everyone at every level of the industry - it hurts writers, out of work actors, ushers and ticket sellers."

Mr Zeccola said that after the cost of hiring a film, a cinema might be left with just $6 to $7 from the average ticket price of $12.50. "Then you take out the cost of labour, rent, marketing teams, advertising and all the other infrastructure. You're left with nothing." Other operators back up the high cost of running cinemas, with David Seargeant, the head of Amalgamated Holdings which runs the Event chain, saying wages were the main factor. "We are one of the highest labour cost countries in the world," he said. "There's been some reduction in projection staff but normal ticket office and merchandising staff are about the same." Mr Zeccola said he gets upset at the argument that Australian cinema tickets are expensive by global standards.

With most Palace staff aged over 20, they are paid $25.60* an hour. "We want Australians to be high-paid workers. As a society, we've demanded that; we don't want US rates of pay. "So we pay people triple what they get paid in the States. And in London, cinema staff are paid $15 an hour – $10 an hour less than Australian staff." Mr Zeccola holds that sharing pirate DVDs is even worse than downloading. "When they burn it to a DVD and start passing it around, that's when I really get angry," he said. "That has a huge impact.

"It goes from being the downloader, who may not be going to the cinema that day, to a DVD being given to a mother or an aunty who was going to see Philomena. So she doesn't need to see it at the cinema. And she would have loved to see it there." Last year's box office figures suggest piracy is cutting into Australian cinema-going. National box office was down 2.3 per cent to $1.1 billion, with only three movies taking more than $30 million compared to five the previous year. Mr Zeccola said that the number of annual cinema visits had not increased from an estimated 85 million five years ago. Downloading was affecting the industry's "bread and butter films" more than the hits.

"A film like Gravity or Skyfall, people will go and see on the big screen anyway," Mr Zeccola said. "But it's other films, including films for the younger audience like The Hunger Games or Twilight, that are particularly affected." *Corrected from $26.50.