Do cinemas in the UK deserve to die out?

londonitelondonite Posts: 1,291
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Why on earth are they so expensive. Nearly a tenner to see a film for a couple of hours??! No wonder piracy is rife. £4 should be maximimum. Who agrees?
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  • reglipreglip Posts: 5,268
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    londonite wrote: »
    Why on earth are they so expensive. Nearly a tenner to see a film for a couple of hours??! No wonder piracy is rife. £4 should be maximimum. Who agrees?

    I agree but their arguement is the cinemas barely break even now. But then with the lower price more people would go. I only go now with movies i know are worth seeing. I probably go 3 times a year. If the price was 4 pounds i would go many more times. 3 times recently i have gone there with someone else with the full intention of watching a movie and the price was so inflated i've walked out saying theres no way im paying that we'll go for a meal.
  • JakobjoeJakobjoe Posts: 8,235
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    I think 2.50 or 3 quid is the most I would pay.
  • UKMikeyUKMikey Posts: 28,728
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    I don't have 3D at home.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 4,764
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    londonite wrote: »
    Why on earth are they so expensive. Nearly a tenner to see a film for a couple of hours??! No wonder piracy is rife. £4 should be maximimum. Who agrees?
    Wow! Over here it costs round about that for luxury cinemas with fully reclining seats and waiter service.
  • londonitelondonite Posts: 1,291
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    A friend just asked if i wanted to see a film that i want to see also, and i made an excuse and said i downloaded it last night lol just to get out of paying a tenner!
  • CaldariCaldari Posts: 5,890
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    I disagree, they should make it £20 at least. Hopefully that should deter the majority of the hoi poloi from attending and chattering throughout the screening.
  • PhoenixRisesPhoenixRises Posts: 2,607
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    Cinemas rarely to blame for the price of tickets. The studios require so much percentage of the gross, I have heard of them demanding 90% of ticket sales for the first 4 - 6 weeks of the showings. Plus they have to pay for the rights of the film (which sometimes doesn't come out of the ticket sale percentage)

    So most cinemas make their profits through the concession stands - which judging from my visits to the cinema hardly anyone uses (bringing their own food in instead) so they are not even making such a great profit there either.

    I saw a poster who owned a couple of cinemas (or something) who said that a cinema doesn't make a penny of profit for (I think) 3 + years.

    So no I don't think they deserve to die and I hope they don't.
  • johnnybgoode83johnnybgoode83 Posts: 8,908
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    Who would be in favour of an online cinema for NEW releases? A system where you can pay to stream a movie from the comfort of your own home.

    Think about it. You would not have to go to a cinema where you have to put up with people's farts and BO, and constant nattering. You could watch the movie in peace with a glass or 2 of wine and a roaring fire. or invite a few friends round for beers and snacks.

    I don't know about anyone else but that sounds good to me.
  • johnnybgoode83johnnybgoode83 Posts: 8,908
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    UKMikey wrote: »
    I don't have 3D at home.

    3D is a load of bollocks
  • George_McPhailGeorge_McPhail Posts: 21
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    Cineworld Card for 15.99 a month, you just cant beat it! It pays for itself after just one trip especially if you buy food or drink.

    The cinema might seem expensive, but its still fairly cheap considering the price you have to pay for other kinds of entertainment like a nice meal out, a gig and a football match which really is a rip off!
  • reglipreglip Posts: 5,268
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    Who would be in favour of an online cinema for NEW releases? A system where you can pay to stream a movie from the comfort of your own home.

    Think about it. You would not have to go to a cinema where you have to put up with people's farts and BO, and constant nattering. You could watch the movie in peace with a glass or 2 of wine and a roaring fire. or invite a few friends round for beers and snacks.

    I don't know about anyone else but that sounds good to me.

    I definitely would but i'd only pay around 2.50 for a streamed movie. The studios wouldn't accept that price even though over the month i might spend 15 that otherwise they wouldn't have a sniff of.
  • swehsweh Posts: 13,665
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    Nearly a tenner? lol a movie is like £18 in Leicester Square.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 625
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    i agree that the costs are too high - especially if you want to go to the flicks with your kids. Luckily (for me) there is nothing out there that i am desparate to see, a few things i would watch if on the tv, but ... nah much to much too expensive

    maybe they should do more older films cheaper to get more bums on seats? ?
  • PhoenixRisesPhoenixRises Posts: 2,607
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    Who would be in favour of an online cinema for NEW releases? A system where you can pay to stream a movie from the comfort of your own home.

    Think about it. You would not have to go to a cinema where you have to put up with people's farts and BO, and constant nattering. You could watch the movie in peace with a glass or 2 of wine and a roaring fire. or invite a few friends round for beers and snacks.

    I don't know about anyone else but that sounds good to me.

    It would be nice, but I enjoy the cinema experience and I just can't get that at home, yes there are drawbacks to visiting the cinema.

    Plus people will still complain at streaming a film at say £5 - £6 (which would be the likely price with studios setting the prices still) and they would simply do what they do now and download the film for free.
  • UKMikeyUKMikey Posts: 28,728
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    3D is a load of bollocks
    No, it's really real.
  • VoynichVoynich Posts: 14,481
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    £15 I paid last time at the Xcape in Glasgow. No wonder there was only about 10 people there! Just a wee bit pricey for me. Next time I go it will be for The Hobbit. I'm only going to special movies now.
  • johnnybgoode83johnnybgoode83 Posts: 8,908
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    I haven't been to the cinema in years. The big movies are all style over substance with too much emphasis on effects and using technology, and not enough emphasis on story/acting/direction for my liking.
  • padpad Posts: 6,699
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    londonite wrote: »
    Why on earth are they so expensive. Nearly a tenner to see a film for a couple of hours??! No wonder piracy is rife. £4 should be maximimum. Who agrees?

    Odeon/UCI Lost £25m last year and is £144m in debt. A tenner might be too much but financially for them it's not enough..
  • RorschachRorschach Posts: 10,818
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    Asking if they deserve to die out implies that they are dying out and it's all their own fault.

    However the BFI Yearbook (page 9) reports that audiences have grown from 155.9 million in 2001 to 171.6 million in 2011. So whilst the growth hasn't been constant, attendance (bums on seats, not money taken) is following an upward trend (something the anti-pirating brigade fail to mention when declaring online sharing is killing cinema).

    As long as people seem willing to pay the admission, as they seem to be, I can't see the prices coming down any time soon. Nor does cinema look ready to die out any time soon.



    PS - Interesting graph on page 11 showing attendance from 1935 to 2010 with the huge spike in the 40s.
  • VoynichVoynich Posts: 14,481
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    pad wrote: »
    Odeon/UCI Lost £25m last year and is £144m in debt. A tenner might be too much but financially for them it's not enough..

    But when a company puts prices up because they're not doing well, they're probably just hastening their own demise!
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 2,583
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    I've been to the cinema once in the last two years. The prices are part of my reason for staying away, but the main reason is the appalling behavour of other patrons. Do cinema ushers actually do anything anymore? I thought they were supposed to stop people being disruptive but I never see any at my local doing anything other than chilling out in the lobby. What do they get paid for, then?
  • SpeedOfLightSpeedOfLight Posts: 1,118
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    pad wrote: »
    Odeon/UCI Lost £25m last year and is £144m in debt. A tenner might be too much but financially for them it's not enough..

    Cost per ticket shouldn't be a worry for the company. They should concentrate on footfall. Reducing ticket prices should increase customers, who may then also spend some money on the rip off popcorn etc.

    If they are relying on increased ticket prices, they might as well pack up shop right now.

    We will only go on Wednesdays (orange 241) or to a Vue cinema on Tuesdays - cheap day Tuesday card, plus the previous visits vouchers make it reasonable. It's the rip off drinks and food that is the problem. We do take our own, but I'm sure it must put others off.
  • PhoenixRisesPhoenixRises Posts: 2,607
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    Nyota wrote: »
    I've been to the cinema once in the last two years. The prices are part of my reason for staying away, but the main reason is the appalling behavour of other patrons. Do cinema ushers actually do anything anymore? I thought they were supposed to stop people being disruptive but I never see any at my local doing anything other than chilling out in the lobby. What do they get paid for, then?

    Well since you have only been once in 2 years I think that is a bit of a harsh judgement on them. Since you haven't really gotten a big sample of their work style :);)
  • Sabre92Sabre92 Posts: 726
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    The problem with cinemas is they need to be much more flexible with the prices they charge for their films. In most cases the prices are too much to charge for a film. I don't have a problem with paying that much for big films that I want to see (e.g. Batman, Avengers, Ted etc.) and people will pay that much to go and see them, but for the smaller films that aren't going to sell out or have been out for several weeks they need to make the prices cheaper and more people will go.

    For example, last week I went with a couple of mates to watch A Few Best Men. Apart from us there were probably 4 or 5 other people in the screen (which holds around 100). It cost me around £7 (student ticket), the same price it cost me to go and see Ted which had much more interest and promotion and which sold out several screenings. You can't expect people to pay the same price for an average comedy with no big names or promotion than for a film like Ted. If they charged say £3-4 instead of £7 you can guarantee that more than 10 people would show up and the cinema would bring in more revenue.

    Stuff like the food and drink prices are another thing that needs looking at. Why would anyone buy a coke for £2.50 when you can get the same thing at the supermarket for £1, or a pack of Minstrels for £3 when again it would half that amount anywhere else? It's no wonder people sneak this stuff in rather than buy it there. Even charging something like £1.50 for that bottle of coke would make it much easier to shift. Especially in these economic times when people can't have the same amount of disposable income than they did a few years ago.

    Cinemas just need to be more flexible in the way they charge for stuff. You can't buy a vintage bottle of champagne for the same price as a bottle of nasty Asda value wine, so why do cinemas charge the same for a Hollywood blockbuster as they do for a low-budget comedy with no star names?
  • trphiltrphil Posts: 2,931
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    One of the problems is the size of the cinemas, now the majority of cinemas have many screens, twenty years ago 2 or 3 was much more common. The overheads on a big multiscreen cinema are going to be far higher.

    Then you've got the price, when I was a teen I'd go to the cinema every other week at least and I could afford it, now in real terms I would say it's more than double the price in real terms.

    Then when you consider that films now appear on DVD or Blu-ray after six months at a cost not much more than a single entry to the cinema whereas 20 years ago you'd wait about two years to be able to rent it on VHS and if it became available to buy would have very expensive.

    They just haven't got a hope with the current model, they'll not die out completely though. Someone will come up with a "new" idea, maybe a single screen cinema showing the same film on a loop, people able to come in whenever and watch the film round for a couple of quid. No pre-booking, no seat allocation, no frills...
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