Cineworld Cinema - Leicester Square

Al Alvarez. A small point. The First six months of the Showcase being opened. Like for like a matched in business. But in real terms they where doing very poor for a multiplex. The Film companies assured us of our prints, when the planning application was being made.. Showcase had to give massive giveaways. still no good. So suddenly there where no prints available. except if it was a stinker.. They where supplied prints which where never used.. There was a documentary screened at the Prince Charles recently and Cannes that rattled the film companies.. I am told they are still using the same excuse of prints shortage with todays digital age.

I did 39 years in my own right in Theatres and Cinemas booking for 28 sites.. member of the Cinematograph Exhibiters Association. dealing with the Monopolies and mergers etc etc. and knew many of the principles involved at the time. In the Chains and renters..

Hmm. It seems. Al Alvarez.. at the end of the day. You know nothing… about British cinemas. and the practice of the renters. The Independent never could beat the system.. You are right about audiences walking away. If they had to wait six weeks. When we closed in 1996 We where current with the trends of the time.. we had the same equipment as the Multiplex that caused the problem. and it maintained by Sound associates..

You really need to study the History of the relationship of British Cinemas and the Renters.. Makes the Mafia seem like a Vicarage tea party,

“Our Birmingham Theatre was kept up to date with the trends..” Did you keep up to date with the boxoffice? If you did, and were still denied day-and-date prints you could still sue them today. But I know you couldn’t because the audience just walked away to them.

Terry—A lot of “ifs” there! When the multiplexes arrived, the greater choice and pristine interiors were a revelation.

Now I’m not saying I liked them—outside of venues such as the Warner West End, the ambience was often poor and the presentation could be sloppy (e.g. failure to do the anamorphic lens change!) I also remember being shocked to see slide projection with adverts for local businesses in a Cineworld… hardly the way to set the mood…

Regarding IMAX/laser projection—I fully anticipate it to provide superior picture quality.

It is not the “fault” of the technology but the operator if there is a failure to achieve a good standard of presentation in all respects. The Empire’s IMAX auditorium may lack tabs, but the colour-changing concealed lighting, suitable “non-sync” music, etc., and of course the very attractive foyer, remain.

As for the Chinese, it’s a world-famous landmark theatre in a “megacity” which also happens to be the movie capital of the West. They were fortunate enough that the building/site constraints did not stop them from digging a large hole in the ground. The Empire LS was more constrained, but in upgrading to meet today’s expectations, was fortunate enough to have a steeply racked circle which works well for IMAX, and that modern acoustic absorption could be applied to the walls/ceilings without annihilating the interior look and feel.

In most cases, it’s surely easier and presumably cheaper to sell out to a developer looking to build flats or similar and do a new-build on another site…

Hi Mike – as you say sometimes there was no choice for the public and I remember Warner Bros ‘concern’ about having nowhere to exhibit their product as I was Manager at Newcastle ABC when they decided to come along. It had a capacity of 973 within 2 auditoria of 600 and 373 seats; the building had once seated 2200. It had 70mm and 6 track mag in both auditoria, ‘Sensurround’, Dolby Stereo and a Licensed Bar whilst the 25 feet deep stage was retained in the larger stalls auditorium for Personal Appearances at Regional Premieres etc. A more comfortable theatre I have never experienced either as a paying customer or as an employee in the Industry.

We were just recovering (Cannon having acquired us did not help) from AMC’s onslaught on Tyneside when WB decided to land in the city which also had a huge Odeon with auditoria ranging from 1228 seats down to 150. There was also the Art House, The Tyneside with a large auditorium of 390 seats and a ‘mini’ of 120 seats within adjacent property. There were still one or 2 decent sized and well run suburban independents. So Newcastle really was in need of outlets for WB to screen its product, wasn’t it?

It is also strange that over the years we had to really ‘watch our backs’ regarding manning levels in case of a visit by the Fire Dept and yet when these multiplexes appeared they seemed to be able to disregard every Home Office Regulation and Local Authority Licensing Stipulation relating to staff – as they do to this very day.

The few people I know who still visit a cinema occasionally – invariably a multiplex because there is nothing else – tell me that they cannot hear the film because of rowdy behaviour in the auditorium and that, upon trying to alert staff re the matter, there are simply none to find. Consequently, it is a very long time before they decide to pay another visit – and then only to find that the same circumstances prevail. As an illustration, people having loud and protracted conversations on mobile phones with their friends in another part of the auditorium seems to be one of the most popular activities.

Re WB in Newcastle ; this closed in 2004 having been bought by the University Of Northumbria as a site for a new campus. My Brother In Law is a Programme leader/Senior Lecturer there and he said to me at the time -albeit with a sardonic tone in his voice – that I would be delighted to learn that 90 percent of the building materials of the Warner had been recycled in the construction of the new University and I replied, using the same amount of irony, that I was most elated to learn this!

Warner Bros. started building multiplexes as outlets for their product since they lacked the screens in many smaller markets and many towns had no cinemas left at all. The market evolved as it had to or it would have died altogether as it had in eastern Europe due to neglect by the major chains.

And that would have been the last of their films you ever played. Without product variety no cinema could survive. Anyway, British audiences chose multiplexes over older cinemas, not Americans.

Do you really think that under those circumstances you could have filled the house and covered the overhead when HOWARD THE DUCK was the only film playing?

Rather odd to see comments regarding the 1980s American ‘invasion’ on the page of a cinema originally built for Loews/MGM…!

Suffice to say that by the time of the ‘first wave’ of new-build multiplexes in the UK, the average local cinema, at least in my experience, had been badly subdivided and in some cases offered an utterly miserable standard of presentation and comfort.

However, the current situation is very different; the leading operators are Cineworld, Odeon/UCI and VUE, and the first generation multiplexes, if not refitted and/or reconfigured, are obsolete in design. Indeed, ‘The Point’ in Milton Keynes, ostensibly the first ‘true’ multiplex in the UK, is approved for demolition, having been sidelined after the construction of a nearby Cineworld, and finally closed following the recent opening of a replacement Odeon (with IMAX screen.)

The cinema is finally getting decent product with Jurassic World playing both in IMAX 3D and IMPACT screens next month

Yes to Terry. For around five year I have had a cinema veterans pass to go to the cinema… Hmm have not found anything worth watching.

usa cinema chains have destroyed British cinema heritage with these lousy forsaken multiplexes.