Cineworld to Close All U.K. Venues

The Cineworld in The O2 used to be a Vue until about 10 years ago. There’s already a huge unkempt Odeon around the corner. With no concert events, having the cinema there is keeping the trade within the restaurants. The shopping centre there isn’t very busy since not all of the shops have reopened.
 
I actually think that the cineworld building will be a bugger to convert, as it’s purpose built to be a cinema with huge floor to ceiling heights and large areas with no windows. I don’t think it would be economically viable to convert it. It’ll either sit and gather dust or be demolished.

That makes more sense. Yeah - it would involve completely gutting the inside and it'll likely be cheaper to pull it down. It's not like it's listed or even a particularly attractive building.
 
Surely another company will SWOOP IN once we're on the other side of this mess as @COB said

Cineworld fucked perhaps but cinema-going? I don't see it
 
The report on the website doesn't imply that or am I missing something?

Aside from the independents and Curzon, Cineworld is my favourite nationwide chain because the theatres evoke nostalgia and the power of cinema of old.

Odeon, Vue and Empires can frankly do one. Are Warner cinemas still around?

They updated it to say temporarily from the earlier report.
 
Whole micro-economies are just going to collapse, aren't they? I know it was talked about earlier in the pandemic but this is it really starting to happen, isn't it? :(
 
Wow I haven't been to it in so long that I didn't realise the Cineworld on Fulham Road has been changed to a Picturehouse. Some of the central London branches have changed too. Can't say I am as fussed now actually.
 
Cineworld own Picturehouse, don’t they? I was annoyed they didn’t include them in the Unlimited scheme as there is an amazing one in Southampton that I frequent when I can.
 
I was also recently hearing about some American chains that have a different price tiering system compared to the UK. They don’t have the same kind of Unlimited schemes (Movie Pass was never a good equivalent), but for a regular ticket, UK chains generally charge a couple of pounds extra for evenings and weekends which is standard. Some US chains have higher prices for opening night blockbusters, but as the run goes on a couple of weeks down the line the ticket prices go down. How about just making smaller independent films cheaper to see than the latest blockbuster franchise?


Makes total sense. Theatre is played with different price points depending on demand.

EasyCinema was a failed attempt to do something like that about 20 years ago, where the earlier you got your ticket the cheaper it was, so the price point changed as the tickets sold. But I'm pretty sure there was a fixed price point if you bought on the night. They were just trying to encourage early booking.
 
Cineworld own Picturehouse, don’t they? I was annoyed they didn’t include them in the Unlimited scheme as there is an amazing one in Southampton that I frequent when I can.

Oh I see. That makes sense. The Cineworld on Haymarket (one of my favourite cinemas EVER) is now an Empire Cinema though apparently.

I can't actually keep up with all the changes. Why do the chains do this so much?
 
Oh I see. That makes sense. The Cineworld on Haymarket (one of my favourite cinemas EVER) is now an Empire Cinema though apparently.

I loved the Cineworld on Haymarket BUT the smaller screens downstairs... I must have seen rats running around in that one 5 or 6 different occasions. I used to try and sit with my feet on the chair in front I was so freaked out by it.
 
The Peckhamplex in, well Peckham, is an independent cinema and it does a great job of scooping mid-tier releases as well as blockbusters and even foreign language stuff (I saw the last Kore-eda there). Astonishingly ALL TICKETS are a FIVER which for London is a golden unicorn. They re-opened briefly in August but announced last week they were closing down "until further notice" because there are no films, people are not going etc. :( It'd be tragic if it closed forever, maybe it's subsidized in some way and it will be able to survive.
 
Makes total sense. Theatre is played with different price points depending on demand.

EasyCinema was a failed attempt to do something like that about 20 years ago, where the earlier you got your ticket the cheaper it was, so the price point changed as the tickets sold. But I'm pretty sure there was a fixed price point if you bought on the night. They were just trying to encourage early booking.
It would take a lot more planning for the chains because they really get it wrong so often with screen allocations e.g. selling out small screens for low budget awards bait films but having near empty big screens for higher profile releases. With digital projectors I never understood why they couldn’t just swap screens because the BFI do that quite often when one film becomes unexpectedly more popular than another.
 
Distribution often pay more to have their films shown in a bigger screen, and it’s often part of the deal. We had the same issue at Odeon, a film would be in the 500 seater and sell nothing and we would sell out a smaller screen and have to turn so many away, but we couldn’t swap the screens because the flop film had paid for it!
 
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I loved the Cineworld on Haymarket BUT the smaller screens downstairs... I must have seen rats running around in that one 5 or 6 different occasions. I used to try and sit with my feet on the chair in front I was so freaked out by it.

I loved the small screens. Thankfully I never had that experience.

There used to be a small super-modern luxe cinema in the Piccadilly area that I went to once but I don't think it is open any more. I can't remember what it was called or where it was exactly. I'm not referring to the Regent Street Cinema or the Odeon Luxe.

Anyway, it was meh.
 
I loved the Cineworld on Haymarket BUT the smaller screens downstairs... I must have seen rats running around in that one 5 or 6 different occasions. I used to try and sit with my feet on the chair in front I was so freaked out by it.
Empire Leicester Square and Cineworld Haymarket just simply did a swap, didn’t they? So it didn’t make much difference as the other was around the corner and has an IMAX screen instead of a mould stenched area with one wonky screen that shakes every time a tube train passes.
 
It would take a lot more planning for the chains because they really get it wrong so often with screen allocations e.g. selling out small screens for low budget awards bait films but having near empty big screens for higher profile releases. With digital projectors I never understood why they couldn’t just swap screens because the BFI do that quite often when one film becomes unexpectedly more popular than another.

I think just make the first 20% of seats a certain price, then the next 20% a higher price and so on. That shouldn't be difficult to implement.
 
I loved the small screens. Thankfully I never had that experience.

There used to be a small super-modern luxe cinema in the Piccadilly area that I went to once but I don't think it is open any more. U can't remember what it was called. I'm not to the Regent Street Cinema or the Odeon Luxe.

That was the Apollo. I think it might be an Odeon now (edit - it’s a Vue). Regent Street Cinema is super old and nearly every time I’ve been they’ve had a delay due to projection/sound issues, but it’s quaint.
 
Empire Leicester Square and Cineworld Haymarket just simply did a swap, didn’t they? So it didn’t make much difference as the other was around the corner and has an IMAX screen instead of a mould stenched area with one wonky screen that shakes every time a tube train passes.

Ooh, I've been to a few premieres at the Empire. It's now a Cineworld? How odd.

I have basically avoided the West End for the last 5 years like my life depended on it.
 
The nicest cinema in the Piccadilly area for me is the Picturehouse. It's inevitably busy with some WANKERS but the bar is nice and the views over Coventry Street and Piccadilly are gorgeous.
Plus you can get £5 tickets with a West End Cineworld Unlimited card at that venue only. You can’t pre-book or use the ticket machines but get them at the box office.
 
The nicest cinema in the Piccadilly area for me is the Picturehouse. It's inevitably busy with some WANKERS but the bar is nice and the views over Coventry Street and Piccadilly are gorgeous.


Oh it's absolutely lovely! I loved when Cineworld passes worked there for a year or so for free.
 
That was the Apollo. I think it might be an Odeon now (edit - it’s a Vue). Regent Street Cinema is super old and nearly every time I’ve been they’ve had a delay due to projection/sound issues, but it’s quaint.

I'm certain it wasn't. The one I went to was really quite small.

Ellie, what was the cinema (chain) that was at the spot where the Tesco Metro is now on lower Regent Street in the late 90s/ealy 00's? I think part of it has been incorporated into the current Vue. I went there plenty of times.
 
The Peckhamplex in, well Peckham, is an independent cinema and it does a great job of scooping mid-tier releases as well as blockbusters and even foreign language stuff (I saw the last Kore-eda there). Astonishingly ALL TICKETS are a FIVER which for London is a golden unicorn. They re-opened briefly in August but announced last week they were closing down "until further notice" because there are no films, people are not going etc. :( It'd be tragic if it closed forever, maybe it's subsidized in some way and it will be able to survive.

I love the Peckhamplex! Until two weeks ago, Mr Sheena literally lived in the road behind during the week.
 
The nicest cinema in the Piccadilly area for me is the Picturehouse. It's inevitably busy with some WANKERS but the bar is nice and the views over Coventry Street and Piccadilly are gorgeous.

Absolutely. It is the only cinema in the West End that I would consider going to now (well aside from the Curzon on Shaftsbury Avenue and the Prince Charlie)
 
Does anyone recall the ghastly WB multiplex in Leicester Square that opened in the 90s? I'm pretty sure they even held a few premieres there. What's there now?
 
But the entrance was on the corner dear!
Oh. Then I don’t know what it was but do vaguely remember it. I definitely went there once to see the film The Door In The Floor on a screen smaller than some people’s TVs these days.
 
Oh. Then I don’t know what it was but do vaguely remember it. I definitely went there once to see the film The Door In The Floor on a screen smaller than some people’s TVs these days.

See my post above. It was the Plaza.
 
Wow, that photograph was taken as recently as 2009. So the new one hasn't been there long.
 
I’m so glad that the Cinerworld deal to buy Cineplex fell through in early Covid days although I’m not sure ours will survive for much longer.

I think people are just not ready to go and at least here the capacity is capped at 25% and there’s no way they’re making any money considering their money was mostly made on concessions.
 
The branch round the corner from me takes up a large part of a shopping centre that already has plenty of vacant units, so I can't see anyone hurrying to carve up the space to make more. Maybe it really will only be temporary, or another cinema chain might buy some of the sites up post-Covid?

Is that Vue still going ahead in St. Enoch? Glasgow seems to have a disproportionate amount of cinemas. There’s already the aforementioned Cineworld and Everyman in the CC.
 
Wow, that photograph was taken as recently as 2009. So the new one hasn't been there long.

Clearly I'm blind as a bat because that photograph was taken AFTER the conversion.
 
Is that Vue still going ahead in St. Enoch? Glasgow seems to have a disproportionate amount of cinemas. There’s already the aforementioned Cineworld and Everyman in the CC.
It's still happening as far as I know, they've been redeveloping the centre for so long now - if it suddenly fell through I think it would halt the entire expansion, which would be shitty for the restaurants etc that have already said they're opening in that bit of the centre.
 

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