Canberra cinemas?

With the ease of extra large Plasma and superfast internet, why pay to go to the movies anymore. Hoyts Belco sux – when they first opened tix were $5, and you have to walk so far to go the the loo, makes you not wanting to buy their supersmall cokes for $5 a pop (dont forget its 90% ice too). I live in Belco and drive out to Woden to go to the movies – but again with the whole lazyness thing, why walk all the way down to Coles and Woolies for munchies when Big W is right upstairs ???

Did someone also mention 10 redskins for a BUCK ?? yummo

When I went to the Premium VIP cinema in Bangkok, they had allocated seating, as well as impeccably clean cinemas, friendly helpful staff and nice food. And all for less than 2 bucks a movie!

i really miss the center cinema.

great screen. great sound. great seats. great location.

ineresting programming.

remember the friday night shows ?

the fact its a nightclub now is a crime against culture.

I think a moment’s thought spent on crowd control would do wonders for the experience, and fully allocated seating for new releases over the weekend would do wonders for reducing the surges (also the pre-booking surcharges would cover the cost of the extra staff that requires).

But a bit of thought and a bit of investment are needed as they’re all looking run down in this town.

Come on Johnboy why so negative, what do you want in Canberra some intergalactic transporter style cinema , where you get teleported from you lounge room to your very own cinema styled fantasy???? But aside from the ever crumbling Dendy? Give them a break the “storm effected Dendy” is back at it and providing what I can say is a 1st class cinema experience and no this is not Craig with a new handle , but to make comment not an attack Dendy is still number one for me premium class that is, and I do like Hoyts woden , it the best out of the hoyts 3, you can go see a movie then go to barbar for a good ole latte

What really boils my coil is the simple fact of having to wait for the spotty teenager to fill five cokes before I can buy my ticket. I’m one of the ones who enjoys lining up, enjoys the smell of the popcorn and the thrill of wading through the Val Morgan advertising to get to the feature. I have a good dvd system, I buy movies and watch them at home, but I really do like the cinema experience. Unfortunatley the transparent attempt to force me to go to the candy counter to buy my ticket is really putting me off and is spoiling the experience. A triffling matter, but enough to stop this customer from shelling out my $15 bucks a fortnight. Its almost been 3 months since my last movie experience and I can’t see that ban being lifted soon. Hoyts, just let me buy my ticket and I’ll decide as an informed consumer whether or not I want to buy that choc top or not!

Agree. It’s the other people you have to put up with that turns me off cinemas.

Cinemas are too loud and I find my concentration is often directed towards my suffering ears rather than the action on the screen.

$15 to watch an often out of focus screen with some garlic laden person chewing their excruciating way through a very loud ice cream cone, or one by one crackling their way through a whole bag of minties, is probably not a big worry for adrenalin laden teenagers but for the last fifteen odd years has proven to be more than my own sensibilities can handle.

So for $5.95, and an investment in a 68cm screen wired up to my stereo, I get to enjoy an unpolluted environment in which to watch what i want, when I want, and in virtual silence. Sure the screen isn’t so big, but five minutes into the film I don’t even notice that aspect of the experience.

Movies are good for socially active types, DVDs are better for the pure enjoyment of a film. IMHO of course!

The ANU Film Group is a great alternative. $35 per semester gives you about 60 films held throughout the week. Films include recent & old ones & you can vote on/suggest films that are to be shown for semester 2. Rotary runs the lolly shop (10 redskins for $1!) and the crowd is fun.Check out the website: http://www.anufg.org.au

cinema staff cannot legally stop you bringing in food from somewhere else.

its forbidden under the third force marketing provisions in ACCC legislation.

has greater union civic been upgraded ?

last time i went (2 years ago) they had the most uncomfortable cinema seats in canberra.

In the US the internet was delivered via cable TV connectivity for quite a while.

I can see the internet and pay tv eventually merging to some extent.

I already do…

“Is there anything good to be said about the cinema experience in this town?”

People.. Cinemas aren’t some mystical wonderland in other cities..

In Sydney most of the biggies are about $15 a ticket and you usually have to get stabbed when you go to the George St Village complex.

A few years back all we had were the dodgey cosmo twins at woden, the greater union and civic, the urine smelling one at manuka and the good old, electic shadows..

Now, at least there’s some choice and most of them are easy to get to..

Prices are going up everywhere but box office numbers don’t appear to be dropping.

If you object to paying an extra $3 bucks for the big screen movies experience, stop whinging and just get your five for five weekly DVDs and a big box of homebrand cheese snacks and watch em at home…

It’d be a good place for a nightclub – maybe a good competitor for Academy?

Hoyts are still a small distributor, and Roadshow (part of Village Roadshow) are a major one.

With all the apartments going up around civic? I’d say they think they can hang tough.

The real question is at what point is it worth more as a night club?

I’m interested to see how long Greater Union civic hangs in with its 8 dollar tix.

I do understand that cinemas make their money from choc tops… What I’m saying is that I’m opposed to high prices. Damn opposed!

May I diverge into “cinema” as concept for a second. I mean that in an film-student wanky type of way, ie that the audience is sharing a hallucination with no control over it. Essentially people are captive within a dream – a shared dream. Ok, wankery over. But it’s very serious wankery – because thats why film is such as essential artform – because of cinemas. It is fundamentally different in all the important ways to watch a film at home. It is the opposite of a cinema – you have control over the movie (ie the remote), you control the environment, and most importantly, you’re watching it comparatively alone. You’re not sharing the experience with the people in your society.

Now this is very simpistic I know, and I could expound on this for hours in detail, but my point is that I want and we need cinemas in the current form to survive – the one problem is that we need people to go to them, and they won’t when the cost in unreasonable.

Last time I went to the Woden cinema, there wasn’t even anyone to check my ticket. I could have taken anything in.

Im the same VY… when I decide to fork out the $15 for a ticket in Woden, I always go up to Woolies to get food. They used to be strict by checking peoples bags for food before they went in but now they don’t care which is good.

“I think mainstream movies will die off soon- either in terms of quality or number of high quality. This is because there seems to be a trend of producing high quality/budget television shows these days. Which indicates that people want all the wizbang of a blockbuster plus the character/plot development of a serial. “

Add this to the fact that people have fairly good telly’s these days at home, and that you can buy a movie for $5-30. Soon it won’t really be worth going to the movies.

It will be sad when they go, though. Just like it was sad when the drive-in went.

Apologies, Hoyts and Village are no longer the distributors, it’s just the mind-set that goes on.

“In a plex you’re always on the go and they have to roster staff on just to crank the suckers out, better margins on a Cornetto if you factor in the staff costs”

The days of staff made Choc tops are long gone. The major Canberra plex has been ordering frozen choc tops from a confectionary supplier for the last three years.

I think mainstream movies will die off soon- either in terms of quality or number of high quality. This is because there seems to be a trend of producing high quality/budget television shows these days. Which indicates that people want all the wizbang of a blockbuster plus the character/plot development of a serial.

“How much do you think choc tops cost to make? Hint: It’s nowhere near #3.60 “

And herein lies the point. I don’t think people mind paying 10 bucks for a ticket, but getting screwed for food just sucks. Which is why in Woden I will walk all the way to the other end of the mall to go to Woolies. 10 bucks in Woolies buys nibblies and soft drinks for 2 people easy.

Choc tops only made sense in a single screen house where the staff had nothing to do between shows.

In a plex you’re always on the go and they have to roster staff on just to crank the suckers out, better margins on a Cornetto if you factor in the staff costs.

Charging $5 a ticket would soon see cinemas go out of business. If you think the box office is where cinemas make their money you are out of your mind.

How much do you think choc tops cost to make? Hint: It’s nowhere near #3.60

Well the business model of cinemas is meant to be from selling drinks, popcorn, and lollies to the passing customers.

Overseas the distributor keeps almost all the ticket sales and the cinema keeps the food and drink sales. Creating a financial incentive to keep the customers in a good mood between buying tickets and getting to their seats.

In Australia the model got screwed up because the distributors own the cinemas.

Hence merging the box and concession areas makes sense in the very short term. For all that it’s killing their business in the long run.

It also makes them resistant to charging less for a ticket rather than just scrimping ever further on staffing and maintenance and screwing the last drop of blood out of the last customer of habit.

On the weekend I downloaded DVD quality copies of Casino Royale, Little Miss Sunshine, Children of Men, The Prestige, Bra Boys and 300.

I’ma just sayin’ that it was cheaper and easier than going to the movies. On the other hand, I’d RATHER to go to the movies – if they charged something reasonable. In this day and age, with all market forces taken into account, charging any more than $5 a movie is an absolute mindboggling rip off.

“The cinema was almost deserted.”

Makes you wonder how business model actually makes money.

Ahhh, No, I have the borat copy with the “mankini” on order…

I already have Borat – want a look?

I went to the movies in Woden last week with the wife and found it slow to get tickets. We never buy snacks at the movies (but rather BYO from Woolies). The cinema was almost deserted.

Cost for a family of 4 to see a movie (on a day of their choice – Not Tuesday) – Costs rounded to simplify the math…

Tickets – $11 * 4 – About $40
Popcorn and drinks * 2 – About $20
Parking $4

Total = $64.00

Now, compare that to paying top dollar to have the DVD of your choice delivered rom amazon.com to my doorstep and watching it on my home setup…

Movie – $35 (Can watch it whenever I want)
Nibblies – $10

Total – $40

The math is pretty simple…

Oh, And if you are desperate to watch borat before it comes out on DVD, just download it as a torrent file… (That should stir things up a bit)

dendy is a very shoddy affair.

a friend defied my boorish ban on dendy and shouted me a ticket to see 300.

while standing in the lobby i noticed paint runs on those weird pressed metal bookend things above the box office. i also noticed sloppy painting in other places.

we sat in the cinema and when i lent on the armrest – it broke off!

in fact the whole cinema has an air of ‘on the cheap’ about it.

enjoyed the film though.

‘Tight Ass Tuesdays at Manuka, followed or preceeded by noodles at Timmys, are always good value.

The biggest positive for me is the sheer variety. For a city of 330,000 I think we’re better off than a number of other cities around Australia.

You’ve got your Hoyts for your blockbusters (with GU civic as a cheap alternative), your Dendy for your foreign/indie films, and GU Manuka for the movies that fall somewhere in between. Not to mention NFSA screenings and the ANU Film Group. Plus there is a thriving short film scene in Canberra as well via things like Lights Canberra Action and Short Seasons.

Its too expensive to go to the movies, well for me anyway. Even with student discounts and ‘Tight Ass Tuesdays’ I just wait for them to come out on DVD and if I still want to see it, i’ll think about hiring it.