10 April 2007

Canberra cinemas?

| johnboy
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On Thursday I went to see “300” at Hoyts Belconnen (apart from tying the psychopathic homosexual Spartans to the agendas of right wing America it was entertaining enough).

No box office and the concession stand which was selling tickets was not properly opened (only the one tap head serving drinks meaning the whole process was painfully slow).

It got me thinking… Are there any decent points to be found in Canberra cinemas?

Let’s leave aside the new but rapidly crumbling Dendy. Is there anything good to be said about the cinema experience in this town?

Or is it time to settle down on the couch with my properly balanced surround sound and watch what comes off the torrents with a beer from the fridge?

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I can’t stand being in a cinema, due to the horrible behaviour of people. Some take their shoes off! Stinko. Or they bring their kids and as always are oblivious to the racket they make. Or (as someone else mentioned) they air their horrible lack of table manners while feeding.

It’s a shame, as some films are made for teh big screen (Out of Africa, Blade Runner, Lawrence of Arabia, Dr Zhivago to name a few), but they are still enjoyable on one’s home theatre setup.

Plenty of quality cinemas in North Sydney (serving plenty of quality money I guess)

To go back to a much earlier point – No, Bonfire, Greater Union Civic is about as much a pit as it ever was. The difference is, they’ve compensated for the quality differential with Dendy (and despite the many complaints about Dendy, Dendy at least understands that a cinema with raked seating is a good thing if you want your patrons to, you know, actually see the screen), to compete Greater Union Civic has done the “cut the ticket price” thing.

Having said that, the cinema problems are Australia-wide on this one – it isn’t a canberra-specific problem.

Yeah I used to churn about 300 decidedly dodgy quality choc tops in one day, and I was considered slow.

I thought Candy bar prices were insane until I went to Cirque de Soleil and paid $17 for popcorn and two cokes. Now thats a markup.

Even counting in the wages we got, it doesnt cost that much. We used to bang out a bucketload (literally) of choc tops in no time. That said it was a great day when Hoyts decided to start ordering them in, Ice Cream in general is an extremely annoying commodity to dish out.

In regards to candy bar prices, of course they are a rip off and of course you don’t have to buy them. That’s the beauty of voluntary agreements, they are voluntary. When people complained I used to tell them exactly that. It’s surprising I didn’t get into trouble more often than I did, probably because I mentioned to the customer that I did the exact same thing as I was advocating. Come to think of it, expressing a libertarian political philosophy and the virtues of freedom of choice wasn’t the best idea for a young teen who needed the job he was risking with his mouth.

West_Kambah’s right, cinema is a totally different experience to home viewing. This is why some movies are “worth watching on the big screen” while others are “wait for DVD” – and it’s not just the quality of the acting. Some special effects are designed for the big screen (and nobody has a screen that big at home!) and some plot devices also work differently when you’re in the cinema. Anyone remember walking out after Once Were Warriors and noticing that NOBODY was talking?

AD: TiVO. ’nuff said.

I loved ANU Film Group. I got to see lots of relatively recent releases on the cheap, but I also got the opportunity to see great movies that I wouldn’t normally have paid money for in a cinema, and I got to see classics on the big screen. And the kiosk was good. And the seats gave me nostalgia for the crappy seats at the old Woden Cosmo.

“One wonders if the reverse might also hold true – reducing the ticket price might increase the number of patrons (thus increasing their take from the candy bar into the bargain)?”

A small number paying high prices is preferable to a large number paying lower prices. More customers raises your outgoing costs: More customers equals more staff needed, more cleaners, more damage to cinemas etc

Plus the kind of people who would be attracted by cheaper tickets are not the kind of people who would pay exorbitant candy bar prices.

The first wave of home cinema, the VHS actually revived the movies by getting people watching them again and then anticipating the release.

But underpaid projectionists the world over means that the pirate copies are getting stupidly good as captured from the projection booth.

There are some interesting stats on cinema patronage in today’s SMH.

http://blogs.smh.com.au/sit/archives/2007/04/the_tribal_mind_new_weeks_tv_1.html

According to that article, between 2002 & 2006 patronage has dropped by 10 million cinema visits (92.5M tickets down to 82.6M). However, the price rise on those tickets has more than compensated – going up from $845M to $866M.

So, they balance the reduced number of patrons by increasing the price of the tickets.

One wonders if the reverse might also hold true – reducing the ticket price might increase the number of patrons (thus increasing their take from the candy bar into the bargain)? Maybe not, as the DVD and home surround sound system seems to have taken hold.

VY – i remember paying $2 for a nights accomadation and food in Bangkok, i think you were ripped off!! 🙂

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

VYBerlinaV8 now_with_added grunt3:39 pm 10 Apr 07

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

Non_Sequitur1:58 pm 10 Apr 07

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!

rachellenevin12:12 pm 10 Apr 07

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.

VYBerlinaV8 now_with_added grunt12:07 pm 10 Apr 07

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

Absent Diane12:04 pm 10 Apr 07

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.

West_Kambah_4eva11:36 am 10 Apr 07

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.

VYBerlinaV8 now_with_added grunt11:34 am 10 Apr 07

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.

VYBerlinaV8 now_with_added grunt11:33 am 10 Apr 07

“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.

Absent Diane11:22 am 10 Apr 07

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.

VYBerlinaV8 now_with_added grunt11:16 am 10 Apr 07

“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.

West_Kambah_4eva10:48 am 10 Apr 07

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.

James-T-Kirk10:37 am 10 Apr 07

“The cinema was almost deserted.”

Makes you wonder how business model actually makes money.

James-T-Kirk10:36 am 10 Apr 07

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

VYBerlinaV8 now_with_added grunt10:22 am 10 Apr 07

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.

James-T-Kirk10:09 am 10 Apr 07

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.

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