Comments on: EasyCinema

By: Atko

Atko — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been a few times since it opened and have found it great. As the booking is a little more involved than handing over a crisp note at the nearby Cineworld it leads to a far better class of cinema goers who have gone out of their way to watch the film, not just turned up at the box office and gone “2 tickets to next film of whatever please”. The actual presentations I’ve never have a problem with, less than Cineworld that often seem to start late or be out of focus / dodgy sound. My only gripe is the toilets are rarely cleaned so make sure you go before you get there.
Overall I would say it’s brilliant and as the most I’ve had to pay is �2 a ticket then for a couple it’s only marginally more expensive than waiting for the DVD in Blockbusters.
I hope this makes people realise there is an alternative to the rip off cinemas but I doubt it. Cineworld opened in Luton and killed off the classic ABC that had been there years even though the ticket price was nearly double.

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Given how little they are prepaired to pay their technical staff [their website quotes �14k a year] I suspect that there will be crap presentation that will be unwatchable [also most of their films will be playing in analog sound]

By: Aaron

Aaron — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

20th Century Fox, Warner Brothers, Disney, Columbia, Universal and Entertainment are all currently bracing themselves for an investigation with the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) which might bring around a surprise for Easy Cinema. If they discover that these large billion dollar companies are illegally price fixing the UK Cinema market then they may be forced to reduce their pricing structure which would then be a victory for Easy Cinema. The only problem is with the painfully slow track record of the OFT it may be too late for Easy Cinema to survive that long!! Unfortunately ticket prices will rise as movies continue to cost more to make with the ever advancing visual effects and greedy movie stars (why doe’s Arnie get paid so much for Terminator 3 when he can’t even act!) and since the American public pay high prices the studios see it as fair game to charge ever increasing prices to the UK cinema industry who then pass this cost to the consumer. Although the production companies do claim that movies cost a lot more to make I somehow doubt that is true as in this world the fat cats just want to get fatter�.
Cineworld (in Milton Keynes) now charges around �6.60 for an adult seat on a Saturday afternoon. Don’t forget it was around �5.00 a year ago so it doesn’t take a genius to work out how much it will increase year upon year. Easy Cinema has a great idea but the UK government is obviously spooning in the cash somewhere as the last time these giant movie companies were challenged for price fixing this government didn’t find anything illegal (although it blatantly was) so we shouldn’t hold our breathe, after all this is rip of Britain.
I have been to Easy Cinema twice now, watched �Xmen 2� and �Fear Dot Com.� One of local cinemas wasn�t screening �Fear Dot Com� so for 80p for two tickets you couldn�t go wrong. Some people feel that paying a low price attracts unwanted attendees who will prat around throughout the movie. I don�t feel this is the case as this unwanted behaviour will continue in any cinema in the UK so I don�t feel anyone raising this as an argument is anyway justified. Ok the screens are not the largest around and also some of the movies may also be out on DVD but do you have a screen the size of the Milton Keynes Easy Cinema one in your living room? I think not�.. Who cares about buying popcorn and coke, why not take your own food in? Some people may say that a mess will be left afterwards but this happens in very cinema, even the �12.00 cinemas in London. You will always get slobs who treat cinemas like their own rubbish bin (although I would like to go to their house and pour popcorn and coke all over their seats and carpets) so this is also unavoidable. People should stop moaning and start supporting this cinema to show that the high ticket prices shouldn�t be tolerated.
Before I get down from my soap box just one more thing, Easy Cinema will hopefully open the doors to a change in the UK cinema market and you have to stand up and give Stelios a round of applause for having the guts to stand up to these greedy movie industry giants.
(Please note I do not work for the cinema industry or work for any Easy company)

By: Judson

Judson — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Yea, probably not very often actually. I thought about this later, and realized the types of movies I usually see wouldn’t survive like this I can’t count the times I’ve been in a theater with only a few people.

I was talking to my mom who used to work at a movie theater when she was a kid, back when they only had one movie that played, and realized that that is pretty much what he is recreating. The “Big Movie” that everyone wants to see plays for 2 weeks, then is replaced.

You’re right, I probably wouldn’t use them much :)

By: Tracy

Tracy — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Yeah ok so if Stelios opened an EasyCinema in US how often would you go??
Lets actually think about what a cinema would be like if the tickets were only 20p….

Loads of annoying school kids with nothing better to do would go just because its kinda more fun than walking round doing nothing - but then they realise they would rather chat, play with their phones, throw food around and move around (getting in the way of the actual film).

You may end up sitting next to someone with really bad BO and not be able to do much about it as there are only a few seats left in the cinema.

As there are no trailers you have to be early so u don’t miss the beginning, but you will still be disturbed by people who don’t realise this and come in late then spend ages settling down.

I love films, I saw the last ever film that was shown while the UCI was closing down, I didn’t plan to but I seemed to be there every couple of days.

EasyCinema is great don’t get me wrong, its made it so that people who may not have been to see a film can finally afford to see one again.

Its attracted a whole new kind of audience but its also attracted a load of people who simply don’t care cuz its only 20p.

Sometimes it seems silly to complain as it only interrupts the film for you and everyone else.

So how often would you visit??

Tracy