Cineworld preparing to file for bankruptcy

Bassmansam said:
All the suggestions you are making just mean the ticket prices will need to go up
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It doesn't automatically mean that.

At the moment when I go to the cinema, I don't buy their 10p coke as it costs £4.50 or whatever. If I purchase at £2 they make a profit still and make a sale.

The issue I see is that cinema companies have seen that they are making less money over all from snacks, this is due to far less people going to cinemas, however the plug that gap, they increase the price of snacks, and then as a result, even less buy snacks so even less profit, so they increase the price even more, and in the end, no one is buying now. When I go as a group, it in precovid times could be groups of 10 or so people, plenty would buy stuff from the cinema, wmeven with morrisons next door. Now not a single one of them buys anything from the cinema. Nothing
 
unwashed potato! said:
To me the issue isn't directly 'we can watch at home on a big screen' but more that watching at cinema doesn't add anything, and not in fact can be worse.

It's 2023 and still you have to share arm ****ING rests with the person sat next to you. They can't give you your own 2 arm rests ffs!

Although perfectly comfortable, the sears are still pretty basic. What about adding a proper foot rest to their seats? What about reducing the seating capacity by 15 percent and making a bit more room for everyone. How about not charging £9 for a drink and pop corn. £4 should be the price, with their unlimited car ld then it's £3.50. I don't even like pop corn but at that price I'd buy just for the classic cinema experience. How about free pop corn and drink for every ticket showing on a quiet Monday?

How about every Saturday they have an old movie showing thsts long gone from cinema and it comes with a free snack.

How about forcing Marvel to stop showing content right at the end of their credits. At home I can skip them to get to the clip. Cinema I wait 15 minutes.

They should also be making serious deals with local food places. Date night food and movie £15 each every Thursday.

There's so much more cinema should be doing to get us out. I love cinema, and love getting my groups together to watch movies, but it's just such a naff experience now in comparison to what it should be, I've lost more and more of my group and it's to the point now that unless it's a major film, most won't go.
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Most of this stuff already happens - the big chains all have premium seating options and premium film formats- 4DX even has your foot rests lol.

Classic films are shown regularly - Wicker Man was on last week and all the Bonds last year. Cineworld often give free food / drinks to unlimited members.

Cinema drinks being too expensive is overblown as well - McDonalds large Coke is around £2 for 500ml whereas Cineworld large Coke is around £4 for 900ml.

The issue cinemas have at the moment is the lack of decent content - too many by the numbers super hero films and poor sequels.

But given the streaming experiment failed (Paramount would have lost £100m's if they had done that with Top Gun Maverick) cinemas aren't going anywhere - who is seriously going to watch Oppenheimer on TV for the first time..
 
unwashed potato! said:
It doesn't automatically mean that.

At the moment when I go to the cinema, I don't buy their 10p coke as it costs £4.50 or whatever. If I purchase at £2 they make a profit still and make a sale.

The issue I see is that cinema companies have seen that they are making less money over all from snacks, this is due to far less people going to cinemas, however the plug that gap, they increase the price of snacks, and then as a result, even less buy snacks so even less profit, so they increase the price even more, and in the end, no one is buying now. When I go as a group, it in precovid times could be groups of 10 or so people, plenty would buy stuff from the cinema, wmeven with morrisons next door. Now not a single one of them buys anything from the cinema. Nothing
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You could say that about any business, lower prices to sell more - but your GSCE economics doesn't work in the real world as otherwise everyone would do it.

Any food / drink business has to maintain margins.
 
n111ck said:
You could say that about any business, lower prices to sell more - but your GSCE economics doesn't work in the real world as otherwise everyone would do it.

Any food / drink business has to maintain margins.
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I'm surprised you think that they make more money by increasing their prices so high.

Who here buys a drink from cinema these days? As said, not a single member of my group does it now. It's just too expensive for a drink. There is a point where it becomes so expensive that people will opt for alternative options. That is what happens in business, hence why they don't charge £10, gcse economics there for you, and I believe cinemas have already gone beyond that point.

Cinemas needs to draw people back in, and at the moment, there's many reasons why people stay at home and watch at home, and very few to go and see a new movie at the cinema. I they can't just rely on "our screens are bigger and louder" as it feels they currently are.
 
I think the last movie I saw at the Cinema was Star Wars The Last Jedi, it was a terrible movie and put me right off wanting to watching any else especially if it was Star Wars related. I do regret not making the effort to go and see Top Gun Maverick at he big screen, good fun movie and the sort of movie that works well on the big screen but I was put off by the price of a ticket, I just feel Cinema's are their to take you for ride and rinse every bit of money out you that they can.

Edit
Just checked it's £15 for a Saturday showing of the next Indiana Jones movie, and they wonder why nobody goes to these places any more.
 
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Spend some time and actually watch how a cinema foyer operates in peak and offpeak times and it becomes clearer why they operate the margins they do. They try and stagger start times as best they can to make sure a constant flow of customers can buy snacks before the film but surprisingly in busy periods (yes this still happens) the time it takes to take an order, process the snacks, probably sell tickets too, most of this time is waiting for a customer to decide what they actually want and can be 5+ minutes per group. The cinemas don't have capacity to reduce the price as they would have to employ more staff to serve more customers, who between screenings would then not be productive to the rest of the cinema. You'd reduce your margin on the product and increase your overheads trying to sell it. Trying to retain staff working antisocial hours, constantly cleaning rubbish out of the screens because customers are too disrespectful to take the rubbish out and find a bin.

I used to buy a drink at each showing as it was about £3 for a large drink with Unlimited discount, but since the new year the cinema is a lot busier and it's a 10-15 minute queue for snacks. Go to a launch night of a big blockbuster and you have to be there 30mins early as the queue for snacks is so long and that's with every till open.
 
unwashed potato! said:
I'm surprised you think that they make more money by increasing their prices so high.

Who here buys a drink from cinema these days? As said, not a single member of my group does it now. It's just too expensive for a drink. There is a point where it becomes so expensive that people will opt for alternative options. That is what happens in business, hence why they don't charge £10, gcse economics there for you, and I believe cinemas have already gone beyond that point.

Cinemas needs to draw people back in, and at the moment, there's many reasons why people stay at home and watch at home, and very few to go and see a new movie at the cinema. I they can't just rely on "our screens are bigger and louder" as it feels they currently are.
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So you think they charge 'high' prices for the sake of it?? I think they, with all their sale data, would know better what the market will support. As I said what they charge for soft drinks is in line with competitors. Suggesting they should sell Coke for half the price of McDonalds is just ridiculous.
 
n111ck said:
So you think they charge 'high' prices for the sake of it?? I think they, with all their sale data, would know better what the market will support. As I said what they charge for soft drinks is in line with competitors. Suggesting they should sell Coke for half the price of McDonalds is just ridiculous.
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Tbf if they're in administration they've obviously gone wrong somewhere. They could trial it have a few weeks of low drinks/food prices and see if they make more (would need to advertise it to pull people in). The lack of decent films isn't helping either I suppose.
 
unwashed potato! said:
Who here buys a drink from cinema these days? As said, not a single member of my group does it now. It's just too expensive for a drink. There is a point where it becomes so expensive that people will opt for alternative options. That is what happens in business, hence why they don't charge £10, gcse economics there for you, and I believe cinemas have already gone beyond that point.
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As above, i tend to buy a beer, my wife maybe an ice cream. The amount of people eating inside the screening room also suggests it's popular and that your group is very much in the minority.
 
theone8181 said:
Tbf if they're in administration they've obviously gone wrong somewhere. They could trial it have a few weeks of low drinks/food prices and see if they make more (would need to advertise it to pull people in). The lack of decent films isn't helping either I suppose.
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They did some bad deals just before covid that increased their debt and then obviously covid didnt help..

They did free food / drinks every time you saw a film in January if you had an unlimited card.
 
theone8181 said:
Tbf if they're in administration they've obviously gone wrong somewhere. They could trial it have a few weeks of low drinks/food prices and see if they make more (would need to advertise it to pull people in). The lack of decent films isn't helping either I suppose.
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I don't think it's the day to day running that's causing the issues, it's the debt and interest payments. That's why they're looking to restructuring it. A shame my local is a Vue, if it was a Cine world I'd have their cinema pass and see 3-4 movies a month.
 
Steeps said:
The cinemas don't have capacity to reduce the price as they would have to employ more staff to serve more customers
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It's a good point, but the lower discounted offers don't have to be all the time. In my initial post I was suggesting having these offers for their off peak days to draw people in. Ticket, pop corn, drink, £10 each etc.

I still stand by they need to do more to draw people in than just rely on the "bigger and louder experience" that cinemas offer.

I remember going to see movies on a Wednesday and unless you booked well in advance on the day or even days before, you could have it that the movie you turn up to see is fully booked! Madness to even imagine that now. I turn up while the trailers have started and can easily get seats in good spots.
 
unwashed potato! said:
I remember going to see movies on a Wednesday and unless you booked well in advance on the day or even days before, you could have it that the movie you turn up to see is fully booked! Madness to even imagine that now. I turn up while the trailers have started and can easily get seats in good spots.
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Back then a big TV was 29” and still weighed two tons. There were three or four channels and you had to rely on pot luck to see a movie within two or three years on terrestrial TV to see the latest film. Even then at the video rental place 9-12 months later and that was if they hadn’t already rented all the copies they had. Very different time for everyone.
 
TVs and sound systems in your home are just better than sitting in some grotty seat surrounded by ”the great noisy”. Well unless you are young and don’t have that and nothing else to do. Boutique cinemas I understand with boxes, sofa and table service. Big chains….blockbuster video territory ironically (a view backed by the markets).
 
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