To think Vue Cinemas should have left their seats as they were and stayed at £4.99?!

[LydiaDeets]

Manchester Vue has been £4.99 for as long as I can remember.
We have an Odeon and Cineworld closer to us but they are both £10 per adult ticket.

We always make the longer journey to view as a family of 6 it's way more affordable. £30 still seems pricey for a movie but we have meerkat tickets so usually go on a Wednesday and save a further few quid.

They've now refurbished and put in reclining chairs.

Tickets are £10 now 😩 That's £60 for us to see a film!
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I think the £4.99 tickets were their biggest draw, considering all the other cinemas were double.

In the current climate where people are struggling I think most would prefer to pay a fiver to see a film in a normal seat!

If they wanted to pay a tenner for a fancy seat they have odeon, Cineworld

AIBU to think Vue have just shot themselves in the foot by taking away the only advantage they had over competitors, being half the price.

Now they've lost our custom completely as if we are paying a tenner we may as well go to one of the others.

With the Vue refurbs, I gather (from a Vue employee) that it depends on the local demographic. We have one Vue 16 miles away that has the reclining seats and expensive tickets but in the other direction is a small city with a large student population where they have kept to the standard seats/cheaper ticket prices for that reason. You might need to hunt further afield OP…….but then again, the price of petrol and parking might negate any gains you make on the ticket price😫

Honestly what’s happened is people no longer have the money to spend on food and drinks because of the cost of living so cinemas are now running at a loss- so therefore the reality is they have to increase ticket costs. All their overheads will have also increased- staff wages, lighting, heating etc.

My local vue is still 4.99 we've been twice this month. Before I realised the price, I hadn't been in ages! Both times were relatively full as well. They'd make a lot more money selling cheaper tickets but having more people come through the door.

Just checked and our Vue is still 4.99, phew!

We would never ever go to the cinema at the old prices but since going to 4.99 we go quite often now. It used to always be quite empty apart from big releases but it seems busy whenever we go now. And I happily pay the extra £ or whatever for the vip seats.

Bit gutted about cineworld, I don’t even know if another chain around here.

that said, we rarely go these days. It is expensive and people in general seem to have very mixed ideas about how to behave in a cinema which makes it a lot of money to pay just to be irritated.

I did buy snacks from there - cinema nachos are gloriously disgusting. Always consumed during the trailers!

Cineworld have said that there aren't enough new releases to make it viable anymore.

We saw DC super pets which was rubbish and the only other option at the moment is the railway children which neither of my kids want to see. That's our lot for the whole summer holidays!

As a family of 4, we haven't been able to afford the odeon or the showcase for years (no vue near us). There is a small independent cinema in the next town that we go to, it's old and dated and only has one screen, but it's only £5.50 a ticket for adults and £5 for children. This way we might buy the popcorn and drinks as tickets aren't extortionate (£15 per adult £10 per child at the local odeon).

So sad about Cineworld I hope they get bought out and cinemas remain esp the O2 one as it is just a lovely experience going, great seats, clean, the large imax screen, 4D etc.

I have a cineworld pass as I love movies and for me its a cheap way of going out every week as its a monthly fixed cost. Since I get 25% of food and drink I do end up buying food and I don't mind since I know I'm getting a bargain through my membership.

If you don't go to the movies often then of course its going to be expensive.

I see Prime now let you rent a movie to stream at home and those movies are only a few months from when they were in the cinema - I guess for families that works out cheaper.

The one near me offers super saver times which are cheaper 🤔

Cineworld are fighting to avoid bankruptcy.

I would imagine Vue - and other chains - are doing whatever they can to try to avoid bankruptcy too.

Agree with you completely! The Odeon near us and independent cinemas are much nicer than Vue. However with a big family we go to Vue for those ticket prices. I would never pay £10 for our Vue!

There are two Vue cinemas in my city.One has reclining seats and charges £6.99 if you book online and £7.99 if you buy your ticket at the venue.The other cinema doesn't have reclining seats and prices are £4.99 and £5.99.The non reclining seats are still very comfortable as they are wide and there is a massive amount of leg room.

Vue seats have never been £4.99 at our local one. Cheapest ticket at ours is £7.99 online plus 90p booking fee 🙄. So £8.89 . I don’t see how they advertise £7.99 online when you have to pay the booking fee too 🙄. But also why do their prices vary from cinema to cinema?! The prices have gone down a bit at ours. I’m sure it used to be over £10 a ticket.

I agree about Vue prices. Went to local Vue recently to see NT Live Prima Facie, tickets for 2 were over £40 (cheapest option) with no 'senior' reduction. That particular show was worth it but I would not normally spend anything like that much. Also no cafe to sit in at beginning, had to get own coffee from machine (but cafe prices). I have no idea who they are aiming at.

I have to agree with this. I love films but its rare that I make an effort to go to the cinema now because there's literally nothing I want to see.

I went to see Elvis which I absolutely loved - but last week, that came onto Sky Store, so I've purchased it because I know it's a film I'll watch again and again, and my husband wanted to see it as well. But that film is still on at the cinema - why pay to go to the cinema when for the same price you can own the digital download?

But aside from that, there's literally nothing I want to see.

I have no interest in Marvel - superhero/sci fi just doesn't interest me. Nor do I have any interest in James Bond or Star Wars. Once you've taken those three franchises out, what actually is there for cinema release?

Where have all the comedies gone? The last comedy I remember watching at the cinema was Booksmart. But everything now is a remake of a film from my childhood. I want to watch something original or something funny.

It's interesting, because my football club had thousands of empty seats each week. They've since lowered the prices, and they've been getting bums on seats. The costs of actually hosting the game remain the same, so it's better to get 100 people at £10 each and make £1000, rather than 20 people at £30 and make £600 (for example).

I've noticed its the same with London Theatre. I literally never ever went. But thanks to incentives like London Theatre Week, we've been able to buy cheap £25 tickets and take my 7yo to see two shows this summer holidays. Because the ticket prices are lower, they are getting bums on seats, giving a great experience and making people want to come back,

I wonder if cinema would go the same way - surely the cost of running the film is the same whether it's 10% full or 100% full? So why not lower the prices and get 100% of the ticket sales (or as close to) - and then you can sell more food/drink and get people coming back...

Agree with you completely!

I agree about Vue prices.

Yes, you both agree with the OP that you’d prefer cinema tickets to cost less, but can you see that businesses don’t exist to sell you cheap stuff just because that’s what you want?

But also why do their prices vary from cinema to cinema?

A PP explained this at 8:44 am. It is at the top of the same page you posted on.

AIBU to think Vue have just shot themselves in the foot by taking away the only advantage they had over competitors, being half the price.

But have they?
Depends if people are still going.

Ours changed a while back and prices went up as a result. They haven't lost out in people going. Infact some people now go there as a result of the changes. They were losing out to the more kinder cinemas in town which, although dearer, were cleaner, newer, had better seats, had higher quality screens and sound, etc

So changing and charging more hasn't had a negative impact on their sales from what I've seen.

Haven’t been for years. The one nearest to us used to be Virgin (now Empire) and they had an unlimited pass for something like £20 pm. Pizza Hut also used to do their £4.99 buffet on Mon & Tues evenings so me and 2 friends from work would go every week.

We didn’t mind paying for a bag of sweets as we’d got so much value from everything else. Last time I went (about 10 years ago), it was full of teens on their mobiles giggling and shouting. Buggered if I’m paying to sit amongst that.

There is normally a reduction for concessions and for family groups .

Back in the 80s cinema was a special treat - you didn’t go very often and you had to travel miles to the city because there weren’t many cinemas around. But in the last 20 years they’ve popped up everywhere and people were going every single week. So maybe it’s going back to the way it was before.

Ditto restaurants. Before the proliferation of cheap restaurants like Frankie&Benny it was normal to only eat out once or twice a year. Then all of these retail park restaurants opened (next door to the cinema) and people started eating out once or twice a week (probably at the same time as going to the cinema). And all of these restaurants are closing down too. It’s the end of an era.

We’re the opposite - the fancy seats where we can actually see the screen properly and aren’t crammed in are the only reason we’d go to the cinema. Otherwise we’d watch the movie at home.

We have an odeon on our doorstep and never go for that reason.

That’s interesting. I’m in central London and I always found that Vue was the most expensive out of Cineworld and Odeon, with Cineworld being the cheapest.

I’ve only been to the cinema twice since the pandemic and both times it was the Everyman so no idea if Vue is still the most expensive.

Our local cinema is over £16 per adult ticket…and then there’s a booking fee if booking online!

It is a smaller national chain, sort of independent style cinema. There have been upgrades with a fancy bar and they bring food or drinks to you in your cinema seat during the ads. It is a lovely experience and aiming not to be multiplex, but the cost for a family of 4 is about £60 once you’ve factored in booking fees, and that’s before any food or drink.

Although in the very hot weather we had several families from school pick up early (we didn't close but parents had a choice to not send in or collect early if they wanted) and took them to the cinema, due to the air con!

We went as a family on one of the very hot days too.

They seemed fairly busy those days - everyone was there for the air in rather than the movie though 😂

The cinemas can't win to be honest. They don't make their money off the films because of the prices charged by the distribution company (not necessarily the studio itself). They have no choice but to charge "excessive" prices for food/drink as they're a hideously expensive operation when you look at it. Business rates. Rent. Utility costs. Staff. Technology. Costs of the films. Considering the absolute battering they've taken during lockdown, I'm amazed they're still standing.

Some of the problem relates to the cost of films to the cinemas but by God, some of the chains really haven't made an effort in years. Looking at you Odeon. As for Cineworld, my local one is utterly soulless. Very much the worst offender for, give me your money, here's your film now EFF off.

I'd love an Alamo cinema near me but I appreciate dining and drink during a film may not be for everyone.

Will cinemas die? No. Some films really need the big screen and I still love being forced to watch properly due to having no distractions. Also, where would couples go on their first date without the cinema??