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.

smuggled food in. 🤷‍♀️

Tbh if cinema's are relying on the sales of crazy overpriced snacks to keep afloat I'm not surprised they're struggling.

The cinema was packed for ELVIS . Good films are what get bums on seats.

Cinemas have lost their way if it's all on the £7.50 box of popcorn.

Cinemas don't produce the films. They take what they can get and have to pay their overhead costs either way.

It is a longtime economic model that cinemas depend on their concession sales to stay afloat. Do some googling if you don't believe me.

They pay to lease the films, you know.

It is a longtime economic model that depend on their concession sales to stay afloat. Do some googling if you don't believe me.

I believe you. And this 'longtime economic model' isn't working any more. Evidently.

No one has ever said a word to me about carrying in my own snacks. I have never done anything else.

They pay to lease the films, you know.

Yep. And a good film gets people in.

Unfortunately for Cinemas we are in the golden Age of TV.

If you have an empire anywhere nearby I find them quite reasonable

The cinema was packed for ELVIS . Good films are what get bums on seats

The problem is (at least according to Cineworld execs) is that there haven't been enough people returning to the cinema post covid. Release of big budget/blockbuster films is down on the normal pre-covid level this year, after an impossible couple of years anyway. The number of blockbuster films is expected to rise again after November 2022, but it's come too late for Cineworld, who have been sued after pulling out of a takeover of another cinema chain during covid.

So I agree that good films do get bums on seats, but there just aren't enough crowd-pleasing films at the moment. Cinemas have also long relied on the sale of food for their main income stream, they make surprisingly little on the sale of tickets. I get that they need to charge above shop prices for food and drinks, but the price does seem a bit over the top - I think it must put many people off buying food, especially if tickets are already expensive. I can remember 30 odd years ago, we always bought sweets/icecreams etc - now I never do, I take my own.

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!

And I think the cinemal would like to stay open in the current climate, so they will do whatever they think they need to do to achieve that goal.

I get that they need to charge above shop prices for food and drinks, but the price does seem a bit over the top - I think it must put many people off buying food, especially if tickets are already expensive. I can remember 30 odd years ago, we always bought sweets/icecreams etc - now I never do, I take my own.

I don't know anyone that buys the food really. Not with kids.

I think it's immoral to smuggle in food. Would you do that at a restaurant?

I think that's completely different as the primary purpose of being in a restaurant is to eat. That's not the primary purpose of being in a cinema, and most of them allow you to bring your own snacks anyway, as long as it's nothing hot, so it's not even smuggling.

I'd happily buy popcorn there if it was more reasonable but it's about £7 - it's disproportionately expensive, it's mad. So we take popcorn with us and then usually get drinks in the cinema.

I also agree that the impact of covid and the subsequent lack of films coming out has massively impacted cinemas.

Me and DP love to go and there always used to be something we could see, even if we weren't desperate to see it, but now we are hard-pushed to find anything even showing. Hopefully it will pick up soon as the releases catch up after no production in 2020, we'd definitely like to go more.

They need to diversify to survive in my opinion. Selected cinemas showed the anniversary performance of Miss Saigon and I couldn’t get a ticket - all sold out. They could show a recorded version of many west end shows that most people couldn’t travel to or afford tickets to. I know it’s not the same as a live performance but it would still attract an audience in my opinion. Then there is the possibilities of showing concerts/gigs. Could be a excellent new revenue stream.

If you drive or are anywhere near to Salford Quays, they do cinema tickets at £7.99 pre-booked online.

You can rent the latest film releases from Amazon Prime for £16, a much more affordable option. Plus, you can make your own popcorn.

Streaming services and big home TVs have killed cinema imo. You used to have to see a film at the cinema or else you’d have to wait several months and hunt around the shops for a dvd to watch on your crappy tv. Now you can wait six weeks and the film appears on Prime to watch in the comfort of your own home.

My kids wanted to see Minions Rise of Gru but it would have cost £40 plus drinks and popcorn. Last weekend we watched it on Prime for £15.99! It’s still showing at the cinema but why would anyone bother to go when it’s already on Prime?

Putting prices up on entertainment and dining etc outside the home is self-destructive. The ones who will survive will be the ones willing to take less profit for a couple of years and ride this out.

The majority of family finances are so precarious it doesn’t take much to bring about a decision that something is no longer affordable. Cinemas charging those kind of prices are no longer affordable. People started smuggling in their owns snacks etc because the prices became eye-watering.

Or, the ones who survive will be the ones who adapt and seek different markets.

When people talk about the cost of lving crisis and about how no-one has any money...they completely forget that lots of people actually have plenty of money. Look around you, the restaurants and shops are full. People are spending. The crisis hasn't hit everyone, at all.

You don't leave the house though.

That’s a bonus! You can pause the film to go to the loo. Eat reasonably priced snacks. Order pizza. Drink alcohol. If DC get restless you can turn the film off and finish it tomorrow. And there’s no people making a noise or walking in front of you. I’m perfectly happy to stream a film at home.

I love the cinema and would be happy to pay a bit more for the experience, but not double or treble the amount.

Great response!
We are a family of six and people on here always try to convince me to "off" my children to ease my finances. I never thought of selling them before. Two birds with one stone.

Eventually it will feed back to the film industry that their financial models aren’t sustainable. If a large proportion of the price of a cinema ticket is for the rights to screen the film then eventually they will lose outlets to sell their productions.

of course, there is actually more money to be made on direct rentals through various platforms, the film production companies can take a much larger slice without having to factor in overheads that cinemas have to.

I hope it doesn’t completely kill off cinemas as an experience but I could absolutely envisage a time it’s much more like going to an actual theatre.

That's great if your a big household. For a single person a monthly membership is better value for money which the likes of Amazon don't take into account so if cinemas do close down it becomes to expensive for a single person household to be renting major movies (and there are often more than 1 a month) at £16.99 per movie.

True @Dreamstate but then I don’t think the film industry is particularly bothered about who’s paying just as long as someone will. There’s no particular obligation to ensure that their price point falls within a particular demographics budget so long as another replaces it.

Also true. For me I live in a terraced house, if I was to have cinema surround sound so I can enjoy a movie properly my neighbour whose lounge shares party wall with me would not be happy. Nor would I if it was the other way round.

So sometimes for me going to the cinema and paying for it is better. Hopefully cinemas are here to stay!

We go to vue for the same reason. I'll be really disappointed and won't be going there any more if they change the price, especially considering the current financial climate.