Odeon Cunts To Charge £40 A Ticket

[Small Man Big Horse]

At the newly refurbed Leicester Square cinema apparently.

Odeon defends £40 hi-tech cinema prices

The newly refurbished Odeon Leicester Square opens later this month
Odeon has responded to criticism over the prices it is charging for seats at its new hi-tech cinema in London, where tickets will cost up to £40 ($51).

It told the BBC the prices were similar to tickets for theatre or live sports. The newly refurbished Odeon Leicester Square will re-open later this month, showing Mary Poppins Returns. It has had a multi-million pound facelift in partnership with Dolby, which is providing cutting-edge audio-visual technology. "With tickets starting at just £10 for every show... it offers fantastic value compared to tickets for other popular destinations like the theatre, concerts or live sports," Odeon said in a statement. "Price choices vary and flex depending on a number of factors including seat type and location in the auditorium, what we're showing, time of day, and the number of people booking at one time. "The first week of the biggest film of the year during the festive season is obviously peak, and guests can expect prices will flex throughout the year."

Cinema-goers were less than impressed with many taking to Twitter to express anger over the inflated prices. The central London cinema has had an 11-month refurbishment and promises to offer fans "the ultimate cinema experience" which includes enhanced vision via laser projection and immersive audio provided by Dolby's Atmos technology. The new 800-seat cinema will also feature a cocktail bar. Alongside the 800-seat cinema, there are four further smaller screens.

According to market research firm Statista, the average price of a cinema ticket in the UK in 2017 was £7.49.

I went to that cinema a couple of times when I had an Odeon Limitless card and it was shit anyway, I know it's had a refurbishment but it tends to get a lot of loud, noisy types in there and there's no way I'll ever pay £40 to see a film there, especially given that my local cinema has a max price of £8. I'm expecting major price changes within a couple of months, unless they trick a lot of tourists in to going.

[Shit Good Nose]

Isn't the base price of a tenner pretty reasonable for round there though?  The cheapest (Leicester Square) Vue ticket is about £15 isn't it?  Or have they reduced their prices like most others have recently?

[St_Eddie]

In theory, I might be willing to spend £40 on a cinema ticket, if I was assured that an usher, built like a brick shit house, would be ever present at the back of the auditorium, ready to chuck out anyone talking, using their phone, munching like a great big pig, kicking seats, having a stupid looking fasionable haircut or otherwise generally being a nuisance by my own and very particular metric.

I'd even pay £60 if I was assured that they'd be roughed up 'round the back and all.

[Z]

Isn't the base price of a tenner pretty reasonable for round there though?  The cheapest (Leicester Square) Vue ticket is about £15 isn't it?  Or have they reduced their prices like most others have recently?

Picturehouse Central is relatively cheap on Mondays iirc at 13 a ticket. Think the Odeon Haymarket might be a bit less than that too for pretty nice seats and all.

Prince Charles Cinema has damn near nothing over a tenner too, if it counts.

[Sebastian Cobb]

london, lol

[Small Man Big Horse]

Isn't the base price of a tenner pretty reasonable for round there though?  The cheapest (Leicester Square) Vue ticket is about £15 isn't it?  Or have they reduced their prices like most others have recently?

I'm not sure how that tenner option works though as according to this the cheapest tickets are £25.



Edit: Ah, just looked at that's not the full seating plan, if you sit 4.3 miles away it's only £10.75. I still think having so many expensive seats is taking the piss though, I mean they're equating it to a sporting or theatrical event but in those situations you're watching a live performance, and not something you'll be able to download in 4 months time.

Prince Charles Cinema has damn near nothing over a tenner too, if it counts.

It's a horrible cinema though. Which pains me to say as I love the idea of it, but unless you get to sit in the front row given the weird design and that it slopes downwards towards the middle, unless you're at the very front or back you'll get to see a person's head take up a quarter of the screen when you go, and the prints of old classics are often scratched to fuckery. Plus the seats are pretty uncomfortable too, a friend gave me a year's membership as a birthday present but I only ended up going twice. The smaller cinema is better, but then the screen isn't that great.

[chveik]

maybe it includes free booze and prostitutes

[BlodwynPig]

Ive only attempted to go to a cinema once in London. 20 quid in the noughties...probably the odeon.

10 quid max. No film is worth more than 10 quid.

[St_Eddie]

10 quid max. No film is worth more than 10 quid.

Not even the film I secretly shot of you partaking in various illicit activities?  Pretty sure that's gotta be worth more than a tenner to you, don't ya think?

PM me for a drop off point.

[Rolf Lundgren]

You'd have to be mad to go to the Odeon in Leicester Square anyway but that pricing system which sort of makes sense in a theatre doesn't work in a cinema where there aren't obstructed views or weird slopes. In some of those seats you can pay a fiver extra to sit about half a metre to the left.

It's a horrible cinema though. Which pains me to say as I love the idea of it, but unless you get to sit in the front row given the weird design and that it slopes downwards towards the middle, unless you're at the very front or back you'll get to see a person's head take up a quarter of the screen when you go, and the prints of old classics are often scratched to fuckery.

I had a good experience at the Prince of Wales but was pretty near the front. I remember being amazed at how far back it went. It's like ten seats of a thousand rows.

[Z]

It's a horrible cinema though. Which pains me to say as I love the idea of it, but unless you get to sit in the front row given the weird design and that it slopes downwards towards the middle, unless you're at the very front or back you'll get to see a person's head take up a quarter of the screen when you go, and the prints of old classics are often scratched to fuckery. Plus the seats are pretty uncomfortable too, a friend gave me a year's membership as a birthday present but I only ended up going twice. The smaller cinema is better, but then the screen isn't that great.

both screens are fine for lower attended events, can really sit anywhere. Absolute hell for a heavily attended thing though.

[Neomod]

Living in London for over 20 years I've been to the Leicester Square Odeon once. To see A View To A Kill in 1985 when I didn't even live here.

That same year I paid my only ever visit to The Empire Leicester Square to see Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. Has it still got that incredibly steep rake 30 years later?

£40 is taking the piss. Is this some sort of Dynamic pricing bollocks they've nicked off of Uber.

[BlodwynPig]

Not even the film I secretly shot of you partaking in various illicit activities?  Pretty sure that's gotta be worth more than a tenner to you, don't ya think?

PM me for a drop off point.

Fuck you. Im releasing that with Weinstein-Scholefield Pictures

[greenman]

Seems like a total non issue to me given that nobody is going to be force to visit it, just a famous cinema that's a tourist attraction charging high prices. General prices having mushroomed over the last 10-15 years pricing large parts of the public out of going often would be a more worthwhile story.

[mrpupkin]

Anyone paying a tenner at the pictures is either an idiot or a rich idiot, even in London. There are always cheaper options around.

[Kelvin]

Anyone paying a tenner at the pictures is either an idiot or a rich idiot, even in London. There are always cheaper options around.

Yeah, but most of us don't want to watch shit, boring films in French.

[mrpupkin]

Yeah, but most of us don't want to watch shit, boring films in French.

Don't then, there are Odeons, Vues and Empires with cheap tickets for all the latest shit, boring films in English.

[iamcoop]

Why a fucking cocktail bar? What's with this ridiculous modern obsession with not being able to sit down and enjoy anything anymore? Just another opportunity for packs of braying cunts to intrude on everyone else's experience. I get it's all about rinsing as much revenue as possible but why do people lap it up or even bother going to stuff?

Apologies for the miserable old person rant but in the last couple of years, in my experience anyway, the trend for people fannying around, constantly going for a piss, talking, eating and generally doing anything but engaging in the actual entertainment we're all ostensibly there for has become intolerable to the point where I don't even know if I can be bothered anymore. I saw the new Halloween film in a sold out screening on halloween night and after about ten minutes wondered if I'd inadvertently wandered into a crisp tasting workshop for long lost friends that haven't seen each other in months. When I saw Stuart Lee at the City Hall there was so much wandering around in the stalls throughout it looked like people were speed dating or something. It was fucking constant and completely took me out of the experience.

I'm not a complete miserable cunt and understand a bit of popcorn consumption or the occasional piss is fine but christ, why pay money to attend something that you're clearly not arsed about enjoying? I know shit audience complaints are age old but it seems to be getting far worse and adding a fucking cocktail bar into the equation is surely just pouring more petrol onto the fires of my dismay.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I love a pint with my film. It's not particularly abnormal to have a tin with a film at home so I don't see why people doing it in a cinema should make someone upset, online.

[iamcoop]

I love a pint with my film. It's not particularly abnormal to have a tin with a film at home so I don't see why people doing it in a cinema should make someone upset, online.

oh shit you're right I take it all back, online.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Apology accepted!

[Neomod]

Apology accepted!

online?

[Wet Blanket]

I like that you can buy beer in British cinemas, even shitty Vues or whatever. I'm not so keen on the fashionable boutique cinema thing where they might have waiters mooching about bringing in drinks or - worse - entire meals.

I love movies, still regularly attend the cinema when I could just stream films for free, and would cheerfully pay a bit extra if the place was really flash with a massive screen or whatever. But I'd probably cap the top end of this willingness at about £20.


They say it's in line with West End theatres, but that ignores the fact that the West End is generally the only place you can see those musicals, certainly with the big name casts and production values. The Odeon Leicester Square only ever shows the most mainstream blockbuster going. Seeing Mary Poppins there won't be much more of an experience than seeing it in the biggest cinema in Halifax or somewhere.

[Huxleys Babkins]

I like that you can buy beer in British cinemas, even shitty Vues or whatever. I'm not so keen on the fashionable boutique cinema thing where they might have waiters mooching about bringing in drinks or - worse - entire meals.

Odeon in Bournemouth will do you a wooden board of tapas. I mean, the absolute state of it.

Also, last time I was in, I tried to buy the lad a Fruit Shoot and they told me he couldn't have it by itself, it had to be bought with the rest of their "Kids Mix". Fucking parasites.

[St_Eddie]

I like that you can buy beer in British cinemas, even shitty Vues or whatever. I'm not so keen on the fashionable boutique cinema thing where they might have waiters mooching about bringing in drinks or - worse - entire meals.

I'm with you on this.  I've posted about my mate before, whom I will never go to the cinema with ever again.  Absolute nightmare...

I've got a mate who I went to the cinema with to watch Blade Runner 2049.  Never again will I be watching a film on the silver screen with him.  Personally, I never eat food at the cinema because I know how annoying it can be to those around you but my friend has no such qualms.  Our local cinema serves hot food.  He ordered some garlic bread, which was then duly delivered to him, once the film had already started.  The disruption of this was bad enough but then the room also began to stink of garlic.  He eats with his mouth open, so the sound was unbearable too.

He also purchased a family sized bucket of popcorn, which he immediately started to consume after slurping down his garlic bread.  It was such a large amount of popcorn, that it lasted a full hour into the film, even though he was continuously munching his way through it nonstop.  Mouth a-gaped and producing an incredibly loud and annoying sound with every bite.  The last 10 minutes of his incessant popcorn eating was the worst part because then the sound of him rustling around the bottom of the bucket got introduced into the equation.  Blade Runner 2049 has some very quiet and atmospheric moments.  During these moments, the sound of him shoveling food into his mouth echoed throughout the screening room, now surely filled to the brim with an incredibly annoyed audience.

Furthermore, despite me reminding him to turn his phone off before the film started, he didn't and of course, a friend phoned him during the last act of the film's plot.  He actually answered it!  "Sorry, mate.  I'm at the cinema.  I'll phone you back later".  I angrily whispered for him to turn his phone off.  His reply?  "I can't".  I didn't challenge him on this frankly baffling and infuriating statement because I didn't want to disrupt the other patrons any further by continuing to talk.

The whole ordeal was horrendous and my mate showed absolutely zero shame throughout.  He's a nice guy with a good heart but possesses a horrible lack of awareness when it comes to cinema etiquette and having consideration for others.  The levels of embarrassment I suffered through association were off the chart!  I kept putting my face in my hand and shaking my head throughout his behaviour, to at least try and show the other people sat behind me that I was just as annoyed as they were, so that they hopefully wouldn't hate me too.

[hedgehog90]

^ Legend Gary goes to the cinema.

[MuteBanana]

I'm not sure how that tenner option works though as according to this the cheapest tickets are £25.



Edit: Ah, just looked at that's not the full seating plan, if you sit 4.3 miles away it's only £10.75. I still think having so many expensive seats is taking the piss though, I mean they're equating it to a sporting or theatrical event but in those situations you're watching a live performance, and not something you'll be able to download in 4 months time.

It's a horrible cinema though. Which pains me to say as I love the idea of it, but unless you get to sit in the front row given the weird design and that it slopes downwards towards the middle, unless you're at the very front or back you'll get to see a person's head take up a quarter of the screen when you go, and the prints of old classics are often scratched to fuckery. Plus the seats are pretty uncomfortable too, a friend gave me a year's membership as a birthday present but I only ended up going twice. The smaller cinema is better, but then the screen isn't that great.

Interesting that outragerous leg room and zero heads is a tenner less just for having to move your head a bit.

[Icehaven]

The other problem, which overlaps with the points about general bad behaviour in cinema, is that the more people have paid, the more you'd better believe they'll do exactly what they want, when they want, as much as they want to make their 'experience' exactly as suits regardless of whether it encroaches on anyone else's. Obviously this then makes the people they piss off even angrier as they've also paid a fortune and have had their 'experience' spoiled, and on it goes down the spiral. Which is why I've only been to the cinema a few times in the last near decade when I've had literally nothing else to do, it's dirt cheap and I've not been overly bothered about the film. It's annoying enough listening to grown adults slurping and crunching and chatting through the latest noisy Marvel epic for £5, I'd be fucking livid if I'd paid double figures and it was anything with atmosphere or that you need to pay attention to.

On a side note I remember when Cineworld in Birmingham first got a bar in about 2006ish - but you couldn't take the drinks into the screen. Not even in a plastic. Rather defeated the object, particularly considering there were/are many, many pubs in stumbling distance that are cheaper and much more pleasant places to drink. No idea if it's still there or if they realised how stupid it is and changed the policy, not intending to visit to find out.

[Head Gardener]

the Vue in Leamington Spa has got it right - all tickets at anytime = £4.99

[St_Eddie]

the Vue in Leamington Spa has got it right - all tickets at anytime = £4.99

Handjob and all.