Open a cinema
.
Judging by the amount of cash I've just handed to my daughter to go to the cinema, there's serious money to be made.

£7 to get in. £7. Per head. Plus a few quid on sweeties (no teenager wants to show up with a bag of munchies supplied by good old mum the money machine!).

Admittedly there's a fair outlay first for the building, screens, hire (or whatever) of films etc but they must be making a bloody fortune!


Mumbles bitterly about corporate profiteering
(TheWeeWitch hasn't been here much recently .., Fri 1 Aug 2008, 17:03, 12 replies)

I think their biggest cost is the films
crippled the independent cinemas, that did.
(bazmorningstar efil4nat3b, Fri 1 Aug 2008, 17:09, closed)

That's just laziness of teh independants
A DVD costs what, £5 second hand, they'll make that back in no time.

*has no understanding of cinemas*
( Bazongaloid, Fri 1 Aug 2008, 17:13, closed)

@al
you 'avin a laugh? I meant the film reels or whatever digital format they use now.
(bazmorningstar efil4nat3b, Fri 1 Aug 2008, 17:15, closed)

Oh! Right
I see what you mean.

*wasn't being remotely factious*
( Bazongaloid, Fri 1 Aug 2008, 17:19, closed)

Bloody Hollywood
I think it's because they have to pay so much money to the studios / distributors (whoever) for the rights to show the pictures commercially, combined with dwindling audiences due to people having a comparable setup at home (and downloading hookie pirates) that they aren't really making that much money at all.

Otherwise they'd get cleaners in to decontaminate the fucking health hazard that is the average concession stand.
(Greencloud Wanted to go fishing on, Fri 1 Aug 2008, 17:21, closed)

Cinemas actually make fuck all money from tickets
Nearly all of that goes back to the studios and the remainder just about covers their outlay

The only real profit they get comes from popcorn and other munchies.
(Milo Minderbinder, Fri 1 Aug 2008, 17:27, closed)

On a serious note
I know this is true, hence the decrease in time between a films cinematic release and it's DVD release. Basically the cinema usually only get like 20% of the first weeks takings, then maybe 30% of the second and it gradually goes up the longer they show the film, obviously overall takings drop over time so they don't show films for all that long unless it's really, really popular. Which is a pisser, I remember having months to see films when I was younger, now, if you don't see it in the first two or three weeks you can't watch it at the cinema.
( Bazongaloid, Fri 1 Aug 2008, 17:29, closed)

Sometimes, it's worth it
£28.75 to take the family to see Wall-E last weekend. That's more than it would cost to own^* the special edition DVD with extra shiny things and must-have-it-now surcharge in the first month.

But, and it's a big but, some films are worth seeing at the cinema, and Wall-E is one of them. The early sequences on the barren earth will lose a lot of their impact even on a 42 inch TV.

OK, I'm also a computer graphics spod, so I may be more impressed than the average joe.

^* I know it's really a license, and we're bloody lucky to get anything in the box at all.
( Amish Information Systems hates misplaced, commas, Fri 1 Aug 2008, 18:14, closed)

Oh, that reminds me of something that makes my blood boil
Cinema snack prices.

They charge over £5 just for a Coke and a box of popcorn. Daylight robbery.

I insist on bringing in my own snacks. And if the cinemas would ever try to prevent me, then I would simply say something about being diabetic or so, and needing the sugar.
(EuroSong I love horse meat: best of all the animals, Fri 1 Aug 2008, 19:34, closed)

It comes out to roughly 50% going to the distributor
30/40% going to the studio, and the remainder to the cinema. They make vast amounts of profit on food and drink. When I worked at my local cinema, the drinks cost a few pence to make, at most, and they sell them on for £3/£4. Also, we had to make the drinks 75% ice unless the customer specifically requested less.
I felt like a proper cunt working there...I wanted to be there for the films, which is what I'm studying and the industry I want to enter, and I did get into them free, so I suppose that worked, but it felt more like it was something to be done if you were working towards a degree in 'Serving Popcorn to Chavs'.
The managers didn't seem to care about films either...I was apparently the go-to guy if anyone wanted to know about something that wasn't Harry Potter or Generic Teen Movie Fifty-Twelve.
( Mr.Ons knows you can hear him, Earthmen., Sat 2 Aug 2008, 4:10, closed)

The films can't be that expensive
Our local independent cinema only charged £5 to get in (£4.50 for us students) and they had a monopoly in the area.

The students union ran a cinema and it was only £2 to go and watch, with a door through to the pub next door! Admittedly the films were about 3 months old when they showed them and they only did it on Sundays.
( thistle, Sat 2 Aug 2008, 8:47, closed)

I'm sure I remember reading somewhere...
...that popcorn is the most commercially marked up product on the planet. It costs, what, 10p to get tons of popcorn seeds. Yet to buy a box in the cinema, it costs upwards of a fiver. Mental!
( mrlogic is copying your beard, Mon 4 Aug 2008, 22:12, closed)