Anyone else sick of movie theatres' attitudes towards paying patrons?

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#1698492 4-Jan-2017 17:31

I go to Hoyts in Westfield Riccarton in Christchurch when I go to the movies. I only have two issues.

1. The booking fee for purchasing tickets online. Especially bad that it is per ticket and not even per transaction. Either way it is a ripoff, but is unfortunately it's the only way to get desired seats without going in early (and they know it).

2. Having to collect tickets from the counter when you have purchased online. This is more minor as they have a separate queue so I have never had to wait very long. However, why can't they have a couple of automated kiosks or, better yet, save paper and have the attendants who rip the ticks have a handheld scanner to scan the bar-code on your phone from the confirmation email?

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#1698524 4-Jan-2017 18:20

Paul1977:

2. Having to collect tickets from the counter when you have purchased online. This is more minor as they have a separate queue so I have never had to wait very long. However, why can't they have a couple of automated kiosks or, better yet, save paper and have the attendants who rip the ticks have a handheld scanner to scan the bar-code on your phone from the confirmation email?

I can't prove it but am convinced that it's an attempt to get you to approach the counter so they can't upsell junk food and drinks etc to you.

networkn

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#1698539 4-Jan-2017 18:50

dejadeadnz:

Paul1977:

2. Having to collect tickets from the counter when you have purchased online. This is more minor as they have a separate queue so I have never had to wait very long. However, why can't they have a couple of automated kiosks or, better yet, save paper and have the attendants who rip the ticks have a handheld scanner to scan the bar-code on your phone from the confirmation email?

I can't prove it but am convinced that it's an attempt to get you to approach the counter so they can't upsell junk food and drinks etc to you.

Of course that's why.

Same reason most petrol places you can't pay at the pump and why they give you a "discount" if you buy high margin items at the counter. If you ran a theatre you'd do the same thing, right?

Impossible for a theatre to stay open on ticket sales alone. Lower ticket sales globally has led to a downturn for cinemas which has resulted in less staff which results in less clean theatres.

I can't recall which cinemas but I have used my phone to get into movies without lining up. I think they have a name like print at home tickets or something.

dejadeadnz

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#1698544 4-Jan-2017 18:57

networkn:

Of course that's why.

Same reason most petrol places you can't pay at the pump and why they give you a "discount" if you buy high margin items at the counter. If you ran a theatre you'd do the same thing, right?

Impossible for a theatre to stay open on ticket sales alone. Lower ticket sales globally has led to a downturn for cinemas which has resulted in less staff which results in less clean theatres.

I can't recall which cinemas but I have used my phone to get into movies without lining up. I think they have a name like print at home tickets or something.

I wouldn't mind seeing cinemas go genuinely upmarket by charging more on tickets but providing a much more refined experience. I know people will say "Go to Gold Class" and most of the time the experience is better but you only need a couple of people clinging and clanging their cutleries whilst eating their burgers to ruin the experience. Quite a few people that I've talked to would gladly pay more for tickets to a "No food and drinks" cinema. I think a couple of places overseas have tried this -- would be interesting to see how they were received.

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#1698554 4-Jan-2017 19:15

I've never seen one in my travels which didn't mean they don't exist but certainly aren't popular I'd imagine.
My question is what would you pay for this and what would you expect?

dejadeadnz

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#1698560 4-Jan-2017 19:28

networkn: I've never seen one in my travels which didn't mean they don't exist but certainly aren't popular I'd imagine.
My question is what would you pay for this and what would you expect?

I would easily pay up to $40 a head for this. Depending on the price point, I can accept either normal seating or Gold Class-like seating. My only absolutes would be an enforced banning of food and drinks and a clean theatre, e.g. no food residuals on seats.

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mattwnz

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#1698561 4-Jan-2017 19:30

networkn:

dejadeadnz:

Paul1977:

2. Having to collect tickets from the counter when you have purchased online. This is more minor as they have a separate queue so I have never had to wait very long. However, why can't they have a couple of automated kiosks or, better yet, save paper and have the attendants who rip the ticks have a handheld scanner to scan the bar-code on your phone from the confirmation email?

I can't prove it but am convinced that it's an attempt to get you to approach the counter so they can't upsell junk food and drinks etc to you.

Of course that's why.

Same reason most petrol places you can't pay at the pump and why they give you a "discount" if you buy high margin items at the counter. If you ran a theatre you'd do the same thing, right?

Impossible for a theatre to stay open on ticket sales alone. Lower ticket sales globally has led to a downturn for cinemas which has resulted in less staff which results in less clean theatres.

I can't recall which cinemas but I have used my phone to get into movies without lining up. I think they have a name like print at home tickets or something.

It is the old 'Do you want fries with that' mantra. Many businesses sell commodity things at a certain price, which they don't necessarily make large margins on, and then upsell you on high margin things at the POS. Althogh as movie tickets can vary in price significantly, and the cost price to show a film is essentially the same, no matter how full the cinema is, cinemas probably win both ways.

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#1698567 4-Jan-2017 19:46

Years ago, I had time to kill on a hot weekday afternoon in Melbourne so I decided to escape the heat by taking in a movie. In fact the movie was Space Cowboys so that's how long ago. So bought my ticket, "sit anywhere you like" said the man behind the counter. When I went in, I was the only one in the 300 seat theatre. And so it remained for the entire screening. Absolutely no excuse for not enjoying the show due to environmental conditions. In fact I can still remember the shots of the space shuttle with the earth rotating below on a huge screen.

Maybe I can trace my enthusiasm for home theatre from that 'private screening' experience.

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#1698733 5-Jan-2017 09:35

Glorified popcorn stalls. I might go once a year if I'm excited about the movie enough. Can't complain about food prices - I know that's where the money is actually made.

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#1698977 5-Jan-2017 18:54

1. The theatres' ridiculous policy of requiring people who have ordered tickets, paid for them using credit card, and have been e-mailed confirmation to collect paper stubs to show their ushers. This resulted in me having to line up for about 20 minutes today. Dear Event Cinemas: great job on turning the online ticket collection queue into a general "Everyone come here" line today! Let's face it, we all know why they do this: they want to tempt you into getting their overpriced junk food. This brings me to....
I built a home theatre into our house, although I wait patiently for releases.....

2. Having to endure the obnoxious noises made by people gulping their drinks and eating their popcorns inside their theatre.
I try and keep my farting to a min in our home theatre, slurping beverages and crunching chips is compulsory

3. Dirty seats - Event Cinemas are particularly poor for this. It's almost as though cleaning is a foreign concept for them.
I pause the movie to pee in the appropriate place

4. The ridiculous number of pre-screening ads. We endured (actually timed it) nearly 15 minutes of ads before we got to the preview trailers recently when watching Rogue One recently. Ridiculous.
adds????

5. Terrible sound systems - often they are not loud enough or are way too loud and with poor sound definition.
Built 7.1, wired for 7.1.4

Yes, the big screens are nice and the odd theatre still has good sound systems. But I for one won't be too sad if these people were made to disappear like CD stores were. Anyone else feel the same way?

Theatres need to offer better service than you can do at home, it has to be a positive experience all round what ever the movie, even if the move is a dud.

Me:"I'm not a robot!"

ET: "Maybe; you have some freewill, but you chose your path by arrangement"

Me "That sounds like a program with no freewill?"

ET: "We will catch up when you end this cycle"

Me: "Sounds like a 'KPI'!"

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#1698991 5-Jan-2017 19:35

I actually think home theaters done right will offer a far superior experience in almost everyway, especially now we have UHD. I do find the picture quality at theaters quite soft and blurry. I do find 3D is quite good though, and 3D doesn't seem to be a thing with TVs so much these days. Really the only benefit I see of going to a cinema is that you can't be distracted or stop the film, apart from other people watching the film.

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PaulBags

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#1699700 7-Jan-2017 08:24

I'd rather watch a movie on a 20" monitor & a pair of speakers from the 80's than go to the cinema.

I don't watch many movies, by the time you can watch them at home I've forgotten they exist. That's if the movie I want to see is ever released in any form, film feastival films generally aren't. Black Snake Moan is a hilarious/infuriating example: released in New Zealand in exactly one theater in Auckland a year after it was avalible on DVD overseas.

So yeah, I hope cineams die, the film industry reforms, and global direct to home servers become the norm.

JimmyH

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#1699885 7-Jan-2017 14:52

I went to Reading Cinema in Porirua (given that Wellington is closed) for the first time last weekend.

Decent seating and excellent sound. However, the picture quality was just "OK" and not as good as Wellington IMO. The only annoyance of substance was the glare from the screen of the smartphone in the row in front of me, which an inconsiderate woman kept checking every 5-10 minutes. For $10 a ticket it wasn't a bad overall experience.

The home experience has improved a lot, and I don't go to the theatre very often these days.. But it's still nice to be able to arrange to go out and meet up somewhere with a group of friends.

However, I didn't bother with the overpriced snack food.

dejadeadnz

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#1699888 7-Jan-2017 15:09

I went to Rialto Broadway yesterday to watch Allied. Its cinema screens are generally quite small (and the one last night at cinema 6 had a minor defect - it wasn't too bothersome) and the sound was pretty average. OTOH, I would still take it any day of the week (especially when it comes to less action-oriented films) over the typical experience at the suburban Event cinemas especially.

Generally, the crowd that goes to Broadway are very civilised. For a film that will probably go offline soon, the cinema was quite full but as is typical of Rialto, most people don't bring in bags and bags of food and drinks. And the two popcorn eaters were eating quite small portions and doing it relatively infrequently and in a civilised fashion, unless the horde of jumbo-sized popcorn munchers that I usually see at Event. People just shut their mouths and didn't look at their phones once the film started, which is quite typical of my experiences at Rialto also.

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#1700312 8-Jan-2017 20:34

I would love to go to korea and try out there cinema's https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qfsusYa8ZQ, im a fan of the embassy in wellington, BUT dont get any seats above row Q!

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