There was much self-congratulation within the parts of the industry last week with the announcement of MeerKat Movies replacing Orange Wednesday. The news that it will be two days Tuesday and Wednesdays making it sound like it’s far bigger than what it was replacing. As what made it so easy to the 17 million Orange customers for the cost of a text it allowed them to get the offer. For the people who weren’t a customer with Orange all they had to do was get a free SIM card and put it in an old phone.
MeerKat Movies starts off with less than a third of the customers Orange had and you need to tie yourself into a policy that Comparethemarket offer in austerity times many are cutting back buying these insurance policies or locking themselves in for long term deals to get the best price so limiting their chance of getting the deal.
How this can be seen as a “watershed moment for UK cinema” as Barry Jenkins, chair of industry body Cinema First describe the deal shows how little people who are supposedly leaders of the film industry are in denial of the issues facing the industry.
Don’t understand how an exhibitor could possibly say MeerKat Movies could see millions of new customers visit cinemas. The products Comparethemarket sell aren’t for a younger client base so are they hoping that people might buy one of their packages just to get the deal not because they need or want it?
It was similar to at last year’s Screen Film Summit when VUE CEO Tim Richards said ticket pricing is not the cause of the falling cinema admission blaming parking as the biggest problem. With organizations like the BFI and Cinema Exhibitor Association claiming average ticket prices for last year was £7.72 at that price ticket prices wouldn’t be an issue. But anyone who goes to the cinema regular knows that the average price in South East is close to double that and in Central London over three times and that’s not including 3D surcharges.
Last year cinema admissions were the lowest since 2006 using the claimed average cinema price from the Cinema Exhibitors Association when I queried this price on Twitter saying it was over £9 as a survey in the Daily Telegraph reported they blocked me. The claimed average price comes from the fact that many cinemas have as many price deals as Easyjet but for most people they go to the cinema after 5pm and its doubtful that you can pay less than £10 from a major exhibitor. If you used that as the average price last year’s admissions would be the lowest since 1993; was the year of Jurassic Park which took £46m at the box office, admissions had gone up almost 10 million since the year before and experts were predicting admissions would break the 200m barrier by the year 2000; apart from a dip in 1995 & 1998 they did increase year on year till 2002 to 175.9m. Since then cinema admissions have flat-lined but prices have dramatically increased more so since 2009 with 3D surcharges.
Experts are predicting this year admissions will climb back to 170m but really with all the massive films being released this year the target should be 200m+.
In 1996 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of commercial cinema there was National Cinema Day in June which helped increase the yearly admissions by 10% (over 1 million people went to the cinema)
It was followed again the following year seeing another massive boost to cinema going. Next year will be the 120th anniversary a good time to bring it back to get people back to the cinema. On that day all cinemas were £1 and cinemas showed their normal films along with classics and previews. If cinema has a future with many homes now having 50+ inch home cinemas and Netflix cinema needs to be seen to be offering an experience that you can’t get anywhere else the magic of cinema has gone with digital cinema as cinemas now feel like big TV screens. You need to get people excited about going to the cinema again once people do get back to enjoying the cinema experience they will be back for more but so many just don’t go as often anymore. Whatever the heads of the exhibitors say the dramatic ticket rises in recent years are the reason why people aren’t going to the cinemas as much. They might still come out for the mega-films but the smaller films are suffering. Chains are also splitting their screens up so several of my local Vue cinemas that used to have 7 screens now have 12 screens when I go to the cinema I want the big screen experience don’t want to see a film on a screen a little bigger than what I have at home. Talking home TVs I can get a 4k TV which is better than many 2k cinemas. What many didn’t think about when digital cinema came in was the fact than 35mm projectors would last 50+ years without any need of upgrading while digital projectors and their servers need constant upgrading which is far most costly all of which will mean ticket prices are likely to increase even more in the years to come alienating more audiences.
Cinemas charge extra for 3D and IMAX but am amazed they don’t charge extra for sound with a basic price for silent, then a sliding scale from Mono to Dolby Atmos?
Rather than Meerkat’s loyalty schemes with cinema chains will be good to have as most people will go to their local cinema so if they could be offered discounts on concessions, previews screenings and discounts on tickets they would be more loyal to the chain as Cineworld have been so successful with their unlimited card.