16 December 2015 To Someone with Power at Cineworld HOW YOU CAN BETTER MEET THE NEEDS OF YOUR SUPPORTIVE PATRONS Please don’t be put off by the length of this letter. It’s part-complaint-part-SUGGESTIONS, and if you want to skip past the opening paragraphs that help me to vent, please just jump straight to the blue, numbered section in which I offer some suggestions for your serious consideration. I apologise if any sarcasm gets on your nerves, but please understand that this comes from a Movie Lover (that sounds cheap; perhaps I should say, Appreciator of Film) who is in a place of frustration and desperation (it’s not fun here, and I want out). I am a Cineworld Unlimited member, and have become increasingly frustrated at the decisions made not to screen certain movies in Witney. Yes, we do not have the high number of screens that places like Cheltenham have, but with 5 screens, there’s a lot you could do that you are not doing. We’re a week away from Christmas, and as of today, there are no Christmas movies available for adults showing in Witney (at last check), while Krumpus, Christmas with the Coopers and The Night Before have all been released elsewhere. And from next week, with Star Wars forcefully awakening (see what I did there?), that will be the only movie on in the evening at a time that suits parents who have to put their children to bed. Make no mistake: I will be there at some point; but for Star Wars to be it when there are other movies also on release? Put on other movies, you must! (okay, that’s my Star Wars knowledge done.) I am lucky if I can get to a 19:30 show in general, thanks to a gorgeous daughter who, through lengthy yawning, insist that she doesn't need to sleep; this means I have to catch the late ones for the most part; and this means I miss a lot because you put films on during the day with the last screening being as early as 6pm, and then that’s it. No Good Dinosaur for Daddy. So, rather than fully benefit from my so-called “unlimited” membership, I have to wait for DVDs from the local library. And that’s with movies you do choose to show. On another note, while movies are released to great 4-star reviews (you may have heard of a guy called Steve Jobs), and you advertise them in Witney, you then decide that Witney won’t have it after all because of supposed “weak openings” in the States, and instead bestow upon us a steaming pile called Scouts’ Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse. Really? You think that was the right choice? And then there’s keeping Spectre on for an eternity, hogging just about all of your screens, while other “big” movies come and go in neighbouring towns (Victor Frankenstein currently). I have a list of movies I wanted to see, but couldn’t because you chose not to release them in Witney. Now, I’ve heard numerous times, “we can’t release everything”. Perhaps not. But putting aside zombie apocalypses for the moment, I’d like to make some suggestions for your consideration: 1
Let US (not U.S.) decide. While your website still does not record the movies I book/watch using my membership (bizarre), surely you know exactly what your members watch. This data should give you a good indication of what people in Witney (and indeed, nationwide) like. It’s great that we get the occasional Unlimited Screening, but why not go further than that, and ask us what we think should be released in Witney, in order of importance? If I were presented with a list of 20 movies on the horizon, and asked to put them in order of what I’d want to watch, you could use this data across the many Unlimited members you have to work out what you should release in Witney (and of course, anywhere. But frankly, this is my town, so this is the one I’m fighting for). Cineworld is leaps and bounds ahead of Odeon in terms of your business model with subscriptions. I used to watch no more than 4 movies a year at Cineworld. You are now getting 5 times the amount of money from me. Netflix uses its subscription data to great advantage, commissioning original programming based on what people like; you really should consider this approach, in terms of being guided by what your Unlimited subscribers watch (and what we think in advance of your final decision to write off a town), because we don’t just watch everything that comes out, even if we could.
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Give us some credit. When we were blessed with good old Blockbuster (whose demise no doubt boosted your revenue), if they didn’t have a movie available, yet its cover was on the shelf, we were told that we would get it for free next time. If I am paying for Unlimited movies, and Cineworld releases a movie, but chooses against showing it in Witney, I should be “credited” in some way whether its a free something at a movie (I’ll accept a complimentary bag of popcorn with a wide smile and a glad heart), and/or a credit against future subscriptions per “unscreened” movie - the point is, my membership does not have the same value attached to it that someone living in Cheltenham has; yet we both pay the same fee. This is an important point (or else I wouldn’t have written it, I suppose) Out with the old, in with the new. Spectre was okay. Great effects covering over a particularly bad plot. Yikes, it was bad. But that’s not your fault. As of today, it has been on in Witney for around 7 weeks. Double O… M… G! (these puns help me not to bang my head against my desk until I’m unconscious). Just let it go already! My point is: if a new movie comes out - say: Self/Less, The Gift, Crimson Peak, Steve Jobs, Victor Frankenstein, In the Heart of the Sea - surely that movie will take more ticket (and over-priced popcorn and drinks) sales than “ageing” 007? Leap-frog your movies. When it comes to sales funnels, which I suspect someone there knows about (especially if you are Someone with Power), you’ll know that scarcity pushes people towards buying. When Concorde stopped flying twice a week from London to New York (or wherever it was), sales increased. There was no danger of Concorde stopping flights altogether at that stage, but people took action because they didn’t want to miss out.
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So, why not have 2 movies share a screen on alternative days? Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday will be Victor Frankenstein, and Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday will be Carol, for example. I imagine that arrangements to “lease” a movie, and what you make per ticket, can vary a lot (hence the popcorn and drinks prices), but surely the idea of encouraging people to watch 2 movies that are only available on certain days (“Hurry before it’s gone!") - is better than sticking with one movie with half-empty screens? Experiment with Witney! Witney! Witney! We’re your town! If we can’t do it, no-one… oh drat. We interrupt this flow to say that I have just learnt that the Secret Unlimited Screening last night was... wait for it (well, you don’t have to because you know)… In the Heart of the Sea, and that, apparently, people were pretty miffed that it wasn’t Star Wars. There are suggestions that Cineworld was capitalising on Star Wars’ release tomorrow. While I can understand this if you were charging for tickets, these people have already paid via their membership, so there must be another reason. You were just being good to your Unlimited members, perhaps? The bottom line, though, is: what was supposed to be welcomed by viewers ended up upsetting a bunch of people. Perhaps there’s another way of doing a Secret Screening in future - like e-mailing us on the day, revealing what the secret was, in case we don’t actually want to drive out in the pouring rain and watch that movie. Of course, as I have used this movie in my points above, I actually would have watched it; only, the idea of committing to a night out when it could be another crappy (excuse the language) movie about scouts and zombies (or four highly not fantastic supposed superheroes) stopped me from booking. Again, something for you to think about when considering what makes your Unlimited members keep coming back (i.e., “happy”). The thing is, while my membership is “unlimited”, my patience is not, and so, in closing, I would welcome a proper dialogue with someone who has the power to make decisions, rather than a tweet or a “Thank you for your letter. Your opinion means a lot to us. We will all have a good laugh - at your expense - around the office and then get on with choosing what next not to show in Witney and other small towns” response. Yours faithfully Ryan Anderson Twitter: @Ex_OrdinaryLife