Monday 8th April 2002 9:32am

Cinema tickets for 20p - Stelios

Popcorn extra...

Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the man who claims to run the 'Web's favourite airline', is planning to bring his buy early, buy cheap pricing model to the world of cinema.

According to reports, Stelios is hoping to open Easycinema before the end of the year, promising to sell tickets bought a month in advance for just 20p.

"Our cinema will make money in the same way that Easyjet does by selling seats for £45," Stelios told the Sunday Times. "It is all about volume and utilising the asset. The cinema industry average - seat occupancy of 20 per cent - is criminal."

The London-based cinema will be painted in the corporate colour – bright orange.
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I wonder what sort of return the renters will be looking for ?

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The interviewer asked if he had negotiated with distributors, to which he replied that he had tried to but no-one in Wardour St. wanted to meet him! Someone from the BFI's exhibition unit was then on, suggesting that the analogy between cinemas and budget airlines was a bit dodgy: people tend to fly so infrequently that they don't mind disrupting their lives to make savings by travelling off-peak, but are customers really going to book a month in advance to see a film at 2pm on a Tuesday afternoon? Stelios' reply was that this formula had worked for airlines, car hire and internet cafés and so there's no reason why it shouldn't work for cinemas!

BTW, would you like to sit through a film in bright orange seats? They'd reflect the projector beam something terrible!

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“The Fundamental problem is he’s (Stelios Haji-loannou) talking about giving away someone else’s product, not his own,” said Alex Hamilton, director of sales, Momentum Pictures. “I can’t conceive of any distributors being willing, certainly not day-and-date with nationwide releases. Can you imagine 20th Century Fox letting him have Star Wars at a 20p ticket price? I’ll believe it when I see it.”

1991 was the year the Prince Charles Cinema commenced with daily repertory programme changes for an admission charge of £1. only. Prices are now.

Mondays all day..............£1.99
Weekday matinees.............£1.99
Evenings & weekends..........£3.50
Friday late double bill.........£7.00
Sing-a-long Sound Of Music.....£12.50

4 different films daily plus a Friday late double, Alien & Bladerunner this week ending at 4am.

Interesting website: www.princecharlescinema.com Also mentions the equipment but not the platter which I believe is also used.

We run a 1 movie special every now & then for $2.00

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They would also have to have your programming at least 3 weeks in advance.

However if Ep 2 performs as expected, you are virtually guaranteed to be playing half empty by week 11.

The consession per cap however would be fantastic.

I remember seeing an article where in China they have a super cheap seniors day.
They pack out all day sessions.

Now if they can only get the distributers to agree, then plan schedules weeks in advance, then perhaps this idea will fly.

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BBC News Online story about his proposed cinema venture (doesn't say very much, though)...

Isn't price fixing (studios telling you what to charge) illegal? I would think the most pressure a studio could apply is a price guarantee they will charge you minimum for the license to play their film. As long as the minium was uniform, then a theatre should be able to loose money if they can't cover the guarantee.

Now as to the studio being nosy into your prices and when...I would think that has more to do with their split on the boxoffice take...they want to make sure they get their cut.

Steve