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This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
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Topic: City Screen/Picturehouses (UK) sold to Cineworld for £47m
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 05-04-2013 04:08 AM
quote: Eastern Daily Press
Cineworld is facing a potential full competition investigation over its £47m takeover of art house cinema chain Picturehouse amid concerns over the impact of the deal.
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has referred the acquisition to the Competition Commission after uncovering potential issues in five local areas that it fears could limit choice and increase prices for cinema-goers.
Cineworld’s takeover of the 22-strong Picturehouse chain – including Cinema City in Norwich – which was announced last December, could substantially reduce competition in Aberdeen, Brighton, Bury St Edmunds, Cambridge and Southampton, where both brands overlap, according to the OFT.
The watchdog said initial research, including surveys of 35,000 cinema-goers, showed a sufficient number of customers see their local Cineworld as an alternative to Picturehouse, and that Cineworld “may find it profitable to raise prices after the merger”.
Jackie Holland, OFT senior director and decision maker in the case, said: “Our investigation found that although Picturehouse cinemas show art house and foreign language films, a large proportion of Picturehouse’s revenue comes from more mainstream films, in direct competition to Cineworld.
‘We are concerned that as a result of the merger, cinema-goers in five local areas could face higher ticket prices and a significantly reduced choice of cinemas and films.”
The Competition Commission is expected to report back by October 14.
The deal saw Cineworld add 22 Picturehouse cinemas and more than 60 screens to its existing network of nearly 80 cinemas, including the Cameo in Edinburgh, Picturehouse in Stratford, east London, and the Phoenix in Oxford - the chain’s founding cinema, bought in 1989.
It also netted Picturehouse co-founder and managing director Lyn Goleby a multimillion-pound fortune, as she was one of the company’s major shareholders.
I'm a bit surprised by this - didn't think that City Screen was big enough for its acquisition to cause a monopoly investigation.
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 05-11-2013 03:33 PM
quote: Geoff Newitt
The thing is that the choice was to divest a cinema in each of the named locations or go to the competition commission. Divestment is not an attractive option.
And those locations, especially Brighton, Cambridge and Aberdeen, have built up good reputations as quirky independents but which no-one would want to buy because they'd have to start from scratch under another brand.
I find it scary that the government is wading into an operation this small. There are hundreds of towns up and down that country that only have one cinema, full stop. Therefore, one operator has a monopoly in those towns. It's not as if people in the towns and cities that currently have a Cineworld and a City Screen site will not have any way to see their movies otherwise. The cinema exhibition industry is in intense competition with home viewing. I met Lyn Goleby a few times when I worked for City Screen (Exeter 96-99 and then York 99-01), and she struck me as being someone far too astute than to hike ticket prices to the point at which she'd drive customers away to lovefilm.com or whatever (which, basically, is who she's competing with).
Porting 'Picturehouse' into the arthouse/rep brand of a bigger chain seems to me a pretty good fit. If I were the Competition Commission, the only thing I'd be worried about is that this might result in fewer opportunities for people to see foreign and older films on a big screen in their neighbourhood, and maybe that's a question they do need to ask. But I can't see how ticket price inflation is likely to be a risk in the cities they cite.
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 05-22-2013 01:56 AM
quote: Mark Hadjucki
Belmont (Aberdeen) is owned by the local council and operated under tender.
I went up there to look the place over with Keith Moss, while City Screen were negotiating with the council to operate it: this would have been in mid-1999 if my memory is right. A more weird cinema I cannot remember. They'd spent a huge amount of money on it, but in the wrong way. The decor was textbook council office block: the doors to the auditoria had fire reg-type windows in them, the walls were painted regulation public sector just off-white cream (perfect for reflecting the picture from the screen and giving the audience 3D on the cheap!), the booth portholes were about an acre of glass - in short, it was obvious that whatever architects designed the interior of the place had never done a cinema before, or talked to anyone who had. If I remember correctly, all three booths were equipped for 70mm (mag and DTS), all three digital sound formats, changeovers and platters, even though one of the screens was so tiny that to show 70mm on it would be like playing a 1930s shellac 78 on a £20k audiophile turntable. I never went there again, but imagine that the further work needed to turn it into a usable cinema cannot have been cheap.
quote: Geoff Newitt
Leo - it sounds as though we must have several friends and former colleagues in common. I worked at Harbour Lights in the mid-90s, wihch was the first cinema from architects Burrell Foley Fisher, I do believe Exeter Picturehouse was the second. There's certainly a family likeness, as there is with Stratford East Picturehouse in London
I started in Exeter in late '96 (a couple of months after it opened) and was there until December '99. Simon Smail was the manager and Nick Wayne the chief during most of my time there. In many ways it was a very nice building to work in - compact, well laid out and without many design stupidities that make maintenance a nightmare (which York was full of). Both screens were operated from one booth (opposite sides), with a very useful arrangement whereby one of the three projectors (with a single-phase rectifier) could be moved on castors between the screens, allowing us to run a changeover show in either.
The only real problem I remember is that the huge glass frontage on the western side of the building made the lobby and bar area impossible to keep warm in winter and turned the place into a greenhouse in the summer.
The last I heard from anyone at Exeter was in 2006, when Ruthie Cosgrave, who was then the chief (she started front-of-house when I was there and moved up to the booth), very kindly emailed me out of the blue to invite me to the 10th anniversary bash. I couldn't make it, sadly. I lost touch with Nick, but if I remember correctly he left City Screen around the time I did and went to a major London arthouse (NFT maybe?). I left to go into archiving in May 2001, shortly before Arts Alliance bought into the company.
City Screen certainly came along at the right moment and with the right product for what was then a big gap in the market. At that time, if you wanted to see foreign, re-release or other non-mainstream movies, your two choices were essentially either to buy them on a restricted choice of very expensive VHS tapes or see them at arts centres, universities or film society type venues, usually on knackered 16mm prints in cold, uncomfortable lecture theatre-type spaces. Tony and Lyn's combination of niche market programming and comfortable, well equipped town centre venues certainly found a willing audience. 'Home cinema' killed a lot of it, sadly, hence the programming in many of the sites going more mainstream after Arts Alliance came along.
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Geoff Newitt
Film Handler
Posts: 49
From: FARINGDON, OXFORDSHIRE, UK
Registered: Dec 2011
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posted 06-06-2013 01:07 PM
I met Ruthie just the once, on my first visit to Exeter PH in 2008 (I'd not long come over to CSL from Odeon); I went with Rob Younger, who was then Head of Tech. I don't recognise any of the other Exeter names.
We converted Sc 2 at Exeter to stadium seating a couple of years ago - Keith Moss managed to set fire to the battery room on re-opening day, which was a scary moment! He's retired now. I'm afraid the third machine is long gone; I took it up to Greenwich back in 2009. There was a plan to replace one of the Century/CFS machines there that never came off. The FP20 is still in the stairwell, looking rather sorry for itself.
Surely you must have known Darren Briggs through York, and Peter Hall, just because? There was a chap called Bill at York, too - recently retired; Joanna is chief up there now. (I'll be in York for a day or two next week, related to the new seats and carpets.)
As for Aberdeen... I totally agree with you on the design front. Why they put the bar in the windowless basement, and screens upstairs, I'll never understand. Century projectors throughout; only Sc 1 had a pair of JJs onto a modest screen. Single SAs in the other screens, with Strong platters. Typical 90s Omnex install, no offence to Pete Naples of this forum! The second JJ, the DTS and SDDS are now retired, alas. The tech spec clearly showed the influence of the BFI at that time - it was supposed to be a Regional Film Theatre, and BFI made a lot of demands about what went into the projection rooms. I also seem to recall that the council sent the ITTs for the installation out far too late - this was the height of the UK's multiplex building boom, and many major items had extended lead times. I know at least one installer opted not to tender because they simply couldn't hit the target completion date. Of course, once complete there was no cash to operate it and it sat their empty for 2 1/2 years until an operator could be found.
Of passing interest - many of the fixtures and fittings are identical to those at The Regal Picturehouse in Henley on Thames, so I do wonder if it was the same architect - Omnex installation again, refurbished Westars in this case.
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 06-08-2013 03:04 PM
quote: Geoff Newitt
We converted Sc 2 at Exeter to stadium seating a couple of years ago
Would have been good for it, from my memory - very tall ceiling. The only thing is that the centreline of the screen was pretty low when I was there, and so with stadium seating but no alterations to the screen, customers in the back few rows (assuming that the back row of seats is now only 2-3 feet below the booth portholes) are going to have to be looking down quite sharply. Was the stage area remodelled to raise the centreline of the screen?
quote: Geoff Newitt
I'm afraid the third machine is long gone; I took it up to Greenwich back in 2009. There was a plan to replace one of the Century/CFS machines there that never came off. The FP20 is still in the stairwell, looking rather sorry for itself.
There were no Centuries there when I worked there - three FP20s plus two Kinoton platters, and a Fumeo HL-somethingorother 16mm abomination.
quote: Geoff Newitt
Surely you must have known Darren Briggs through York, and Peter Hall, just because?
Absolutely! I was the chief from York's opening until I left City Screen in late April or early May 2001, and Darren worked with me there, becoming the chief when I left. The following year, Darren and Bill installed a Vic 8 in Screen 1, converted the CNR-35 platter to run 70, conjured up a CP200 and mag preamps from somewhere and ran a series of 70mm Sunday afternoon matinees that ran for a couple of years. They petered out after Darren went to Arts Alliance, sadly.
quote: Geoff Newitt
(I'll be in York for a day or two next week, related to the new seats and carpets.)
Oh bugger - next week is a bit busy for me: at work in Leeds all day on Monday and Tuesday, and then in London from Wednesday-Sunday, or else it would have been nice to say hello and have a pint.
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 11-07-2013 06:11 PM
Update - Competition Commission rules that Cineworld must sell three former City Screen sites:
quote: The Daily Telegraph
I love my local cinema. It’s been around for 100 years, but the main screen still looks much as it did when it first opened, which is to say a bit like an aircraft hangar designed by Liberace. It’s an elegant cavern, with soft lights, panelled walls and velvet seats, an arched ceiling knobbly with Edwardian plasterwork, and a gap at one side of the screen where the pipe organ used to be.
Yesterday you could have seen 12 films there: everything from the new blockbuster Gravity to acclaimed British dramas such as Philomena, and an art picture about a man who built a replica of his childhood home and drove it around Detroit on the back of an articulated lorry. The concessions stand sells beer and wine. The staff are knowledgeable. It even has a proper cinema’s name: The Ritzy. It is, in short, as far removed from an out-of-town multiplex as you can get.
Late last year, Cineworld Group, the multiplex chain, purchased City Screen Ltd, a company that operates the Picturehouses chain of 21 independent cinemas around the country, including the Cameo in Edinburgh, the Phoenix in Oxford and, in south London, my beloved Ritzy. Cineworld’s stated aim was to break into an entirely different segment of the business, and the company reassured filmgoers that everything they loved about their local cinemas – the eclectic programming, the festivals and special events, the alcohol licenses, for goodness sake – would remain untouched.
Unfortunately, this point has been lost on the Competition Commission, who ruled last month that the merger had left Cineworld with too large a share of the market. Never mind that the independents and multiplexes show different films to different customers: in their view, cinemas are cinemas, and Cineworld now owns too many of them.
So the company has been ordered to sell off sites in three areas where the commission detects a “substantial lessening of competition”, to redress the balance. In theory, Cineworld could have chosen to let go of its profitable multiplexes and hold on to the art-houses, although its shareholders might have something to say about it. Instead, the Belmont in Aberdeen and the Abbeygate in Bury St Edmunds will soon be on the market, with the Arts Picturehouse in Cambridge likely to follow, despite a petition signed by more than 14,000 local cinema-goers pleading with the commission to reconsider.
This may not sound like the day’s most pressing issue if you live somewhere other than Aberdeen, Cambridge or Bury St Edmunds. But it has some grisly implications for British film culture in general. Independent cinemas are an essential part of the ecosystem that allows great films to be made in the first place: rather than simply screening the three most popular titles on a loop, they will take a chance on just about anything, which means the British film industry can afford to take risks and nurture talent.
Filmmakers such as Andrea Arnold, Clio Barnard, Joe Cornish and Ben Wheatley are working in every genre from period drama to science fiction. But their films also tell us something about Britain today: there’s value there beyond the box office returns (which are pretty darn healthy). Just not healthy enough, of course, to compete with superheroes in a fight for multiplex screen time. So as the number of independent cinemas dwindles, the money available to make the films they show will dwindle in turn – meaning a narrower selection of films. Now correct me if I’m wrong, but that strikes me as exactly the kind of scenario the Competition Commission is supposed to prevent.
Eventually, even superheroes may feel the pinch. The recent trilogy of Batman films directed by Christopher Nolan took £130 million at the British box office alone, and were warmly received by audiences and critics. But would Warner Bros have handed Nolan the keys to their showpiece franchise without proof, in the shape of his tricky, offbeat, independently distributed first two films, Following and Memento, that he was a filmmaker worth investing in?
It could be argued, as I’m sure the commission would, that the former City Screen sites will very possibly continue to operate as cinemas. Which is true – although there’s nothing to say they have to continue to programme the same variety of films or provide the same kind of services their current customers appreciate. Besides, I’ve seen what happens when cinemas are sold: it often isn’t pretty. Take two former establishments near my flat that have recently been redeveloped: one has become a bingo hall, and the other – it turns my stomach thinking about it – is a gym.
If we treasure film, we also have to treasure our cinemas, which means this bafflingly ill-thought-out ruling must somehow be overturned. And in the meantime, please go and make the most of your local art-house.
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