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Letters and feedback from readers

The Screen / Everyman / Prices - 15/7/09 Response from
Rosie Greatorex, Venue Manager, Everyman Belsize Park

Dear Editor,

I am writing as the Venue Manager of the Everyman in Belsize Park. It saddens me that Barry Fox no longer thinks of “the cinema formerly known as the Screen on the Hill” as his local cinema. I am really glad to hear that Barry goes to the cinema most weeks but it is a shame that he has decided to go to a multiplex. The Everyman Belsize Park does charge higher prices than the Screen on the Hill used to, and as I used to manage the Screen on the Green, in Islington and have managed other cinemas too, I am well aware of how people see ticket price rises. (Multiplexes can afford these cut price deals which just don’t make good business sense for smaller venues, although many feel pressured to follow suit.)

However, the Screen on the Hill, as it was, was losing money week after week – for a cinema to remain at 203 Haverstock Hill at all, something needed to change. We now have a delicious deli counter, very comfy seats and table service to every seat in the house before the film starts. It’s lovely!

We are not ignoring local feedback, far from it. In response to complaints about a lack of concessions for older people, we introduced a season of lower priced afternoon screenings – these were not age specific, but open to everyone. Despite the fact that these shows lost money, we kept running them for 3 months until finally we concluded that there was not enough of an audience for afternoon film shows to make it a sensible option for us. (We do, however, offer schools and local arts colleges very cheap rates for using our facilities during the daytime, and have recently been showing Wimbledon on the big screen for free). As another example, we have had complaints about the fact that there is no longer a canopy displaying the current films above the door – thanks for letting us know, watch this space, it’s coming back!

I do hope Barry will give us a chance as I think if he does pay us a visit he will find that we a friendly bunch who love film as much as he does.

With best wishes

Rosie Greatorex

Venue Manager | Everyman Belsize Park

PS. He’s right, there are no crowds around the door – we’ve halved the capacity of the auditorium to give better leg room and our web / mobile booking system means no more queues!

The Screen / Everyman / Prices - from Barry Fox June 09

Dear editor,

The Screen on Hill used to be my local cinema. I went most weeks. Now, like just about everyone I know, I never go. Instead I walk or take a bus to the Finchley Road because the Odeon and Vue are so much cheaper than the poshed-up Everyman/Screen.

What's more the Everyman/Screen doesn't offer concessions even for early evening weekday shows, or Orange Wednesdays, whereas Odeon and Vue do. The only cut price deals at the Screen/Everyman are in the afternoon when I don't want to go.

The Everyman/Screen says it gets lots of customers, so doesn't need to offer concessions. This may or may not be so. I don't know because I don't go. But I don't see many crowds around the door.

Perhaps those who do go as paying customers can tell us how full the cinema is. That way we can get a fix on how long it is likely to be before the Everyman/Screen swallows some pride and re-thinks its prices.

Barry Fox
Contributing Editor, Europe Consumer Electronics Daily & local

EDITOR'S NOTE: I like rather like what Everyman have done with the cinema, but am surprised that there are no afternoon or other concessions for pensioners. Surely that would be both sensible and still profitable at quiet times?