bridiem Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 10 minutes ago, Tessie said: All the ballet 'live' screenings I have watched have been very poorly attended. Does this impact the cost of a ticket? Is the cinema trying to make it worth screening the ballet to a handful of people? I would feel anxious complaining about the cost in case they stopped them altogether. Living hundreds of miles from London, I have always considered 15-20 pounds good value, as I am comparing it to train/flights/hotels etc combined. I feel a bit jealous hearing the you can really watch live for less than a cinema ticket! Still, we do get the interviews, and close ups at the cinema. Most of the screenings I've attended (in London) have been full; but I suspect at least some of the audiences have already been ballet-goers, and so not really the intended market. I don't know if performances elsewhere might be poorly attended out of a real lack of interest, or poor marketing, or the cost of tickets. I hope that someone is doing some research to try and find out. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 21 minutes ago, Tessie said: All the ballet 'live' screenings I have watched have been very poorly attended. Does this impact the cost of a ticket? Is the cinema trying to make it worth screening the ballet to a handful of people? I would feel anxious complaining about the cost in case they stopped them altogether. Living hundreds of miles from London, I have always considered 15-20 pounds good value, as I am comparing it to train/flights/hotels etc combined. I feel a bit jealous hearing the you can really watch live for less than a cinema ticket! Still, we do get the interviews, and close ups at the cinema. I don't always go to the live screenings but when I have been I have enjoyed them for several reasons - the closeups of the facial features (even better than the front row!) and the pre-show buildup and interval information. It's a good way of seeing something without worrying about train and hotel fares. I go to an out of town Odeon so I don't know how well they do at the city centre Odeon or the arthouse cinema FACT in Liverpool. I went to the Nutcracker once (not my favourite production), Two Pigeons, Woolf Works and now Swan Lake. Both Nutcracker and Swan Lake had about 60 people in the auditiorium, the other 2 only around 20. The price was significantly more for Swan Lake than the other screenings I have been to ... possibly that is going to be the new price or possibly they thought they could make more money on Swan Lake. My niece who worked in the Odeon until recently told me that Andre Rieu screenings always sell out!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiz Posted June 18, 2018 Author Share Posted June 18, 2018 All the Odeon ROH screeening prices have gone up enormously here. The tutu ballets are well attended but the newer ballets such as Woolf Works, Jewels and Frankenstein were not. Even when the showings are well attended the cinema is only half to three quarters full. I don’t know what it’s like for opera or N.T showings. I must ask our younger dd. I tremble in case the managers decide it isn’t worth it and discontinue the practice. We get very little live ballet here and we can no longer afford the ROH when travelling costs are enormous and as we would need to stay in London as our last train is ludicrously early in the evening, it’s out of the question. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tessie Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 Fiz, I recently went to the live relay of ROH Macbeth and it was also very poorly attended. I suspect the marketing is poor, as I only realised there were live cinema showings relatively recently. Where I live, the performances are shown in many cinemas around the city simultaneously, so of course, that will reduce the audience number in each cinema. I assume that once Vue, Odeon, Cineworld etc have bought the rights to show the performance, they might as well show it anywhere they have an unused screen. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balletfanp Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 Swan Lake was pretty well attended at Vue Plymouth but I imagine that’s the pulling power of a well known ballet and quite a bit of hype in the press. Having said that, ticket prices have actually come down from almost £20, to just over £16 - I suspect the imminent opening of a brand new multiplex right in the city centre might have something to do with that! Healthy competition. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiz Posted June 18, 2018 Author Share Posted June 18, 2018 We’re getting a new cinema soon so I hope it will galvanise the Odeon to stop being so greedy. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pianolady Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 (edited) Lovely screening of Swan Lake yesterday at local Vue and I'm so grateful to them for showing the repeat performances which few others in our area do. It was also irritating that 2 nearer venues who are situated over the road from each other both decided only to show the live screenings this year- especially as neither are especially well-attended unless it's something like Swan Lake. I had complained to ROH and Vue last time round as they forgot to turn the sound on or the lights down until we told them. So I approached this one with a bit of trepidation but this time round there was perfect co-ordination with intervals and interviews and lighting. Also nice size screen and excellent sound with no transmission blips during actual performance (backstage interviews a bit quiet) Edited June 18, 2018 by pianolady 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted June 19, 2018 Share Posted June 19, 2018 On 18/06/2018 at 12:17, Fiz said: We’re getting a new cinema soon so I hope it will galvanise the Odeon to stop being so greedy. Fiz, I know you don't live anywhere near me, but I was about to say the same thing. The local one charges more than the central London ones do! Incidentally, do people fill in the "how did we do?" type of questionnaires online afterwards? It does give you an opportunity to comment on such things. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted June 19, 2018 Share Posted June 19, 2018 On 18/06/2018 at 03:58, jmb said: OK, so I swear I won't complain any more about Australian cinema's treatment of ballet, or a least not very much. I have read this thread with increasing horror. £20 for a ticket! £20! It cost me $20.00 (which is just over £11 according to Currency Converter) to see Manon a couple of weeks ago. And I complained bitterly because that was a steep increase following a change of cinema chains. True, we have lost Bolshoi all together, but we get RB, POB and La Scala, albeit rather late. And each performance is screened at least 3 and often 4 times, on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Wednesday at around 12.00 or 1.00. I'm SO jealous! (well, not about losing the Bolshoi, but the POB and La Scala). I suppose it depends on how much a cinema ticket costs in Australia: in the London suburbs, you can easily be paying £12 for a normal ticket. But the thought of all those repeat performances, so you don't have to miss it just because you're doing something else that evening - lovely! On 18/06/2018 at 08:48, bridiem said: Unfortunately, cinemas are now charging whatever they think the market will bear. [...] I don't know how the economics of these screenings work in respect of the ROH, but since the most important aspect of them is the reach to a wider audience, ticket prices have to be kept as low as possible. They're a really important part of justifying the level of public funding that goes to the ROH. I have got the impression from one cinema chain that the ROH fairly much sets the prices, but that doesn't seem to make sense given the range of prices people have mentioned here. Presumably the ROH does get a cut, though. On 18/06/2018 at 09:28, JohnS said: We're very fortunate in North Cumbria as regards the cinema relays (and much else). Tickets at Cockermouth, Keswick and Penrith are £15 or £16 and concessions £10 or £11. One cinema offers supporters paying the £5 annual membership a £1 reduction off every ticket and a free drink. There's a fair bit of choice for encore timings (I could have chosen an afternoon or evening encore yesterday or both), excellent venues and very appreciative audiences. That sounds great. Would it was the same in and around London! On 18/06/2018 at 10:00, bridiem said: I don't know if performances elsewhere might be poorly attended out of a real lack of interest, or poor marketing, or the cost of tickets. I hope that someone is doing some research to try and find out. So do I. In my own case, it tends to be ticket price and cinema facilities: I hate having to spend the intervals in the auditorium because there's nowhere else to go (and nothing to eat except ice cream and popcorn). And I have asked before why I should be expected to pay 4 times the price of the seat I would go for in the ROH itself for certain programmes, such as the Bernstein one. On 18/06/2018 at 11:48, Tessie said: I suspect the marketing is poor, as I only realised there were live cinema showings relatively recently. Where I live, the performances are shown in many cinemas around the city simultaneously, so of course, that will reduce the audience number in each cinema. Marketing could certainly be improved, but it's a question of who should be doing it. And of course the lack of marketing is as nothing compared with other companies', where you literally struggle to find out where performances are being shown even if you know they exist. On 18/06/2018 at 12:08, Balletfanp said: Swan Lake was pretty well attended at Vue Plymouth but I imagine that’s the pulling power of a well known ballet and quite a bit of hype in the press. Having said that, ticket prices have actually come down from almost £20, to just over £16 - I suspect the imminent opening of a brand new multiplex right in the city centre might have something to do with that! Healthy competition. Yes, I'm looking forward to it, in the hope that it brings prices down. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sophoife Posted June 21, 2018 Share Posted June 21, 2018 (edited) On 18/06/2018 at 12:58, jmb said: OK, so I swear I won't complain any more about Australian cinema's treatment of ballet, or a least not very much. I have read this thread with increasing horror. £20 for a ticket! £20! It cost me $20.00 (which is just over £11 according to Currency Converter) to see Manon a couple of weeks ago. And I complained bitterly because that was a steep increase following a change of cinema chains. True, we have lost Bolshoi all together, but we get RB, POB and La Scala, albeit rather late. And each performance is screened at least 3 and often 4 times, on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Wednesday at around 12.00 or 1.00. Screenings are now divided between 2 cinema chains. Until last year, all ballet (including Bolshoi) was screened by a chain of art house cinemas with cinemas in most capital cities. This year, a big commercial chain has taken over RB performances (hence the price rise), but performances are still screened in most capitals, as well as in some smaller cities. Audiences are usually small (about 20), but given the repeat screenings, not too bad. And it's resonably easy to find out what's on where and when. So I am counting my blessings! jmb, I certainly never paid only $20 at Palace (the previous chain) - it was always at least $24 if not $28! So Village at $20 is at least a 20% reduction. But what you haven't noted is that Village and Event cinemas are not even showing all the ballets they could. Available for 2017/18 were Alice, Nutcracker, Winter's Tale, Bernstein centenary triple bill, Manon and Swan Lake. Event only offered Alice, Nutcracker, Manon and Swan Lake, and Village didn't even show Alice! You can thank your lucky stars you don't live outside Melbourne or Sydney (I think Sydney?). I live in Albury, and came from Hobart. The only ballet screenings in Tasmania until last year were in Devonport, four hours plus driving each way. My mother can now go to a ballet film fairly close to home which as a physically-challenged 70-something (she'd shoot me if I Revealed All) is very much to her taste. From Albury I have to either drive to Canberra or to Melbourne - I will drive to Sydney for live ballet but not for a film. Also I don't know where you are getting Friday screenings, Village (Victoria and Tasmania) are only offering Saturday, Sunday and Wednesday mornings, as are Event (NSW not Vic). Palace used to have Friday screenings for some films. Sharmill was the Australian distributor for POB, RB, La Scala, the Met and Bolshoi but no longer. You will be pleased to discover that Bolshoi are showing at Dendy cinemas, and as you say Palace still have ONP and La Scala plus Opera di Roma. Edited June 21, 2018 by Sophoife Typo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmb Posted June 21, 2018 Share Posted June 21, 2018 (edited) Thank you for your comments. However, the prices I quoted are those I pay. I am going tomorrow (Friday) to a screening of La Scala's Le Corsaire, the ticket for which cost $16.00 (almost £9.00). The maximum price for a ticket is $24.00 (approximately £13.50). It appears from their publicity that Event will be showing those RB ballets missing from the 2017-2018 lineup in the coming year. Not sure about Village, which I think may be the previous name of the Event chain. I recognise that outside the capital cities, access to ballet films is generally difficult, often extremely so. This seems to be a problem in many areas. Those of us who like ballet are going to have to do a better job of enthusing our colleagues, friends and relations 😊 I should have said that the reason for the reduced price of my ticket tomorrow is because I am a member of the chain's Movie Club. Edited June 21, 2018 by jmb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sophoife Posted June 21, 2018 Share Posted June 21, 2018 2 hours ago, jmb said: Thank you for your comments. However, the prices I quoted are those I pay. I am going tomorrow (Friday) to a screening of La Scala's Le Corsaire, the ticket for which cost $16.00 (almost £9.00). The maximum price for a ticket is $24.00 (approximately £13.50). It appears from their publicity that Event will be showing those RB ballets missing from the 2017-2018 lineup in the coming year. Not sure about Village, which I think may be the previous name of the Event chain. I recognise that outside the capital cities, access to ballet films is generally difficult, often extremely so. This seems to be a problem in many areas. Those of us like ballet are going to have to do a better job of enthusing our colleagues, friends and relations 😊 I should have said that the reason for the reduced price of my ticket tomorrow is because I am a member of the chain's Movie Club. Village Cinemas is the brand name in Victoria and Tasmania for the chain known as Event Cinemas to you. La Scala is as I said at Palace Cinemas which has a different pricing structure and offers different screening times from the Event/Village chain. Quoting $16 as your price paid at Palace as a gold movie club member isn't the same as saying to the casual viewer (those we need to attract in order to keep screenings viable) "oh it's $24, yes more than a Hollywood blockbuster but it's going to be wonderful". Having spoken to a marketing person at Event HQ today, neither they nor Village will be showing the Bernstein centenary bill and/or The Winter's Tale at all, and apparently they are even reviewing hosting screenings at more than one cinema in each capital city with no regionals next season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shade Posted June 29, 2018 Share Posted June 29, 2018 Managed to catch an encore screening of Swan Lake this week. So glad I did as I had realised that I had missed quite a lot of the detail from my seat at the live performance. My central cinema seat gave a much better view of the corps too. Magnificent dancing and scenery etc but I remain disappointed at the ending. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Wall Posted September 26, 2018 Share Posted September 26, 2018 (edited) I was interested to see a notation that there is now only one (1) cinema in all of the USA (that being in NYC) scheduled to show the RB relays. I wonder how this would effect the overall bottom line of such pursuits given that we have been told they are expensive and if now there is a similar effect in other foreign (e.g., non-European [until April of next year]) countries/markets? Does anyone hereabouts know? Perhaps the RB relays are budgeted in terms of core costs against the UK market only in which case these factors would not be significant. Edited September 26, 2018 by Bruce Wall Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mallinson Posted September 26, 2018 Share Posted September 26, 2018 2 hours ago, Bruce Wall said: was interested to see a notation that there is now only one (1) cinema in all of the USA (that being in NYC) scheduled to show the RB relays. Where was that information? If you look at the map of Mayerling screening locations via the ROH website I can see none in the USA (several in Canada) but I assume that is because of the time difference which means that US screenings are usually, or maybe always, deferred. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Wall Posted September 26, 2018 Share Posted September 26, 2018 Ah, that may explain it, John. Much thanks. It was a sub-item on another notice board. It read:Say it isn't so! I can only find these broadcasts in 1 theater in the whole of the USA (NYC of course). If I can't see Steven McRae in Mayerling I'll going to kill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mimi Posted September 26, 2018 Share Posted September 26, 2018 I've found that US showings aren't necessarily indicated until sometime closer to the actual airdate. Live showings of the ballets in the USA, as opposed to the operas, appear to be pretty much defunct. My region has been getting delayed showings two to three months after the original relay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
penelopesimpson Posted September 26, 2018 Share Posted September 26, 2018 We are paying £8 in Dorchester. Fantastic value 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted September 26, 2018 Share Posted September 26, 2018 That's something like 1/3 of what my local will be charging. I am, needless to say, hugely jealous. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiz Posted September 27, 2018 Author Share Posted September 27, 2018 So we gave into the local cinema’s greed and have booked pretty much everything that is being shown. I will try to think of the delight of it all rather than the cost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zxDaveM Posted September 27, 2018 Share Posted September 27, 2018 Out of curiosity, I checked out my local cinema (a Vue), and for Bayadere they are charging £17.59 (plus 75p booking fee). How they arrived at £17.59 is one of life's mysteries... Earlier in the summer, they were charging £4.99 for all showings, even the latest blockbuster - now its £5.99 (plus that 75p) - this may indicate they aren't doing that well maybe? So you're certainly paying a premium for a RB screening. First time I went, normal films were around the £9 mark, and RB (and other 'event' showings) were £11-ish Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiz Posted September 27, 2018 Author Share Posted September 27, 2018 Our cinema is now charging between £21.50 and £25 a seat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zxDaveM Posted September 27, 2018 Share Posted September 27, 2018 16 minutes ago, Fiz said: Our cinema is now charging between £21.50 and £25 a seat. ouch! I assume the £25 ones are the 'VIP' seats - I'd be wanting a bottomless ice cream included for that price!! lol 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiz Posted September 27, 2018 Author Share Posted September 27, 2018 Yes, Dave. However the prices do vary between the different ballets too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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