Odeon Luxe London Leicester Square
26 Leicester Square,
London,
WC2H 7LQ
26 Leicester Square,
London,
WC2H 7LQ
45 people
favorited this theater
Showing 26 - 50 of 754 comments
I wish you a good recovery. I’ve read the article for which you posted a link on the Empire’s page. Dark clouds are looming indeed, and not just in the cinema sector.
I had promised my Dad to come with him to London last April for his 80th birthday and it was cancelled because of lockdown. Now we don’t know where this is all going. He wanted to visit his English friends in Cambridgeshire as well (same age) and is a bit depressed as he starts to wonder if he will ever have the opportunity to see them again.
Hello Lionel,
Glad to hear you’re safe. Have evaded the virus, but ended up with something that’s probably much worse in my case—a very nasty ankle injury from which I’m currently (slowly!) recovering.
Dark clouds are looming I’m afraid—it’s being reported Cineworld are to close all UK sites.
Will never be the same as visiting a cinema, but at least I acquired a nice Panasonic OLED a few months ago.
Hope all other CT contributors are well.
It seems that the damn virus won’t let us have our meeting at the Montagu Pyke anytime soon. Anyway, I hope all of you are safe. So far, I’m alright.
Is this place ever gonna hide all those speakers dangling from the ceiling looks so tacky and cheap I never liked odeon leicester square has worst sightline worst sound worst feel of the sound worst seating and totally overrated and overpriced for rich people who must have worst flat screen tv at home with a soundbar
And a band playing “Believe It If You Like!”……
curmudgeon:
Whilst the tabs situation at the OLS is regrettable, and I know it’s not what you mean by “showmanship,” the “showmanship” at the OLS starts before entering the building. And what is something like the video display feature on the escalator landing if not showmanship? Or the entrance to the Royal Circle?
These help set the mood before the feature; one has escaped the outside world and stepped into wonderland…
It’s not hard to come up with market sectors that cinemas make for an attractive choice. Here are a couple of examples:
One could also point out the billion dollar box office takings of the various “tentpole” movies, or the success of “Unlimited” card programmes, etc…
The latest audio/visual formats for consumer distribution (e.g. Ultra HD Blu-ray) are fantastic and cinemas are definitely falling behind in some respects. Still, as an overall event that leaves an indelible mark, going to a cinema like the OLS is very different to watching a film at home.
I do think cinemas and the industry will adapt and change.
Currently, though, I’m just dreaming of the day that I can actually visit a cinema again…
An update on the Amazon/AMC rumour:
Which AMC?! TV Company Stock Pops, Theater Circuit Dips After Amazon Rumor Gets Rewrite.
Same here Al when back in 1965 I left a ‘job for life’ as a skilled engineer at Rolls Royce and joined the Rank Organisation as a Trainee Assistant Manager (at half the wages I was getting at R.R.). My father said “you are going into a dying industry, as cinemas were closing down”. I stayed in ‘the business’ until 2000.
I doubt it. There will always be a need for the shared communal experience. Cinemas will always exist in some form, as will pubs. I was often asked why I was going into a dying industry when I started as a cinema manager in 1974.
amen.
CP200 I tend to agree with your pessimistic outlook. Younger audiences are becoming more attuned to cheaper downloading, and highly successful programmes not available for theatrical release. Why pay huge admission prices when streaming on demand is available 24/7? I’m a dinosaur still addicted to my DVD’s but love the opportunity to see my favourites any time I wish. Modern cinemas can’t offer the magic any more. i.e curtains, masking and general lack of showmanship. It’s been a downward slide for many years now, and I fear the covid 19 lockdowns coule be the final death of cinema going.
cinema gear soon on sell on ebay cheaper than fish n' chips. Oh bound to happen. I don’t even watch tom cruise movies no more looks like top gun 2 is a flop opens in december now? I doubt many care about cinema now? Home cinema is the future. RIP odeon and Empire 1, gutted for a l i e m a x video wall.
Lionel:
Good to hear. :–)
Wanda Group (of China) does have a large stake in Odeon Group’s parent, AMC. However, they are massively indebted.
Nikkei Asian Review – No fastpass: Cinema closures dent Wanda’s dream of beating Disney.
As for Amazon—yes, they do seem to be taking over the world—but (whilst published over a year ago) this might be of interest…
Amazon Prime subscribers are a higher social class than Netflix viewers, research finds.
I’m afraid Curzon was acquired last year by the American company Cohen Media Group…
SethLewis: I can’t see there’s much room for price hikes at the top end of the market (IMAX/PLF/“Luxe”.) They can hardly start charging £30/ticket… (OK, OLS Royal Circle…)
Cineworld have emphatically stated that they do not want attrition of “Unlimited” subscribers and are rolling over subscriptions, and clearly they will all be super keen to lure customers back.
However… if “social distancing” means “2 metres” spacing then with “standard” seating this would seem to be unviable without a very dramatic reduction in capacity. Just considering one row, perhaps 3 empty seats would be needed either side—and then one needs to consider the adjacent rows. With a 2 metre radius circle, that might reduce capacity to rather less than 1/10th!
It would be more viable with recliners as the row spacing should be adequate.
Outside of the “tentpole” market, with movie budgets in the hundreds of millions of dollars range and the biggest titles shooting for billion dollar box office receipts, strictly sticking to the 100 year old movie distribution model hardly makes sense in a digital world.
I do think there is a lot of opportunity for new approaches outside of the studio “box.” It could be exciting rather than the demise of cinema. :–)
The bad news in all of this is that going to the cinema is like to be more expensive in the future with social distancing. The bad news is that studios are likely to only continue a me too strategy of superheroes and tentpoles. The good news is that that only companies with a reasonably low amount of debt will be around running cinemas – potentially more partnerships and tastemakers being involved. Love Netflix Love Prime but show me decent movies for adults in the cinema and I am there
Fun fact: AMC shows Amazon movies and many Amazon Prime sneak previews of major movies play at AMC as well as other chains. Most Amazon Fire devices support Dolby audio as well as Dolby vision on some tvs. There’s even amazon commercials before the movie starts. Amazon also owns IMDB and Box office mojo not to mention selling movies on their website. They could use their technology and prowess to improve the AMC app.
Everything fine for me here.
I’m a bit scared that Amazon would now own Odeon because this megalodon is just getting bigger and bigger. Didn’t it want to create a bank too? AMC is currently owned by the Chinese. Curious how the outcome will look like. As long as Curzon survives and remains independent, there is hope for good quality cinema.
Hope everyone is keeping safe.
Seems that Amazon may have been in talks to acquire AMC:
Could Amazon be about to take over your local cinema? With Odeon’s owner in trouble, deal could help tech giant shoot ahead in movie wars.
Lionel: As you may have heard, cinemas, pubs and other public venues are now compulsorily closed in the UK. :–( Leicester Square was featured in a news segment yesterday evening; it was almost empty. The reporter stood in Leicester Square Gardens with the OLS behind—how very odd to see it with all the lighting and LED module displays out of action.
Food retailers are stripped each day as if hit by locusts. Fortunately I had pre-booked a supermarket delivery and as of today we are now well stocked.
Let’s hope our favourite cinemas return back to business as usual at some point. Strange days indeed.
Regarding the sightlines in the OLS—come to think of it, I probably was not sitting in the last row of the rear stalls. I can’t even remember the movie now, though, let alone the aspect ratio. With the screen raised in the 2018 refurbishment, and the increased rake of the stalls, despite the rear wall being moved forward, sightlines to the top of the screen remain tight in the last row of the stalls.
About coronavirus: where I live now, it’s still OK. Just 2 or 3 cases (known) and we’re able to keep a life as normal as possible. The damn thing is delaying our Cinema Treasures meeting at the Montagu Pyke though, and I hope you’re all safe so far.
I was once seated in the rear left area of the stalls at the OLS, for a film in 35mm 1.66, and the picture would have been slightly cropped by the circle, should I have seated just one row behind. It was close.
Lionel:
I don’t think so, and I would always ask about seating location when buying a ticket. In those days I mostly went to the first performance on a weekday during school holidays, and as there would be so few in at that time, seating wasn’t assigned.
I think at the Warner West End you could always ask for the “automated” seat allocation to be changed. In a way, this is better than the current situation, where patrons end up being clustered around the centre of the auditorium, and I doubt most of them are quite so bothered about being in the “sweet spot” compared to you or I.
I can’t remember the last time I attended a performance not seated on, or at least very close to, the centreline.
On one occasion, I did end up sitting in the back audience left corner of the OLS circle, as my friend bought the tickets. I also ended up being seated at the back of the audience right stalls once, when it was exceptionally busy. The top of the screen only just avoided being obscured by the balcony.
The shallow rake of the old cinemas (e.g. OLS or Empire 1 stalls) became quite unacceptable, particularly once the “next generation” multiplexes with steep stadia arrived in the latter half of the 90’s.
Wish all fellow Cinema Treasures contributors good health, as we reach the next phase of the COVID-19 outbreak in the UK and elsewhere.
Odeon have now closed all cinemas “until further notice.” Auditoria that I checked have been virtually empty over the past few days.
I posted a picture of the Odeon, taken when I was a student on holiday with my dad in August, 1991. The film I saw at the Odeon was Edward Scissorhands which played in 70mm there. I remember this evening. London was congested at a level I’d never seen because Pavarotti was coming to sing in Hyde Park and I didn’t know. Tubes were delayed beyond reason. I took a cab from our hotel in Lancaster Gate to Leicester Square, while my dad took the tube to go and see a show in the West End. Because of the congestion, the beginning of all stage shows in the West End was exceptionally delayed by 30 minutes as many spectators were late.
The projection at the Odeon was pristine as usual. I planned to sit at the first row of the Royal circle. Unfortunately, for the first time – and I ignore the reason, I was not asked to choose my seat and the cashier gave me a ticket for the upper circle. I wasn’t pleased at all, finding the view rather far from the screen, especially considering that Edward was a blow-up print in 1.85 ratio that didn’t fill the whole 70mm aperture.
Furthermore, I was the first spectator to enter the circle and it remained so for several minutes until the next spectators (a father and his young son) entered and came to sit right next to me. We started a little chit-chat and he wondered too, why he hadn’t been asked which seats he wanted. He explained that they were living outside Central London where multiplex cinemas were more comfortable as they offered more space for the legs, but he took his son to Leicester Square cinemas just to show him the grandeur and technical superiority of these theatres. Ah… what a good education! Anyway, I went to complain to an usher about my unsatisfactory seat location. As the first row remained unoccupied, she allowed me to sit there once the film started.
Have you experienced being assigned a seat without being asked, in a Leicester Square cinema? I’m not speaking of the new Warner of 1993 where, as it stated above the desks, “seat attributed by the computer” (which is the reason why I never wanted to go there anymore).
Lionel: Would love to attend.
I am flexible on date as I live in London. Ken Roe’s suggestion of “The Montagu Pike,” having a relatively spacious interior thanks to its original use as a cinema, sounds like a fine idea too.
It would be good for contributors to meet in a convivial atmosphere. I live in the North but used to often stay at friends in Hampstead and Belsize Park. The latter has sadly recently passed away whilst the former is in the throes of moving to a larger property (currently undergoing renovation) in Beckenham where I have an invitation to visit sometime after March. If the gathering is proposed for slightly later in the year it would be nice to attend.