I watched Reel Steel at the El Capitan, Los Angeles in 2011 and it was the closest to full high definition (1080p) quality that I had seen on a cinema screen up until that time. What a flagship cinema. Could not believe that there was not a single IMAX cinema in all of Hollywood and surrounding area. That obviously changed when the Chinese Theater across the road was converted into an IMAX in 2013. This is the third largest IMAX screen in North America (behind San Francisco and Lincoln Square in New York City) and has the largest seating capacity (986 seats) of any IMAX cinema worldwide.
That makes sense regarding how each cinema on Leicester Square, back in the 80’s and 90’s, would work out which movies they would be showing and why all cinemas were not showing the same movies at the same time.
I must say how disappointed I am with the lack of information that can be found online regarding the actual sizes of cinema screens. Although it’s unlikely that an auditorium with between 350 and 550 seats will have an average sized screen, it’s not easy to gauge the size of the screen when it has a small number of luxury recliner seats and/or sofas etc as is the case in a number of different cinemas.
Whenever possible I try to watch a movie at the cinema on the largest screen possible depending on where in the country I am at the time or how far I am willing to travel. I could possibly count the number of times I have watched a movie in an auditorium containing less than ~355 seats over the past few years on one hand. Empire, Odeon and Vue cinemas seem to provide auditorium information which includes the number of seats, type of projector and sound system installed. Cineworld doesn’t appear to provide any such information.
Other than flagship cinemas such as Cineworld ‘Empire’ Leicester Square, Odeon Leicester Square, BFI IMAX the only cinema chain that I have seen provide the actual size of some of their screens is Odeon and this is mainly for their iSense screens. The size of IMAX screens in the UK can usually be found mentioned somewhere on the internet even if it’s not provided by the actual cinema chain, in question, themselves.
Do they think that regular moviegoers are not interested in this information or is it rather they don’t wish to put them off by advertising as having so many small screens?
I’ve spent many hours/days collating as much information as possible on cinemas I visit or plan to visit at some point with regards to the number of seats in an auditorium, the projection and sound system in use so that I have all of this information at my fingertips (on my smartphone) should I wish to watch a movie I would know which performances were being shown on the largest screens.
So part of the reason that Cineworld Empire, Leicester Square was closed briefly at the start of 2018 was to convert one of the auditoriums to 4DX and make changes to the main foyer area? Any other changes?
Have watched a number of movies at this flagship cinema over the past three decades and there have certainly been a number of changes made internally over that period.
Have visited this cinema a number of times over the years since 2009, the most recent movie that I watched was Avengers: Infinity War in IMAX 3D during its opening week.
Had been looking forward to this movie probably more than any other after reading some years ago that it would be the first feature-length movie ever to be entirely filmed using IMAX cameras.
Boy, did I leave disappointed! Not with the movie itself (enjoyed it, both times that I watched it during its first week of release) but with the video and audio quality. Sure, it was great seeing Thanos larger than life on such a huge screen but the colours seemed so muted to me. There was no pop even to the brightest scenes. And as for the surround sound, there was just one scene where I noticed the faintest of activity in the left side channel speakers. Complete lack of any thump to the LFE channel.
There is also nothing ‘premier’ about the Premier seats except the price. Legroom is almost non-existent if you’re anything but a short person.
Will not be returning here to watch Avengers 4 but shall instead go to Cineworld Empire, Leicester Square where everything except the slightly smaller screen is better. The IMAX with Laser projection system which delivers a far superior image to that of BFI IMAX. The sound system also sounded superior on each occasion that I have watched a movie there. There are more seats (727 – the most of any IMAX screen in the UK) and all are luxury leather stadium style seats which means you can sit in comfort anywhere you wish.
Is this project running seriously behind schedule as it closed on 5th January 2015 and according to the limited information on Odeon’s website says it will reopen in three years which would have been January 2018?
Watched a documentary about Dinosaurs at Pepsi IMAX back in the 90’s. Need to dig my ticket stub out for the exact date. It was a great experience that nothing else at the time could compete with.
There was also an Alien War total reality experience in the basement of the Trocadero Centre which I also checked out which was fun.
I’ve yet to watch a movie at Vue, West End. Each time I’ve ended up in Leicester Square without planning to watch a movie in advance and looked at what is showing there hasn’t been anything that either I haven’t already seen or didn’t fancy paying an astronomical price to watch. Not sure who makes the decisions on what movies can be shown by which cinema in Leicester Square but there certainly seems to be some type of agreement in place preventing any cinema from showing any movie. For example, a tentpole movie such as Avengers: Infinity War would most definitely not be shown in all of the cinemas at the same time. Warner Village cinemas, now Vue never seemed to be showing the big blockbusters like The Empire and Odeon, Leicester Square or Odeon, Studios opposite did when I’ve walked around the square to see what’s on.
Back in the 90’s whilst it was a Warner Village cinema, I believe screens 5 and 7 were THX certified. Now that Vue have taken over they are both listed as having Sony Finity Digital projectors and Dolby Atmos sound systems. They are the two largest auditoriums with 273 seats which doesn’t sound big compared to lots of other cinemas I visit across the country. One strange decision seems to be that leather recliners are only available in the front two rows. I never choose to sit that close to a cinema screen.
Can anyone comment on the size of the screens themselves in relation to any other cinemas please so I can gauge how big or small they are?
There are a few different articles, across the internet, covering the refurbishment of Odeon, Leicester Square and from what I have read I am expecting an iSense screen to be installed. This is Odeon’s proprietary large format (floor to ceiling and wall to wall screens, sometimes accompanied by a Dolby Atmos sound system). It is highly unlikely to be another IMAX screen as one already exists directly opposite on the other side of Leicester in the Cineworld Empire cinema.
If however, as suggested in one of the posts above this opens as the UK’s first Dolby Cinema (Dolby Vision projection plus Dolby Atmos sound system which can support to 128 audio tracks) then I shall certainly be planning a trip asap! However, I can’t see this happening unless the interior of the auditorium is changed to being very dark or completely black.
Some technical details about Dolby Cinema taken from this excellent and detailed article:
Dolby Vision, like IMAX with Laser uses lasers as light sources instead of the usual high-intensity Xenon discharge bulb. This allows the projection to be much brighter, and the contrast level to be much higher, than with normal DLP.
Dolby Vision operates at a brightness of 31 foot-lamberts (106 nits) offering an incredible 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio. Compare this to the 14 foot-lamberts (48 nits) illumination level that the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers has traditionally recommended. In the analogue days, few cinemas actually reached this level and current digital 3D projection systems certainly don’t.
The lasers also allow Dolby Vision to create a better 3D experience. Because Dolby Vision starts at 31 foot-lamberts (106 nits) in 2D, it still delivers 14 foot-lamberts (48 nits) in 3D mode, more than most other cinemas in 2D!
Don’t get too excited though as although Dolby Cinema should be coming to the UK at some point, their press office wouldn’t give an exact timeline.
With regards to when Odeon, Leicester Square may reopen, I read mention of it opening in time for the BFI London Film Festival which this year runs from 10th October until 21st October. If they miss that, I’m sure all involved in this project will be disappointed.
@CF100 – Thanks for posting updates regarding this refurbishment. It’s great to have some local feet on the ground!
Multi-chain cinemas (Cineworld, Vue, Odeon, Empire etc) don’t seem to supply very much if any information about the sound systems installed in their various auditoriums. Which is a shame as second only to wanting to watch a movie on their largest screen, I’d like the best quality sound to accompany it.
And why has the UK not got an DolbyVision equipped auditoriums? Movies have been presented in this format for a couple of years now in the U.S.
The majority of the IMAX screens in the UK are also significantly smaller (especially the height) of ones elsewhere across the globe. Had a look at the IMAX screen in Cineworld, Stevenage recently and was very disappointed. I’ve seen larger non-IMAX screens, screen 12 of Cineworld, High Wycombe for example.
As far as I know the refurbishment had nothing to do with the removal of the THX equipped sound system in screen 1 (which later was re-numbered as screen 3). The cinema had already lost it’s THX certification prior to this. THX would send one of their engineers over from America once per year to test that the system met all of its very strict criteria. They advised that this was not the case and outlined all the works that needed to be done by a certain date and as this was not they lost their certification and could no longer advertise themselves as having a THX certified auditorium.
Such as shame as it was one of only a few cinemas that had a THX equipped auditorium in the whole of the UK. The THX engineer said, with the exception of the purpose built private auditorium at Planet Hollywood, Leicester Swuare in London, it was the best THX sound system in the UK.
Screen 1 was also one of the first auditoriums in the UK to be equipped with DTS and Dolby Digital sound systems (1993) and also had a 70mm projector.
The side and rear surround speakers were installed inside what looked like black wall pillars.
I watched Reel Steel at the El Capitan, Los Angeles in 2011 and it was the closest to full high definition (1080p) quality that I had seen on a cinema screen up until that time. What a flagship cinema. Could not believe that there was not a single IMAX cinema in all of Hollywood and surrounding area. That obviously changed when the Chinese Theater across the road was converted into an IMAX in 2013. This is the third largest IMAX screen in North America (behind San Francisco and Lincoln Square in New York City) and has the largest seating capacity (986 seats) of any IMAX cinema worldwide.
I need to check this out for myself!
That makes sense regarding how each cinema on Leicester Square, back in the 80’s and 90’s, would work out which movies they would be showing and why all cinemas were not showing the same movies at the same time.
I must say how disappointed I am with the lack of information that can be found online regarding the actual sizes of cinema screens. Although it’s unlikely that an auditorium with between 350 and 550 seats will have an average sized screen, it’s not easy to gauge the size of the screen when it has a small number of luxury recliner seats and/or sofas etc as is the case in a number of different cinemas.
Whenever possible I try to watch a movie at the cinema on the largest screen possible depending on where in the country I am at the time or how far I am willing to travel. I could possibly count the number of times I have watched a movie in an auditorium containing less than ~355 seats over the past few years on one hand. Empire, Odeon and Vue cinemas seem to provide auditorium information which includes the number of seats, type of projector and sound system installed. Cineworld doesn’t appear to provide any such information.
Other than flagship cinemas such as Cineworld ‘Empire’ Leicester Square, Odeon Leicester Square, BFI IMAX the only cinema chain that I have seen provide the actual size of some of their screens is Odeon and this is mainly for their iSense screens. The size of IMAX screens in the UK can usually be found mentioned somewhere on the internet even if it’s not provided by the actual cinema chain, in question, themselves.
Do they think that regular moviegoers are not interested in this information or is it rather they don’t wish to put them off by advertising as having so many small screens?
I’ve spent many hours/days collating as much information as possible on cinemas I visit or plan to visit at some point with regards to the number of seats in an auditorium, the projection and sound system in use so that I have all of this information at my fingertips (on my smartphone) should I wish to watch a movie I would know which performances were being shown on the largest screens.
So part of the reason that Cineworld Empire, Leicester Square was closed briefly at the start of 2018 was to convert one of the auditoriums to 4DX and make changes to the main foyer area? Any other changes?
Have watched a number of movies at this flagship cinema over the past three decades and there have certainly been a number of changes made internally over that period.
Looking forward to the next visit…
Have visited this cinema a number of times over the years since 2009, the most recent movie that I watched was Avengers: Infinity War in IMAX 3D during its opening week.
Had been looking forward to this movie probably more than any other after reading some years ago that it would be the first feature-length movie ever to be entirely filmed using IMAX cameras.
Boy, did I leave disappointed! Not with the movie itself (enjoyed it, both times that I watched it during its first week of release) but with the video and audio quality. Sure, it was great seeing Thanos larger than life on such a huge screen but the colours seemed so muted to me. There was no pop even to the brightest scenes. And as for the surround sound, there was just one scene where I noticed the faintest of activity in the left side channel speakers. Complete lack of any thump to the LFE channel.
There is also nothing ‘premier’ about the Premier seats except the price. Legroom is almost non-existent if you’re anything but a short person.
Will not be returning here to watch Avengers 4 but shall instead go to Cineworld Empire, Leicester Square where everything except the slightly smaller screen is better. The IMAX with Laser projection system which delivers a far superior image to that of BFI IMAX. The sound system also sounded superior on each occasion that I have watched a movie there. There are more seats (727 – the most of any IMAX screen in the UK) and all are luxury leather stadium style seats which means you can sit in comfort anywhere you wish.
Recall watching 70mm presentations of Aliens and Terminator 2 at the old Odeon, Marble Arch back in the early 90’s.
Those were the days!
Is this project running seriously behind schedule as it closed on 5th January 2015 and according to the limited information on Odeon’s website says it will reopen in three years which would have been January 2018?
Watched a documentary about Dinosaurs at Pepsi IMAX back in the 90’s. Need to dig my ticket stub out for the exact date. It was a great experience that nothing else at the time could compete with.
There was also an Alien War total reality experience in the basement of the Trocadero Centre which I also checked out which was fun.
I’ve yet to watch a movie at Vue, West End. Each time I’ve ended up in Leicester Square without planning to watch a movie in advance and looked at what is showing there hasn’t been anything that either I haven’t already seen or didn’t fancy paying an astronomical price to watch. Not sure who makes the decisions on what movies can be shown by which cinema in Leicester Square but there certainly seems to be some type of agreement in place preventing any cinema from showing any movie. For example, a tentpole movie such as Avengers: Infinity War would most definitely not be shown in all of the cinemas at the same time. Warner Village cinemas, now Vue never seemed to be showing the big blockbusters like The Empire and Odeon, Leicester Square or Odeon, Studios opposite did when I’ve walked around the square to see what’s on.
Back in the 90’s whilst it was a Warner Village cinema, I believe screens 5 and 7 were THX certified. Now that Vue have taken over they are both listed as having Sony Finity Digital projectors and Dolby Atmos sound systems. They are the two largest auditoriums with 273 seats which doesn’t sound big compared to lots of other cinemas I visit across the country. One strange decision seems to be that leather recliners are only available in the front two rows. I never choose to sit that close to a cinema screen.
Can anyone comment on the size of the screens themselves in relation to any other cinemas please so I can gauge how big or small they are?
Thanks.
There are a few different articles, across the internet, covering the refurbishment of Odeon, Leicester Square and from what I have read I am expecting an iSense screen to be installed. This is Odeon’s proprietary large format (floor to ceiling and wall to wall screens, sometimes accompanied by a Dolby Atmos sound system). It is highly unlikely to be another IMAX screen as one already exists directly opposite on the other side of Leicester in the Cineworld Empire cinema.
If however, as suggested in one of the posts above this opens as the UK’s first Dolby Cinema (Dolby Vision projection plus Dolby Atmos sound system which can support to 128 audio tracks) then I shall certainly be planning a trip asap! However, I can’t see this happening unless the interior of the auditorium is changed to being very dark or completely black.
Some technical details about Dolby Cinema taken from this excellent and detailed article:
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/12/dolby-cinema-laser-powered-projection-object-based-3d-audio-awesome/
Dolby Vision, like IMAX with Laser uses lasers as light sources instead of the usual high-intensity Xenon discharge bulb. This allows the projection to be much brighter, and the contrast level to be much higher, than with normal DLP.
Dolby Vision operates at a brightness of 31 foot-lamberts (106 nits) offering an incredible 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio. Compare this to the 14 foot-lamberts (48 nits) illumination level that the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers has traditionally recommended. In the analogue days, few cinemas actually reached this level and current digital 3D projection systems certainly don’t.
The lasers also allow Dolby Vision to create a better 3D experience. Because Dolby Vision starts at 31 foot-lamberts (106 nits) in 2D, it still delivers 14 foot-lamberts (48 nits) in 3D mode, more than most other cinemas in 2D!
Don’t get too excited though as although Dolby Cinema should be coming to the UK at some point, their press office wouldn’t give an exact timeline.
With regards to when Odeon, Leicester Square may reopen, I read mention of it opening in time for the BFI London Film Festival which this year runs from 10th October until 21st October. If they miss that, I’m sure all involved in this project will be disappointed.
@CF100 – Thanks for posting updates regarding this refurbishment. It’s great to have some local feet on the ground!
Multi-chain cinemas (Cineworld, Vue, Odeon, Empire etc) don’t seem to supply very much if any information about the sound systems installed in their various auditoriums. Which is a shame as second only to wanting to watch a movie on their largest screen, I’d like the best quality sound to accompany it.
And why has the UK not got an DolbyVision equipped auditoriums? Movies have been presented in this format for a couple of years now in the U.S.
The majority of the IMAX screens in the UK are also significantly smaller (especially the height) of ones elsewhere across the globe. Had a look at the IMAX screen in Cineworld, Stevenage recently and was very disappointed. I’ve seen larger non-IMAX screens, screen 12 of Cineworld, High Wycombe for example.
As far as I know the refurbishment had nothing to do with the removal of the THX equipped sound system in screen 1 (which later was re-numbered as screen 3). The cinema had already lost it’s THX certification prior to this. THX would send one of their engineers over from America once per year to test that the system met all of its very strict criteria. They advised that this was not the case and outlined all the works that needed to be done by a certain date and as this was not they lost their certification and could no longer advertise themselves as having a THX certified auditorium.
Such as shame as it was one of only a few cinemas that had a THX equipped auditorium in the whole of the UK. The THX engineer said, with the exception of the purpose built private auditorium at Planet Hollywood, Leicester Swuare in London, it was the best THX sound system in the UK.
Screen 1 was also one of the first auditoriums in the UK to be equipped with DTS and Dolby Digital sound systems (1993) and also had a 70mm projector.
The side and rear surround speakers were installed inside what looked like black wall pillars.