Keith55 Fantastic to see more pictures of the Odeon Middlesbrough and would love to see any others that you may have. This was my one of my regular cinemas as a child and throughout my teens and I have very fond memories of visiting this cinema many times. I remember the cinema getting converted to 4 screens in the late 80s when a new screen was built on top of the protruding screens 2&3 and reopening the original projection box for the new Screen 1 with the old downstairs Screen 1 projector being used for the new Screen 4 which was located in the disused front stalls and original screen position.
ondonstation, The building was purchased by Stockton council when the Glam nightclub closed and has remained empty since. When the cinema opened as The Mall nightclub the new owners made the building look very attractive with the frount all in black with silver lettering, but sadly as the club was sold on to various owners it started to deitireate and when It opened as Glam they even lowered the frount of the building which was only false cladding as the frount foyer was only a single storey building with the cinema behind which now leaves the building a bit of an ugly eyesaw.
It looks like they have decided to closed one of the screens as they are advertising it as having 4 screens with 144 seats in screen 1, 53 seats screen 2, 53 seats screen 3 and 20 seats screen 4. I know that due to the style of Everyman cinemas there was obviously going to be a massive reduction in capacity but Screen 1 been reduced from 800 down to 144 seems a bit drastic and I do wonder how viable a 4 Screen cinema with so few seats can be.
Whilst I understand the points made by Lionel I’m still not convinced splitting Empire 1 was the correct decision. Firstly the Empire has managed to add a number of extra screens since the 90s and although very small they must certainly help the profitability of the Empire in similar way to the Odeon Studios attached to the Odeon Leicester Square. Secondly I don’t know the exact cost of the conversion but I suspect it was in the millions and it will be many years if ever that the extra revenue from the IMAX screen ever pays for itself. As for the future of cinema I’m not quite as pessimistic as Lionel and his prediction of Burger Kings style cinema and think cinema may actually go upmarket with more cinemas along the lines of Everyman and Picture House as the public look for something better than your average multiplex. The thing that I find most depressing is that the standard of presentation and whole cinema experiance was far better at my old local 1930s Odeon with its drop wall conversion than I have ever seen at the multiplex that replaced it.
I’m really not a fan of this cinema at all. The old Empire 1 was a great cinema but the IMAX screen I find uncomfortable and strangely clostraphobic. After my last visit (which will probably be my last visit) I’ve never been so glad to leave a cinema. I would also question the economic argument for converting this cinema to IMAX. When you consider the many months of closure and loss of revenue plus the huge cost of this conversion caused by the major structural problems I think it will be many years before this conversion comes close to showing a profit. Maybe that’s why the previous owners were glad to offload it. I do feel bitter about it as what was a truly unique cinema has been replaced by something that could really have been built anywhere.
I never quite understood why Odeon gave York such an unusual and expensive conversion. If it was just to achieve a larger capacity for Screen 1 then I would have thought seating the frount stalls would have been a Simpler and cheaper solution and would have avoided the sightline problems. Or if they were gong to go to the expencice of extending the circle why not enclose the whole upstairs area and create a stadium style cinema as ABC did at many of their cinemas.
Granadier I’m not sure Your comment regarding purpose built Odeons is quite fair. It’s true that Odeon didn’t spend anywhere near the amount of money on building their cinemas compaired to Granada, but Odeon did build some of the most iconic cinemas of the era and although internally Odeon went for a more simplistic approach compared to some of their rivals, they did manage to create warm, comfortable and welcoming cinemas. There is no arguing that Granada built some of the most spectacular cinemas of the era and of course the Granada Tooting was probably the most spectacular cinema ever built in the UK, but personally I found their cinemas fairly drab on the outside and in particular I’ve always thought the Granada Harrow to be pretty poor building outwardly. I think it shows the difference in ideology of the two company’s with Granada choosing to go for very large gothic cathedral style, while Odeon choose a more modern warm and welcoming style to their cinemas. It’s just a shame that modern cinemas have no style at all and every cinema is just as bland and boring as the next.
For me the problem for all the cinemas in Leicester Square is that there is now to many screens chasing to few product. I think they would all do better had they stayed single screens and changed their films on a weekly or fortnightly basis rather then giving very long runs of often very mediocre films. Had they done this I also believe it might have also been possible for the cinema opperaters to persuade the film distributors to let them have exclusive preview shows before going on genral realise similar to the days of exclusive west end runs but maybe just for a weekend before going on genral release. For the cinemas in Leicester Square to servive and be successful I really believe they have to offer the customer something they can’t get at their local cinema, but sadly a lot of the screens are not very good and the customer can get much better experience at their local multiplex for half the price.
If the Odeon is being referbished I hope they improve the foyer area. I always thought it odd that when they had there last major refit in the late 90s they put so much effort into restoring the auditorium back to it’s origanal 1930s style while the foyer was turned into this ultra modern almost clinical style which I always found to be rather cold and unwelcoming.
Keith55 Fantastic to see more pictures of the Odeon Middlesbrough and would love to see any others that you may have. This was my one of my regular cinemas as a child and throughout my teens and I have very fond memories of visiting this cinema many times. I remember the cinema getting converted to 4 screens in the late 80s when a new screen was built on top of the protruding screens 2&3 and reopening the original projection box for the new Screen 1 with the old downstairs Screen 1 projector being used for the new Screen 4 which was located in the disused front stalls and original screen position.
ondonstation, The building was purchased by Stockton council when the Glam nightclub closed and has remained empty since. When the cinema opened as The Mall nightclub the new owners made the building look very attractive with the frount all in black with silver lettering, but sadly as the club was sold on to various owners it started to deitireate and when It opened as Glam they even lowered the frount of the building which was only false cladding as the frount foyer was only a single storey building with the cinema behind which now leaves the building a bit of an ugly eyesaw.
It looks like they have decided to closed one of the screens as they are advertising it as having 4 screens with 144 seats in screen 1, 53 seats screen 2, 53 seats screen 3 and 20 seats screen 4. I know that due to the style of Everyman cinemas there was obviously going to be a massive reduction in capacity but Screen 1 been reduced from 800 down to 144 seems a bit drastic and I do wonder how viable a 4 Screen cinema with so few seats can be.
Whilst I understand the points made by Lionel I’m still not convinced splitting Empire 1 was the correct decision. Firstly the Empire has managed to add a number of extra screens since the 90s and although very small they must certainly help the profitability of the Empire in similar way to the Odeon Studios attached to the Odeon Leicester Square. Secondly I don’t know the exact cost of the conversion but I suspect it was in the millions and it will be many years if ever that the extra revenue from the IMAX screen ever pays for itself. As for the future of cinema I’m not quite as pessimistic as Lionel and his prediction of Burger Kings style cinema and think cinema may actually go upmarket with more cinemas along the lines of Everyman and Picture House as the public look for something better than your average multiplex. The thing that I find most depressing is that the standard of presentation and whole cinema experiance was far better at my old local 1930s Odeon with its drop wall conversion than I have ever seen at the multiplex that replaced it.
I’m really not a fan of this cinema at all. The old Empire 1 was a great cinema but the IMAX screen I find uncomfortable and strangely clostraphobic. After my last visit (which will probably be my last visit) I’ve never been so glad to leave a cinema. I would also question the economic argument for converting this cinema to IMAX. When you consider the many months of closure and loss of revenue plus the huge cost of this conversion caused by the major structural problems I think it will be many years before this conversion comes close to showing a profit. Maybe that’s why the previous owners were glad to offload it. I do feel bitter about it as what was a truly unique cinema has been replaced by something that could really have been built anywhere.
I never quite understood why Odeon gave York such an unusual and expensive conversion. If it was just to achieve a larger capacity for Screen 1 then I would have thought seating the frount stalls would have been a Simpler and cheaper solution and would have avoided the sightline problems. Or if they were gong to go to the expencice of extending the circle why not enclose the whole upstairs area and create a stadium style cinema as ABC did at many of their cinemas.
Granadier I’m not sure Your comment regarding purpose built Odeons is quite fair. It’s true that Odeon didn’t spend anywhere near the amount of money on building their cinemas compaired to Granada, but Odeon did build some of the most iconic cinemas of the era and although internally Odeon went for a more simplistic approach compared to some of their rivals, they did manage to create warm, comfortable and welcoming cinemas. There is no arguing that Granada built some of the most spectacular cinemas of the era and of course the Granada Tooting was probably the most spectacular cinema ever built in the UK, but personally I found their cinemas fairly drab on the outside and in particular I’ve always thought the Granada Harrow to be pretty poor building outwardly. I think it shows the difference in ideology of the two company’s with Granada choosing to go for very large gothic cathedral style, while Odeon choose a more modern warm and welcoming style to their cinemas. It’s just a shame that modern cinemas have no style at all and every cinema is just as bland and boring as the next.
Cineworld have said that they are waiting for permission from their landlord before the transfer of ownership to Empire can take place.
For me the problem for all the cinemas in Leicester Square is that there is now to many screens chasing to few product. I think they would all do better had they stayed single screens and changed their films on a weekly or fortnightly basis rather then giving very long runs of often very mediocre films. Had they done this I also believe it might have also been possible for the cinema opperaters to persuade the film distributors to let them have exclusive preview shows before going on genral realise similar to the days of exclusive west end runs but maybe just for a weekend before going on genral release. For the cinemas in Leicester Square to servive and be successful I really believe they have to offer the customer something they can’t get at their local cinema, but sadly a lot of the screens are not very good and the customer can get much better experience at their local multiplex for half the price.
If the Odeon is being referbished I hope they improve the foyer area. I always thought it odd that when they had there last major refit in the late 90s they put so much effort into restoring the auditorium back to it’s origanal 1930s style while the foyer was turned into this ultra modern almost clinical style which I always found to be rather cold and unwelcoming.