Unlimited Movies
For three years in Amsterdam, I watched many movies on my computer. Movies I had never heard about. For the first one and half year, the only movie I saw in the theatres was Spiderman 2. Then one and half year later everything changed.
Amsterdam is rich in terms of art. It has many music halls, small theatres and huge multiplex. The biggest multiplex group is Pathe. It has 4 multiplex in Amsterdam alone with almost more than 35 screens between them but most of them running to absent audience. A ticket to a show costs 9 Euros, 4:50 Euros on a Saturday morning and 6:25 Euros for all Tuesday shows.
So if I watched 4 movies a month, my spending on movies would be 36 euros a month. If I wait a couple of months, renting the DVD for the same movie would cost me 3:50 Euros per movie. But then watching the movie on the DVD does not have the same fun as watching the movie on the big screen. It was experience against economics.
My problems were solved when almost two years back, Pathe came up with Unlimited card. As the card said unlimited it really meant unlimited. The card had a compulsory subscription of 4 months with 17.50 Euros per month. After the mandatory 4 months, viewer could continue or opt out. You can watch unlimited movies per month using the Unlimited Pathe pass card.
The idea is simple. You pay 17.50 euros per month. You have 4 theatres in the city. Walk in any theatre, show your Pathe Unlimited Card and get a ticket to the movie you want to see. No discount, no payment, just the card and the ticket free. Only condition is that you can get a ticket within one hour before the movie starts. So if the movie is houseful, you will not get a ticket. Its first come, first serve.
Even if I see two movies per month, I get my money worth. For people like me who like to watch lots and lots of movies, it was a dream come true because I could see movie every weekend and sometimes even two movies back to back. It was a win-win situation for both. I get to see more movies and the theatre gets an assured income of 17:50 euros per month per person and a full hall. The scheme was an instant hit.
It was good for the theatres, the audience and the movies too.
I saw “Namesake” in an almost full hall with mostly European audience. Now “Namesake” is a movie which has a strong Indian root although it is a story that can be identified by many immigrant and still people would be reluctant to watch a movie like that. People were ready to watch movie which they would normally avoid. A movie like the “Queen” or “Little Miss sunshine” which are mostly so-called festival movies got an audience and was appreciated too. The only problem with the scheme was the number of movies releasing in Amsterdam were far too less (8-10 per month).
Coming to Mumbai, I saw Manorama -Six Feet Under” paying 160 rupees in an almost empty hall. The total hall capacity 110 seats. People in the hall; approximately 40 that means 70 seats wasted and the movie would be declared a flop.
Replicating the same scheme from Amsterdam in Mumbai might work for the movies and the film industry as a whole. The tickets cost more than 150 rupees and above for a movie. If I take a family of 4 with me, it costs me 600 rupees minimum multiply that with 4 movies a month and the bill comes out to be 2400 rupees. Added to it the cost of snacks, it easily crosses rupees 3000 per month. I could buy DVDs for the movies and reduce the cost by one third or even one-fifth with the cost of DVDs going very low.
An average movie viewer, would rather spend this amount on big-budget, big star movies rather than watching a different but critically acclaimed good movie. On an average a minimum of 10 movies are released every month counting the Hindi and Hollywood movie. So if an individual has to see all these movies, he/she would have to spent minimum of 1500 rupees per month per person on all movies.
We have a lot of Multiplex chains in Mumbai like Cinemax, Fame, Adlabs, Movietime, PVR etc. Can these multiplex chain have Unlimited movies card for the viewers? The advantage would be;
* The movie lovers would love to see the movies in theatre for a lesser cost that means benefit for the movie-goer.
* Casual movie viewers would opt for this scheme and maybe watch those movies which they wouldn’t normally watch. (A big ‘maybe’ here)
* The theatres would not go empty for small movies without big stars. That means good business for eveerybody
* An assured income for the theatres irrespective of the fate of the movies. (Pathe Unlimited had 15000 card holders in 2006. Do the maths)
* Low movie piracy because people would watch the movie in theatres.
I could think of the following scenarios
* Consider a 1000 rupees card for 10 movies. The viewer can see the movies over a period of 2-3 months.
* A monthly card of Rs. 500 with a max of 4-6 movies per month.
* A family card for 2000 rupees for a family of 4
The above is just a suggestion and more economically viable option beneficial to both viewers and the owners could be planned.
With the rising number of multiplexes, the audience would be divided. Added to the rising cost of tickets, I think the economy of watching a movie would decide over experience of watching a movie in the theatres. With the cost of home theatres and DVDs going down, I wouldn’t mind watching the movie in the comfort of my home although I would still prefer the cinema experience. Also I don’t have to wait for a movie to be in Theatres if the cost is low.
Multiplex have changed the way movies are viewed today. It has brought people back to the theatres and hopefully the cost should not be a deterrent for watching any movie. Multiplexes should be looking at bringing more people to the theatres not making them exclusive. Unless that happens, good movies like “The Blue Umbrella” would not find an audience because it has Pankaj Kapoor because people are looking at “Dhol” because it has stars.
Tags: Medium
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Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
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Onir
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Ramu Ramanathan
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Pankaj Advani
Revathy
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Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
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Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
well just one question what if the hall is fulll, that is the cinema have sold out and then you come in with an UNLIMITED MOVIES pass and demand a seat, what would they be doing then?
As I said, the tickets will be sold on “First come first serve” basis. The tickets are sold to card holder 0ne hour before the show starts so that they don’t have undue advantage over paying viewers.
If you think that the movie is going to be full, you pay in advance like normal paying viewers and do not use the card then.
-Punds
I get unlimited movies too! I don’t even have to pay a penny, well, apart from the electricity cost and lost sleep, there is nothing else!
I have a night free surfing scheme where I get absolutely brilliant speeds and there is this website I get all the movies and latest shows! Saw the whole season 3 of Grey’s Anatomy on this!! hehehehe….
Public Notice: Fight Piracy, Watch Only Authorized DVD’s.
Awesome man! very interesting and different article. I am pretty much a multiplex addict myself for last 3 years. I see 5-6 films a week, all at PVR. Sometimes even more, and I do get embarrassed when I have 2 shows back to back and they are playing in the same screen!, I go out by one door and enter by the other.
Anyways, the point is, your unlmtd card theory makes great sense in these settings. If I have a monthly card, I can give the excuse of watching 4 films a day, by saying, I have to finish my monthly amount as its the last day of the month! These multiplex people are anyways earning millions, its time they use their minds in making better popcorns and serving films better than just randomly deciding on the exhibits. Seriously, kuch bhi laga dete hain, in whatever order you can imagine, There is no thought behind the same. I have tried to get in touch with these guys but they are chimps in the customer service, they don’t know how to appreciate the feedback of their loyal(for want or necessity) customers.
Some of other annoying problems with PVR:
-Delayed screenings due to ‘unlimited’ bakwaas local ads.
-Bad Interval timing in English films.
-No local management responsible for maintaining a decorum, people shout and jump as if its Ramlila.
-Too much focus on making money than celebrating films(which they claim all the time). It’s all fake, the picture they paint.
I hope someone forwards this article to them.
!fantasic idea!…:)>-
it would greatly boost audience for non-blockbuster, but good pathbreaking/experimental movies….
Sounds Good! If implemented, then I guess for blockbuster movies, fans will line-up for back to back shows!!!
Sounds Good! If implemented, then I guess for blockbuster movies, fans will line-up for back to back shows
Brilliant idea. Am in Sydney and am sure an idea of that sort would definitely work here.
I am not sure about the feasibility of something like this in India though considering the movie-going population is huge. As someone has mentioned, there is a tendency for certain ‘big budget’ movies to have sold out tickets almost a week prior to the release of the same. There is also this recent trend of hiking the ticket prices for certain movies with ’superstars’.
In such cases, it would be difficult to fathom for the Multiplex owners to have perhaps 10% of their tickets being taken up by people who have an ‘Unlimited movies card’ having paid IRS100 per movie as per your calculation.
This ofcourse can be compensated by the same people with this ‘Unlimited movies card’ coming into the cinema to watch good movies with lesser stars. But the multiplex owners would never do our economics that way, would they? If there are 6 big budget movies (assumed moneyspinners) coming out in 3 months, they would assume the average ‘Unlimited movies cardholder’ would redeem that card for these movies.
Although, I reckon someone can suggest this via their links to certain bigwigs at selected multiplexes. They could atleast experiment this sort of a scheme and do their math later to see if it is indeed viable.
All in all, a great idea from which good/small movies would definitely benefit.
I am actually getting down to implementing such schemes in my outfit..in the short run it shall bring in the moolah..in the long run it shall create a latent interest in coming to the plex for those lesser known subjects!
Even so, I don’t see the ground situation changing in movie viewership..steps towards good cinema are a little bit selfless..it constitutes a lil “Dil pe patthar” for the entreprenuers!!
Dears
This is good idea. Am in the managaing entertainment business. I think I will take up this lead and try convincing theatre owners to implement probably make free movies in all multiplexes provided these multiplex companies don’t have ego problems.
Wow! This sounds like a boon to cinephiles!
However, most movie maniacs like to catch the film first day, or at least on the first weekend. And in Mumbai, this may mean not getting the tickets on the first weekend… I am assuming that it’s a much-awaited film. However, if it comes “FREE”, many people would rather wait for the rush to thin down.. But its a cool concept..
Machchar
Well! Er… Of course. Fight Piracy, Watch Only Authorized DVD
Punds, just when we were talking about this, my friend had a big fight over carrying a USB device in the theater! He swears he will never go there again! And all this while I was watching NO SMOKING!