I paid a visit to the place where cinema has come to die

Walking around the decaying carcass of a once glittering shopping centre is to see what life will be like when the last store you actually want to visit finally closes.

But the grimmest experience awaits upstairs. With it’s multiple screens showing movies all day long, a visit to Vue Cinema used to be a bit of a treat. You could buy tickets using a touch screen and the seats were super comfy. Then came Covid.

Since then someone seems to have pressed rewind. The touch screens are gone and have been replaced by an app that never works. So instead you have to queue up to buy tickets from a person - just like in the old days. Except this person also sells the buckets of popcorn and gallon sized drinks which take ages to prepare, hence the long, snaking queue.

And that is why Vue Ocean Terminal is the place where cinema has come to die. You can queue up for 10 minutes to buy a ticket for a movie in a shopping centre that looks like a scene from after the zombie invasion, or you can stay at home and wait a week for it to appear on a streaming platform. It’s that simple. I went to see a brilliant British film called “The Ballad of Wallis Island” with Tim Key and Tom Basden because I think they are terrific and I want their movie to be a success.

Box office takings are still the measure of popularity, but for how much longer? Having battled with the app, braved the queue and complained to the manager I eventually managed to see what will probably be my favourite film of the year but it was with a handful of people in the room…. and no wonder. The cinema experience is in freefall.

I understand the economics. With revenues declining there is no great incentive for cinema chains to invest in their product. Instead the focus seems to be on slashing costs and squeezing every last penny out of the business model before it folds….and nobody seems to care.

Well the customer cares. We’ve all had a long love affair with this form of entertainment. Most people can tell you about their first film and have special memories of big movie going occasions….date nights, birthday outings, special double bills and the treat that is going to a movie in the afternoon.

And then there is the shared communal experience of going to see films like Schindler’s List, Philadelphia, Austin Powers and the latest James Bond film. Those moments when we all laugh together or the grief hangs so heavy in the air that you have to reach for a hankie.

All that will be lost when we end up sitting in our viewing pods at home staring at giant screens that also monitor our health and doomscroll social media for us.

Faced with that, cinema will survive in some shape or form. Small independents who focus on a good customer experience are still doing well and will find a way to keep going. But for the big corporate chains who take the public for granted and care more about selling Maltesers than screening movies, The End is in sight.