Cineworld will stage its own two-day version of a National Cinema Day-style event at all its 89 UK and Ireland multiplex sites, excluding Picturehouse Cinemas, on August 30-31.
Ticket prices will be heavily reduced to £4 over the ‘Big Screen Weekend’ for films including Disney’s comedy drama The Roses, starring Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch, Sony Pictures’ Austin Butler and Zoe Kravitz New York-set thriller Caught Stealing, and the 50th anniversary re-release of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws.
“That is every single format, IMAX, 4DX, ScreenX, Super Screen & VIP - everything is £4. There is no booking fee online,” said Stuart Crane, international vice president of content for Cineworld Group Plc, of the Big Screen Weekend.
The official National Cinema Day, organised by cross-industry body CinemaFirst, has been paused this year.
However Crane said National Cinema Day is “a very important day for the industry that needs to happen every year so that we don’t lose any momentum of getting people back into cinemas’’.
He added: “We see this as a win-win for distributors, exhibitors, and most importantly, the customer. Imagine a million eyeballs potentially going to watch films they wouldn’t have without this weekend, and all of them seeing certain trailers that are going to come out in the next few months. If 10% of them come back and watch one of those new films then the movie industry in general wins.”
Cineworld staged a similar initiative, “Cineworld Day,” in February 2022.
“If the last few weeks have shown us anything, it is that we need the customers back in cinemas more than ever, and this was too good an opportunity for us to pass on,” Crane said.
No comments yet