A Night at the Movies

We have a few birthdays coming up lately and it is always a bit of a struggle to come up with a suitable way of celebrating which doesn’t involve the expense and, more importantly, sheer unadulterated Hell of children’s parties. There are a few options. An afternoon at the Ten Pin Bowling is fun and a football match or the like would be fine if it wasn’t February and the weather such a variable factor (at least not that variable as it is pretty predictably wet, windy, cold and miserable).

My preference is for a trip to the movies. In part, this is because I was always so enamoured with the local picture house as a child and also because it is a fairly straight forward, stress-free family night out. Unfortunately, it is no longer the cheap night out that it once was. I’ve just checked out two local multiplexes and the prices just for the tickets are extortionate. In Falkirk, the prices are (just for 2D films) £10.10 for an adult ticket and £7.60 for a child. There are no family discounts so for us (with 3 children) that would be £43 even before anyone suggested dallying with the ice cream stand or the pick and mix. A 3D film (which I personally avoid like the plague) including the glasses would be a shade under £58. It’s not just that chain, either. In Stirling the similar prices would be £42 and £54 even with their family discounts.

For the most part, I tend to stick with a couple of independent cinemas whose family ticket prices are about half of the multiplexes and who actually offer a pleasant cinema experience. Generally this tends to be the cinema at Stirling University which has a nice relaxed family experience and the Bo’Ness Hippodrome which is a proper old-fashioned picture house with that certain feeling of expectant magic that a night out at the cinema should have (and also a selection of ice cream that doesn’t require an overdraft facility). In fact it is that sense of magic that small independent picture houses still manage to create: the multiplex chains just show a film without offering that special feeling of going out for the night. And they don’t do it cheaply, either.

The annoying thing is that a going to the cinema used to be a cheap night out. I still miss the old ABC cinema in Falkirk even if calling it a fleapit would cast aspersions on to the quality of accommodation that the typical flea would aspire to. At one time pretty much every town of any size would have its own cinema but most of these were killed off by the advent of TV. I’m actually wondering whether the tides are turning with this one because with digital projection technology the set-up costs of running a small scale cinema are coming right down. I can’t see the multiplexes relinquishing their stranglehold on Hollywood blockbusters and overpriced popcorn but there must be a market for a local community with a civic hall to spare?