Gloucester Guildhall cinema hoping to secure £40,000 from the council to go digital
WITH visitor numbers doubling in the last two years, Gloucester Guildhall's cinema needs to secure £40,000 to move into a digital age.
Gloucester City Council's cabinet will meet on Thursday this week to discuss upgrading the cinema, at the Eastgate Street building, from 35mm film to digital.
-
Gloucester Guildhall
This would enable the Guildhall to show films much sooner after their release date. Currently they have to wait eight weeks to show top titles like Skyfall.
Attendance figures have risen dramatically in recent months proving the popularity of the cinema. It is one of only 28 remaining specialised cinemas in the South West.
Business Cards From Only £10.95 Delivered www.myprint-247.co.uk
View detailsOur heavyweight cards have FREE UV silk coating, FREE next day delivery & VAT included. Choose from 1000's of pre-designed templates or upload your own artwork. Orders dispatched within 24hrs.
Terms: Visit our site for more products: Business Cards, Compliment Slips, Letterheads, Leaflets, Postcards, Posters & much more. All items are free next day delivery. www.myprint-247.co.uk
Contact: 01858 468192
Valid until: Friday, May 31 2013
In 2010, 6,747 people attended the cinema, this rose to 7,611 in 2011 and 11,529 in 2012. Gloucester City councillor Paul Toleman (C, Westgate) hopes an agreement can be reached.
He said: "I think it will be great news for the city centre if this comes off.
"The more people we get in the city centre the better. People would visit the cinema, and then go to the shops etc."
James Camp, 27, from Lydney, has been to the cinema a number of times.
He said: "It's a really great little cinema, a bit of a hidden gem.
"It would be great if they had the newer films there sooner, but that's not what the Guildhall cinema is about for me. I like that they show the more niche and independent films. I hope they would carry on showing those."
Most cinemas have now converted to digital formats. The main film studios such as Twentieth century Fox, Sony and Warner Brothers have started to release only selected titles on 35mm, meaning there is getting less and less films to chose from on this format.
The cost to hire digital films as opposed to 35mm is exactly the same, but digital could allow the Guildhall to save 500 staff hours per year.
7 Comments
by gloscityguy
Monday, March 04 2013, 8:35PM
“lol me thinks the Guildhall staff have been in here”
by gloscityguy
Monday, March 04 2013, 1:10PM
“How many tickets would they have to sell to make back the £40k?
I haven't been for years, but it didn't seat that many.
and really, they have a way to show films already
and going digital isn't going to suddenly make everyone rush to the cinema.
£40k wouldn't be a problem if we weren't cutting deeply everywhere else, but I think my council tax could be better spent in these hard times
why not give them a £40k loan?
and they can pay it back by all the bums on seats they get from it”
by zalapompadoo
Monday, March 04 2013, 1:01PM
“we often go and have no complaints we saw skyfall the week before christmas, check out the monthly brouhre there is always something worth seeing”
by Beekeeper
Monday, March 04 2013, 11:31AM
“We need this upgrade to the Guildhall cinema. It will quickly pay for itself with increasing attendances.”
by GlosAnarchy
Monday, March 04 2013, 11:01AM
“You want to see what it's like on a Monday afternoon it's mayhem with the Blue rinse brigade there in force!"”
by xlitho
Monday, March 04 2013, 10:21AM
“The Regal 'was' a cinema and theatre before it was wasted!”
by nickthompson
Monday, March 04 2013, 8:44AM
“"Gloucester Guildhall cinema hoping to secure £40,000 from the council to go digital"
Not with our council tax, try putting up ticket costs,so that those wishing to attend, pay the going rate.”