Movie theater names for sale
Posted by Rodneyon 26. 01. 2007in News Chat
Cineplex Odeon, Canada’s largest movie exhibitor will now start selling naming rights to the highest bidder, it’s going to be the Staples movie theaters and McMovies very soon. In fact it is already starting. The folks over at imdb.com give us this on the news:
Borrowing a page from sports arenas and stadiums, movie theaters may be next to sell naming rights to advertisers. Canada’s Cineplex Entertainment, the country’s largest exhibitor, announced Wednesday that it had sold naming rights to five theaters in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver to Scotiabank. As part of the deal, movie patrons who use a specially branded Scotiabank debit card to make purchases at the theater will be able to earn free movie tickets and combos at concession stands.
Ok this is bad, but…it’s also good. It’s bad because we will now have even more advertising thrown at us when we go to the theaters, but it is also going to help us save a few bucks and possibly keep theaters going for a little while longer.
We all know that theaters are in danger of closing down completely, people just don’t like being in the dark with strangers anymore, we are an isolating society, everything is cubicalized, home delivered, air kissed and hand sanitized these days. This movie/bank idea might just help us put our butts down in the gum chewed common man’s theater seat for a few years more.
It will be giving the movie theaters a whopping load of cash, which means we won’t have our ticket prices go up for a while, theaters will have better projectors and sound equipment and properly paid projectionist to run things. And yes if you are with Scotiabank you’ll get a break on your ticket, and you know what? That is enough for me to change banks, because a bank that gives me a break on the things that I like to do, like watch movies is being aware of my needs as a consumer.
Yes it will suck to have yet another advertising image in the theater but it’s everywhere now anyway, we might as well get some benefit from it.
Honestly, if I could, I’d name a theater the Child Molestor theater. That way, assholes who bring their two year old to cry through flicks will see the name of the theater and take their little bastards elsewhere so I can watch my shit in peace.
There is no ‘good’ aspect to this. It may be the way of the future & we have no choice but to accept it, but it’s still ‘bad’ in so many ways.
Also, if you’re willing to change banks to save on a movie ticket, well… go ahead, I can’t help you.
Do you actually believe that a bank would give you something with their right hand, without having figured out how to take it away from you with their left hand?
Those theatres to renamed are the Paramount ones. Yes, I kind of agree and it is lame.
“We all know that theaters are in danger of closing down completely, people just don’t like being in the dark with strangers anymore,”
You were being sarcastic, right Shar?
As to idea overall, it might be isolated. I don’t think it will work in the long run. Technically, theatres already are businesses, aren’t they?
The coporate world shown in the original RollerBall moves ever closer.
I don’t think there’s anything really good about this either primarily because the theater that’s taking up this practice is the chain that needs it the least.
Basically, since I’m not a Scotiabank member, I’m at a disadvantage. That licks big time, especially since I go to so many movies.
To boot, this is Canada’s largest chain. They don’t need any more money and I highly doubt they’re at the point where they have to close down cinema’s because of money.
What this is doing is further marginalizing the independent theaters. The ones that ARE struggling to keep afloat but also the ones we need most so that we CAN have the opportunity of seeing “Pan’s Labyrinth”, “Children of Men”, “Letters from Iwo Jima” and “Volver” - all films that are well recognized but none of which screened at the local Cineplex theater.
As far as I’m concerned, this is crappy news.
I don’t agree. Theatres aren’t closing in my neck of the woods. If anything, attendance is up (as I’m imagining they are everywhere, with bad movies making record profits). I do agree that the smaller independents are suffering, but in reality, they are suffering in almost every other field as well, and will continue to. They just don’t have the money to advertise the way larger chains do, and the larger chains use it to their advantage. I personally don’t have a problem with it, except when the chains take advantage, by offering “freebies” to certain clients, but not all. With the Scotiabank/Cineplex deal, it doesn’t benefit anyone but Scotia customers to go to those theatres. Why not implement a program to benefit ALL customers? This is bad marketing (but it looks like they got one new customer, eh Sharon?).
I think reward programs are great, especially when done right, but are those of us that are not Scotiabank customers now going to suffer because we don’t deal with them? That would be wrong and unethical.