Screen sizes in the various Cinemas

Mango Joe

Hi there,

Just wanted to ask a bit of an odd question - Basically I find it slightly disappointing when you plan for and pay to go to the Cinema and then walk in the door to find that the screen the movie is actually on in is pretty much the same size as the average sitting room with a crappy tiny screen.

Call me contrary but I'd just as well wait a few months and watch it on DVD - The point of the cinema for me is the massive screen and proper pumping Dolby 900 speaker (!?) sound etc.

Wondering if any regular cinema goers on here could advise for the various Cinemas (Omniplex, Odeon, Showtime) what the large, medium and box-room screens are so people can pick accordingly.

Just to add that I do realise that the longer a movie is out the smaller the cinema due to falling attendance numbers etc.

An example is tonight Dunkirk is on at 8pm in Omniplex screen 3 and 9pm in Omniplex screen 9 and I'd suspect that 9 only seats a handful of people and has a screen the size of your average TV.

Hope that makes sense & yes I know I have little else to be worrying about!

Wallack

I never went to Odeon, just Omniplex and Showtimes and I avoid Omniplex whenever I can because most of the times is a small screen with seats where the stairs are in the middle. However Showtime tends to always have big screens. Some biggers than others but never a "42 inch screen".

Mr E

Omniplex 1 is huge, 2-6 are fine. Higher than that, the screens are smaller.

Odeon 1 is the biggest, 2-4 are the next size down, and 5-8 are a bit smaller (I think) but still OK.

Mc Love

Average TV?? Are you having a laugh?

OfTheMarsWongs

When booking online for the Omniplex you have to book a seat. Go through the process without logging in and it'll show you the number of seats in the screen.

Odeon do something similar but they run a General Seating policy so you can only book the premier seats at the back.

Coill1

What about the imax screeen (don't think it's a proper imax but something similar?) out in the Crescent cinema? Is it worth a whirl? (I've never been to an imax-boo!)
Apologies if this is going off topic..

Mango Joe

Mr E wrote: »

Omniplex 1 is huge, 2-6 are fine. Higher than that, the screens are smaller.

Odeon 1 is the biggest, 2-4 are the next size down, and 5-8 are a bit smaller (I think) but still OK.

Perfect - This is what I was thinking of, thanks.

Mc Love wrote: »

Average TV?? Are you having a laugh?

"Is e 'aving a larf?!?!? - Was being a tad sardonic...

But in all fairness, sitting 40 feet back from a small Cinema screen that is perched over an emergency exit stairs and squeezed into a room that the Architect knew deep down in his heart was too small to be a full cinema does feel like watching a 37" Tesco TV at home.

Anytime I fall for it and walk in you can just barely make out the grim faces on the people already sitting there in shame and despair, other people that know they've been duped yet are unsure how to react to their present situation - so they sit and wait sullenly in the darkness of their discontent.

OfTheMarsWongs wrote: »

When booking online for the Omniplex you h'ave to book a seat. Go through the process without logging in and it'll show you the number of seats in the screen.

Odeon do something similar but they run a General Seating policy so you can only book the premier seats at the back.

Will try this - Good tip, thanks.

Mc Love

Mango Joe wrote: »

But in all fairness, sitting 40 feet back from a small Cinema screen that is perched over an emergency exit stairs and squeezed into a room that the Architect knew deep down in his heart was too small to be a full cinema does feel like watching a 37" Tesco TV at home.

Anytime I fall for it and walk in you can just barely make out the grim faces on the people already sitting there in shame and despair, other people that know they've been duped yet are unsure how to react to their present situation - so they sit and wait sullenly in the darkness of their discontent.

I think you are being a bit melodramatic here or maybe it's just me but I never find that when I sitting that far back from a cinema screen tbh.

Mango Joe

Ah there's no melodrama involved really & my other over the top comments were just attempts at humor!

If I cannot attend a Cinema showing in a regular sized cinema I'd simply prefer to go do something else instead due to personal preference.

- I'm just casually looking for a manner or means to judge this by in advance.

dr.fuzzenstein

Mc Love wrote: »

I think you are being a bit melodramatic here or maybe it's just me but I never find that when I sitting that far back from a cinema screen tbh.

I think he's got a point. When you fork over quite a bit of money and then find yourself sitting in a small sitting room with your overpriced sugarwater and overpriced rubbery popcorn, don't tell me that you're not a tiny bit dissapointed with the "experience".
If you have a half decent telly at home with even a mid size sound system, the experience is not worlds away. Quite frankly I prefer to watch most stuff at home now for that exact reason. Amazon Prime be praised! And TV is the new cinema anyway, it seems a lot more quality stuff is now on telly and cinema is just tired, rehashed trash to get the crowds going. And I got all the food and drink I want and can feck off for a break if I want. Plus I can google anything that pops into my head when watching, I get a lot of interesting side-info that way.
If I do go to the cinema, I want to be blown away. And that was the case when I watched stuff like The Matrix, the LOTR films, some of the Marvel films, Prometheus, Avatar (well, they are very impressive in the right setting) and so on. That was on the big screen with a good crowd and a bit of an atmosphere, then it is an experience. I did have a lot of fun going to a Bond premiere in a tux.
But if I have to leave my house, drive over to Kempten (used to be Limerick), find parking, walk through half the town, queue for ages, pay half a bloody fortune, get handed small pieces of white rubber and sugar water and wedge myself into a seat for 2 hours or more, have to endure crappy advertising, can't pause the film if I want to get up, have to squeeze past 25 people if I have to go for a pee (avoid it at all costs), ignore a-holes texting or talking, drive back home again, get home late, wrecked and broke, it better be bloody amazing!
Because otherwise the whole ordeal is just not worth bothering with.
And getting older, it more and more isn't.

OfTheMarsWongs

Just had a flashback to the Savoy. Who builds a bowling alley over a cinema? :-D

Good times though!

panda100

OfTheMarsWongs wrote: »

Just had a flashback to the Savoy. Who builds a bowling alley over a cinema? :-D

Good times though!

I loved the Savoy! Spent most of my teenage years between that and Java's.

One thing that I find about the cinemas in limerick, especially Showtime is that the volume is really low. I usually have to strain to hear it. What's with that?

dr.fuzzenstein

panda100 wrote: »

I loved the Savoy! Spent most of my teenage years between that and Java's.

One thing that I find about the cinemas in limerick, especially Showtime is that the volume is really low. I usually have to strain to hear it. What's with that?

You may be really, really deaf as a post. :P

panda100

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

You may be really, really deaf as a post. :P

I am turning 34 this year so it could be my old age alright

Irish_rat

One of the Omniplex big screen or Showtime Cinemas. Anything else is subpar.

SoapMcTavish

OfTheMarsWongs wrote: »

Just had a flashback to the Savoy. Who builds a bowling alley over a cinema? :-D

Good times though!

Savoy Wednesday early afternoon special - 50p entry charge. Whoohoo. Went to cinema EVERY Wednesday while in college, often was just me and the (now) missus in the place.

Mango Joe

Thanks again for the help here everyone.