What happened to the IMAX at the UGC?

TheFoot

To continue on the cinema business theme, I was wondering about the IMAX theatre. It's been closed since I came to Dublin two years ago. How long was it open for? Did anybody go?

I assume it closed because of lack of attendance. It seems an odd choice of location--most of the IMAXs that I know of (which are presumably successful) are either in high traffic tourist areas or connected to museums or science centres. Cheers. DB.

SoundWave

What happened to the IMAX at the UGC?

Not very much....

went once in ugc, wasnt very impressive, sound quality was crap, as far as i can rem it was open for about a year or so, but was only busy for the first 45 minutes.

Mr E

The equipment was VERY expensive, as far as I know. Add to that the cost of the movies, and you have a large overhead. They just weren't getting the numbers (and it wasn't really VFM).

- Dave.

ObeyGiant

The Dublin IMAX was a completely wasted opportunity, and deserved to fail. Instead of using the cinema to its advantage, they decided to play it off as a novelty, and tended to only show those dreadful "Everest"/"Space" pieces of docu-tainment.

Towards the end, someone finally got the idea, and decided to show Fantasia 2000 in it. This was incredible, and showed exactly why IMAX cinemas are such a great idea. Unfortunately, lack of publicty meant lack of punters. When I went to see F2K, there were approximately 10 people in the cinema, including myself and my friend.

Lucutus

Yea, attendance sucked at the Dublin one, I went a couple of times, was impressed once and disappointed once.

The thing about IMAX is, that because shooting an IMAX film is that much more expensive, and conventional cinemas can't show the films to the same effect as IMAX theatres, the films run for a longer periods of time in the IMAX and there wasn't enough variety/change in the IMAX in Dublin to keep the punters coming back.

The IMAX in London I went to didn't have this problem because even tho it had the same films for the same (or longer?) amount of time showing, it's located in a central enough area with plenty of traffic* passing through...


* The IMAX in London I went to is built in the center of a few roads, almost like a roundabout the size of the one on the Naas Rd/M50 @ The Red Cow!

eth0_

It's irritating that the one in Belfast is still going strong last time I was up there, and ours fell flat on its face. The Dublin IMAX was hardly in the middle of nowhere, and something like that I'd reckon needs to be purpose built for acoustics and the sheer size of the screen. Admission charges were pretty expensive considering the movies were so short and crappy....I saw one there with Elvira "starring" in it...I think that says a lot about the quality of the films they had!

RicardoSmith

It was closed before I realised it was open. Anyone see the IMax shows at NASA? Cool. The one in Dublin was in the wrong part of town end of story. You simply don't get many tourists walking aound the back of the Ilac. I mean theres nothing there! There wasn't enough of decent film to make punters want to come back, either.

Praetorian

Parnell Street is a fairly good location. (The UGC does extremely well).

I'd blame the lack of good advertising for its demise. Also some of the movies were quite poor! However the 3D movies were extremely impressive, visually and acoustically. The first time I was at the IMAX my initial thoughts were, this is the future of cinema…What a shame.

ObeyGiant

Originally posted by Praetorian
Parnell Street is a fairly good location. (The UGC does extremely well).

This is true, and ties in with what I was saying earlier - if they'd marketed the IMAX as a next-generation, ass-kicking cinema, they would have gotten business from all the locals, just as UGC does.

Unfortunately, they didn't - they marketed it as a novelty, a tourist-attraction, funfair-ride kind of thing. And as RicardoSmith pointed out, you simply don't get many tourists walking around the back of the Ilac.

TheFoot

Originally posted by ObeyGiant
This is true, and ties in with what I was saying earlier - if they'd marketed the IMAX as a next-generation, ass-kicking cinema, they would have gotten business from all the locals, just as UGC does.

Unfortunately, they didn't - they marketed it as a novelty, a tourist-attraction, funfair-ride kind of thing. And as RicardoSmith pointed out, you simply don't get many tourists walking around the back of the Ilac.

In fact, that whole Parnell Centre seems really sad, with some closed down attractions, a cheesy bar and an unpopular video arcade. It seems to me with the right stores and marketing they could do something really compelling with that space.

TheFoot

Originally posted by ObeyGiant
The Dublin IMAX was a completely wasted opportunity, and deserved to fail. Instead of using the cinema to its advantage, they decided to play it off as a novelty, and tended to only show those dreadful "Everest"/"Space" pieces of docu-tainment.

In my experience the strength of IMAX rests in well-made documentaries. Some of them are pretty trivial (I saw one about Egypt narrated by Omar Sharif that was appalling), but some are fantastic. My favourite was this great film about Antarctica. Now, that's going to bring in a lot of punters, but it was a really well-made film. I also saw one on Shackleton (unrelated to Kenneth Branagh's production) that was quite good.

RicardoSmith

The cinema is appealing to a different market. IMAX just isn't main stream. I'd say a lot of people use it simply as it has a carpark attached. Though I have to say since the cinemas opened in Blanch and Liffy Valley I haven't seen a movie in town at all.

Praetorian

since the cinemas opened in Blanch and Liffy Valley I haven't seen a movie in town at all.

Alot of people are not coming into Dublin for the cinema anymore...Too much hastle etc etc

What doesn't help is that Dublin city only has two decent cinemas....Savoy and UGC.

Pigman II

The IMAX deserved to fail if what I saw of it the one and only time I went there was much to go by.

From what I remember about the IMAX when you went in you had to go up about 4 flights of escalators before you got to the ticket office. The first (and only) time I went in I went up all these stairs only to be met some security guy (yes a securtiy guy , not an usher or member of staff or anything) who politely told me that the show had just started and that all the tickets had been sold.

Being the skeptical type I thanked him and went into the auditorium anyway just to have a look around and sure enough it was pretty much sold out. There was no-one in the ticket office either (or anywhere else ... it was like a ghosttown) so his story checked out. As I went back down the escalator I thought to myself 'well I'm not coming back here' and that's the last I ever visited the place.

The managment didn't even have the cop to put a sign at the ground floor saying 'show sold out' (to save people the bother of going up 4 flights of stairs just to find out for themselves) so the whole venture was doomed from begining with people of that mental calibre running the show.

Big Ted

I saw the SpaceStation 3D at the London Science Museum IMAX. Mindblowing. More films like this might revitalise the Dublin IMAX.


Or we could just get drunk.

Quorthon

Chaps

UGC have purchased the IMAX. Their plan is to consolidate the premises and convert the entire building into a 16 or 18 screen multiplex. I saw this is the property section of the irish times some time ago and had it confirmed by the manager there. (I am a regular, availing of their monthly pass). However I have yet to see work begin.

regards


Q

byte

Originally posted by RicardoSmith
Though I have to say since the cinemas opened in Blanch and Liffy Valley I haven't seen a movie in town at all.

Watched 8mile in Ster Century in Liffey Valley. It's a fantastic cinema. Pity about the film!