Kulturhuset tar över Klarabiografen från SF vid årsskiftet. Nu väntar en storsatsning på kvalitetsfilm och språklig mångfald sju dagar i veckan – till varierande biljettpriser.

I måndags sades avtalet med SF upp. Det går formellt ut sista december i år. På nyårsdagen 2015 inleds den nya bioverksamheten i Kulturhuset Stadsteatern på våning 2.  LINK

The decision to hand over the running of the cinematheque had previously been heavily criticised by the Swedish Film Institute and other cinema chains.

Concessions – SF Bio is revamping its concessions menu: by changing the name of combo deals, abolishing ‘up-sizing’ and increasing the price by SEK 5 (USD $0.77).

Mellanläsk. Stor popcorn.

I SF Bios kassasystem heter den beställningen ”Klassiker mellan+” och kostar 64 kronor för kunden.

Men från och med 14 april ska en mellanläsk och en stor popcorn kallas ”Superklassiker” och kosta 69 kronor, enligt ett internt mejl som Nöjesbladet tagit del av.  LINK

Cinema Opening/Closing – The Bio Maxim cinema in Helsingborg is NOT closing, but the the landlord will be taking over the running from the current operator who is unable to make the switch to digital.

Ryktet om Bio Maxims död är betydligt överdrivet. Ägaren Max Klintman har visserligen gett upp men nu lovar Peter Billquist, vd i bolaget som äger fastigheten: “Jag ska se till att Landskrona har en bio även i framtiden”.

I dagarna stod det klart att Bio Maxims ägare Max Klintman efter en längre tids ojämn ekonomisk kamp kastar in handduken. Gjorda investeringar och nödvändiga framtida investeringar blir alltför kostsamma. Därmed skulle ridån på Maxim gå ner för sista gången i slutet på april.  LINK

Business

USA: Movie ticket booking website MovieTickets.com renews contract with independent chain Premiere Cinema Corporation, including nine new cinemas (eight in US and one in the UK).

MovieTickets.com, a leading destination for the purchase of advance movie tickets, announced that it has renewed its long-term agreement to provide remote ticketing to Premiere Cinema Corporation. Premiere is one of the largest independently owned motion picture exhibitors in the country and currently has 22 state-of-the-art theaters totaling 254 screens. MovieTickets.com also announced that it has expanded its network with the recent addition of nine new exhibitors. The announcement was made today by Joel Cohen, CEO of MovieTickets.com.  LINK

Azerbaijan: Not sure if they mean ‘most visited’ in the world, in Azerbaijan or just in Baku.

The “whales” of American film industry have recognized the Azerbaijani network the most visited cinema.

Park Cinema Network informs that particularly such film companies as 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, and Warner Brothers Pictures Intl made such a statement in respect to movie theatre cinema ParkCinema, located at shopping center Park Bulvar in Baku.  LINK

Technology

NAB: Variety’s David S. Cohen reports that high dynamic range (HDR) was the buzz topic at NAB 2014, but is there a danger that it will bypass cinema projectors for television sets?

Lukk described seeing a scene from the Coen brothers’ “True Grit” that had been re-color-graded for HDR. “When you looked at James Brolin in the creek, and you saw the highlights off the creek, it really felt like you were really outside, looking at this creek,” said Lukk. “It still looked like a film, still looked like cinema, but it really gave you that impression. That stuff is really compelling.”

Existing TV contrast and brightness standards are based on the limitations of old tube TVs. Flatscreens have long since exceeded those capabilities. Dolby Vision, Dolby’s HDR transmission format, can handle highlights up to 100 times the current standard, though consumer TVs probably won’t be that bright anytime soon. At Dolby’s NAB booth, the company is showing an advanced TV prototype with 20 times the peak brightness of the current standard. Technicolor is showing an HDR demo on a monitor that can reach peaks twice as bright as Dolby’s.  LINK

The key to HDR for cinema is laser projection, as you will already have read about and no doubt hear more in the future.

Poland: Europe’s first digital 360 degree 3D cinema is opening in Poland. Just don’t expect to see Transformers 4 there.

The building will be in Ostrolece. The circular cinema hall, which it will house, will have an area of 70 to 80 sqm. One show will be devoted to the life of fauna and flora in the Narwi and will be able to accommodate 20 to 30 people. They will be seated in the middle on a rotating seats allowing them to spin 360 degrees on its axis. The image will be displayed around the viewer.  LINK

USA: Automations company Integ has launched a new remote controlled monitoring system.

Digital cinema automation innovator, INTEG Process Group, Inc. has introduced a theatre monitoring system that provides real-time exhibition status reporting and remote command initiation from any location within a theatre complex from any device running a web browser.

The system, called Event ManagerTM, utilizes a theatre complex’s Ethernet/WiFi network to transmit the real-time status of up to 25 auditoriums simultaneously.  LINK

Outdoor Cinema

USA (CA): Seeing that it is the home of Hollywood, it should perhaps not come as a surprise that Los Angeles will host outdoor screenings in no less than five sites this summer, according to LAist:

Nothing screams summertime in L.A. like picnicking on a blanket with a crowd that knows every line of Spaceballs. An AMC theater just can’t give you the same experience. Here is a list of our favorite outdoor movie screenings at the beach, the Rose Bowl or a vacant parking lot downtown. We’ll keep our eyes peeled and update the list when other faves like Cinespia and Cinema on the Street announce their summer lineups. Remember to check the websites of these events before attending as film and time listings sometimes change.  LINK

UK: It must be summer soon, because here is the Time Out article about outdoor screenings in London.

Getting in early, the Rooftop Film Club returns on May 1 in two venues – the top of the Queen of Hoxton pub in Shoreditch and the Bussey Building in Peckham Rye. These guys have perfected the art of outdoor cinema, with comfy directors’ chairs, wireless headphones and blankets for when it gets a bit nippy. If you’re after a gorgeous London location, tickets for The Luna Cinema go on sale on Friday: they will screen movies at Kew Gardens, Hampton Court Palace, Brockwell Lido, Regent’s Park and more. We’re just waiting for some bright spark to tempt fate (and weather of biblical proportions) by showing ‘Noah’.  LINK

Cinema Opening/Closings

USA (TX): Alamo Drafthouse is coming next month to Lubbock, and they won’t just be serving 32 beers on taps, but classical films too.

They show new movies, he said, as well as classic movies such as “Gone With the Wind” and special productions, including sing-alongs and quote-alongs.

“They are doing an Indiana Jones quote-along opening weekend,” Allyson Schell, a spokesperson for Alamo, said. “It’s a unique experience for sure.”

The largest theater seats about 160 people, whereas the smallest theater is much more intimate, Schell said, seating about 35.  LINK

The article goes into great details about why Alamo Drafthouse is such a terrific cinema chain (zero tolerance for cell phone is just one of them) and is well worth reading.

Poland: One of Warsaw’s oldest and most loved cinemas, Femina, is set to close after surviving both war and Communism. The owner Pawe? Trepczy?ski sounds defensive about the heirs’ right to sell their grandfather’s business.

Sklep zamiast kina Spadkobiercy rozmawiali z prowadz?c? kino sieci? Helios (nale?y do Agory, wydawcy “Wyborczej”). Ale kino nie przynosi takich dochodów, by Helios by? w stanie p?aci? stawki najmu, których oczekiwali spadkobiercy. Satysfakcjonuj?ce ich kwoty zaproponowa? koncern Jeronimo Martins, w?a?ciciel sieci sklepów Biedronka. Niedawno w?adze ?ródmie?cia wyda?y spadkobiercom pozwolenie na budow? sklepu na miejscu kina. – Nie mieli?my podstaw, by odmówi? – t?umaczy Mateusz Dallali, rzecznik ?ródmie?cia.   LINK

[Descendants talked with leading cinema network Helios (belongs to the Agora, the publisher “Election”). But the cinema does not bring in enough income for Helios to be able to pay the rental rate, which expected heir. Satisfying the amount the company offered Jeronimo Martins, owner of a chain of stores Ladybug. Recently, the authorities of the City Centre issued a building permit for the heirs of the shop on site cinema. – We had no reason to refuse – explains Matthew Dall, a spokesman for the City Centre.]

UK: A neglected part of Southampton’s city centre is set to get a GBP £70 million make-over, including a cinema. No word on the operator, but the city already has a Cineworld and an Odeon Imax.

A luxury ten-screen cinema, bowling alley and a row of posh restaurants and bars tower over innovative public areas designed to resemble the Hampshire coastline.

The Watermark WestQuay site could be transformed from a derelict wasteland into a thriving leisure complex by the end of 2016, if a last set of plans are approved.  LINK

UK: The decision on the GBP £10 million Vue cinema for Corby has been delayed by the local council, following legal advice. The Corby rival Savoy Cinema, where work started on this week, had raised objections.

The move follows concerns raised by Mulberry Developments over the impact the eight-screen complex, planned for Elizabeth Street, would have on its Savoy cinema being built in George Street.

The Vue planning application was due to be approved at a meeting of the council’s development control committee on Tuesday, but was postponed at the last minute.  LINK

UK: Meanwhile the inhabitants of Lewes give a firm ‘Thumbs Up’ to the plans for a cinema.

The first public consultation on the proposed Depot Cinema has resulted in a ringing endorsement from the Lewes public.

Around 150 people attended the event on Saturday when designs for the former Harveys Brewery depot site in Pinwell Road were unveiled.

The comments book was filled with enthusiastic support for the venture. Many expressed the view that Lewes has long needed a fully programmed state-of-the art cinema.  LINK

UK: The bombed out National Picture Theatre in Hull, which is believed to be the last remaining ruin of a civilian building from the Blitz in Britain, will soon be no more.

THE owner of a bombed-out cinema in Hull has submitted plans to turn the site into a timber yard and hopes to develop a pub next door in a matter of weeks.

Saleem Hakim, of SNS Properties, has submitted an application to use part of the land of the former National Picture Theatre in Beverley Road, for the yard.

He has already begun work on the Swan Inn next door and hopes to convert it into a restaurant and an upstairs flat.  LINK

Finally

Here is a wistful Top Ten list of Glasgow cinemas that have closed or become something other than picture palaces. From the Evening Times:

1 Regal: In Sauchiehall Street, it became the ABC1 and closed as a cinema in 1999.

2 Panopticon: Where Stan Laurel made his stage debut, the Trongate picture house closed in 1938.

3 Odeon: The Beatles and Rolling Stones both played the venue, which closed in 2003.

4 Charing Cross Electric Theatre: Built in 1910, it became the Locarno ballroom and is now a casino.

5 Grand Central: in Jamaica Street, it was also called the Classic Grand, Cannon Grand and Curzon before closing in 1992.

6 White Elephant: Named after a competition, it was in Kilmarnock Road, Shawlands, and closed in 1960.

7 Lyceum: The Govan Road building closed in 2006 and is now on Buildings at Risk list.

8 Olympia: Originally the Olympia Theatre of Varieties, the striking Bridgeton building closed in 1974.

9 Mecca: On Balmore Road in Possil, the art deco cinema became a bingo hall in 1968.

10 Ascot: On Great Western Road, Anniesland, it was also the Gaumont and the Odeon and is now flats.