Dear Cineplex,
I feel it’s only right to start this open letter by expressing my profound love for movies. The website you’re reading this on was something I created to provide a place for my friends and I to write about movies. More than just being a movie lover though, I adore the experience of going to the movie theatre. According to a rough count of my logged movies on Letterboxd, I went to the movie theatre 62 times in 2023. Though 2024 was off to a slow start, I managed to make it to the theatre 15 times so far this year. Theatres offer a unique opportunity for friends and strangers alike to come together for a shared experience unlike any other. Some of the most profound thoughts and feelings I’ve ever had were experienced in a movie theatre.
Like most Canadians, Cineplex theatres are the only places for me to see the latest releases. Whether it was the Galaxy Cinemas in Owen Sound or the Scotiabank Theatres in Ottawa or Montreal, Cineplex theatres are where I’ve always gone to the movies. I’ve been a Scene member for 14 years and a Cineclub member from the very beginning. I give Cineclub memberships to friends as gifts, I bring countless people to the movies every single chance I get, and I often see the same movie multiple times (Top Gun: Maverick & Dune: Part Two will be tied for my personal record of 7 times each in theatres).
Basically, the point I’m making here is that I’m a very loyal customer and I always have been. But you haven’t been making it easy for me, Cineplex.
Movie theatres have been facing challenges from all sides. During the pandemic, theatres were regularly shuttered, with some never reopening again. At the same time, studios leaned heavily into streaming services. Some movies bypass theatres altogether, while others get incredibly short theatrical runs at a handful of theatres, or are released to theatres and streaming platforms at the same time. The competition is fierce and if you track the box office on a weekly basis (or follow someone like Dan Murrell who does it for me) you can see that we’re still struggling to generate box office levels comparable to the pre-pandemic era.
It’s never been more important to entice people to return to theatres. It would be easy to blame everything on companies like Netflix and their efforts to send movie theatres to oblivion as they did Blockbuster, but they aren’t your biggest problem. You are your biggest problem. You’re doing nothing to encourage people to return to theatres, you do nothing to keep the people that do go to theatres coming back, and to add insult to injury, you nickel and dime moviegoers every chance that you get.
Whether it’s your absurd “online booking fees”, your price increases when a movie actually does manage to pull in an audience, or your consistent inability to enforce any sort of rules in your theatres, it’s increasingly difficult to justify going to the movies or convincing others to join me.
I bet that most people that have gone to the movies lately might not even realise they paid extra fees or higher prices. If they buy a ticket online or through the Cineplex app, they are charged an extra $1.50 per ticket. That new fee alone has gouged an additional $40 million for Cineplex from the moviegoers that still support your business. Cineplex is currently being sued over this in a class action lawsuit and by the Competition Bureau of Canada, by the way.
Also, you know all those people that went to see Barbie or Oppenheimer last year? Or the ones that have seen Dune: Part Two recently? Well they might not be aware that they also spent an extra $1 per ticket because you jacked the prices up for popular movies. That’s right! The Globe and Mail’s Film Editor and Chief Film Writer, Barry Hertz, brought attention to this recently with the premier of Dune: Part Two. For the record, Canada’s second largest theatre chain, Landmark Cinemas, is also guilty of this one.
But for the sake of argument, let’s say we still make it to the movie theatre despite all of that. What do we get when we’re there? Well, if the experience is anything like mine, then it means hearing lots of conversations and seeing plenty of light coming from phones or Apple watches during the movie. It used to be that if someone pulled out their phone, they’d at least have the brightness low and would try and tuck or hide it while they took a quick look. Today, though, I regularly see people scrolling through their Instagram feeds during a movie with their brightness on full blast, holding their phone up as if they want me to see them doing it. Hell, I’ve even had someone right beside me answer a call in the middle of a movie!
I have people in my life that outright refuse to go because of the constant disturbances during movies. For the times I have convinced them it was worth it, they’ve been reminded why they don’t go almost every single time. Not once in my entire life have I been to a movie at a Cineplex theatre where I’ve seen an employee reprimand someone for causing a disturbance in the theatre. Not one time!
Now sure, the problem here is first and foremost the people, but we don’t even shame them anymore! What happened to the PSAs before every movie about Sally Soundtrack and Tommy Texter? At the very least, if you’re not going to enforce any rules at Cineplex you can at least remind people that they’re not alone at the theatre and that they should be mindful of the people around them.
Since I moved to Montreal, I take every chance I can to see movies in local independent theatres like Cinéma du Parc. I absolutely love it there, and I plan to go more often this year. Every experience I’ve had there has been absolutely perfect, and they regularly host special screenings and events to encourage people to come to the movies more often. But not only does Cineplex do nothing to make sure we have a positive experience at their theatres, they make life more difficult for the smaller independent theatres too by allegedly trying to block them from showing new releases.
Listen, I get it. You’re a giant corporation, and you need to make your money. I want you to make that money too because that means I get more movies to see. I’m just trying to help you make that money. Cineplex’s stock is down nearly 70% in the last five years and that does not bode well for the future viability of theatres in Canada. I’m no financial planner, but it doesn’t take much to see that gouging your current customers on your way down is not strong long-term financial planning and only delays the inevitable.
It’s so frustrating too because, in spite of Netflix’s best efforts, audiences exist for movies in theatres! Top Gun: Maverick was the first to remind us of that after the pandemic. Since then, we’ve had Avatar: The Way of Water, Barbie, Oppenheimer, and now Dune: Part Two show us that there are massive audiences out there that are hungry for good experiences at the movies.
So please, help me help you. Give people a reason to go to the movies, stop bleeding us dry every chance you get, and for the love of God, make sure that we have a good time when we do go to the theatre! If you do those three things then I promise that plenty more people will share in my (silver) screen love affair.
Long live cinema!
Adriana Wiszniewska
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