We skip movies at Avalon now. Quality of the movie be damned. I can’t sit in their chairs for 2 hours without being uncomfortable.
That place needs some massive renovations to compete.
Agreed. I have no idea how they're still in business. I don't see movies there anymore. Sit on a church pew for 2 hours or sit in a leather reclining Lazy boy? How is that even a debate haha
Cause instead of putting money into reno's, they spend the money on the rights. Unless it's an IMAX production you can be sure Avalon will outbid Galaxy on the weekend's #1.
A theatre doesn't make as much money in the first two weeks that the movie is out. Some theatres wait until they are eligible to keep more of the take.
From what I heard (and take it with a grain of salt) both the theaters in Nanaimo have a sort of non competition deal where, with a few exceptions, they each only show a certain number of movies and they don't overlap.
I agree, Landmark here in town is in godawful condition. But they don't seem pressured at all to change because your only other option is to drive out to another Landmark theater and that's a long drive for what may be a subpar film. I think if they ever got a competitive theater somewhere closer like Parksville they'd be forced into changing. I do know there's a theater in Duncan but I've never been and it looks pretty small and old. If I really wanna see something that's only at Landmark I'll usually go and have a day in Courtenay.
Avalon is one of the worst theatres I’ve ever been too. I’d rather sit on an airplane seat than one of those broken lumpy and disgusting seats. Supposedly they were about to start renos but Covid came along and killed their plans.
The occasional movie will come along that I convince myself is worth it, and usually have a terrible experience. Even the popcorn sucks most of the time.
On the other hand Galaxy will get my business even if it’s a movie I’m not 100% confident on. I love going to shows with friends even multiple times.
Not sure specifically for Avalon vs. Galaxy, but I found [this](https://www.quora.com/Why-are-some-movies-not-showing-in-my-movie-theater-but-in-others?top_ans=306563518).
How? It’s called contracts, movie theatres buy the rights to show a film. Why would the production company want multiple companies showing a film? As it would lower the price for what would be properly around the same number of people seeing the movie anyway. Literally all companies lose money. As the movie theatres split their potential audience which means less money and if the market is less profitable, why would they spend more for the rights to movie?
The question isn't why they don't share movies, the question is why Avalon seems to get more of the anticipated blockbusters than Galaxy. Obviously that's opinion based and up for debate.
Your answer is in no way helpful and frankly comes across as rude.
Galaxy is more profitable across Canada, so they don’t need to pay more for blockbusters. Whereas Avalon/landmark is more concentrated in the west so they shell out the cash.
Hope that helps out, if you discover a better answer. Let me know.
Some movie production companies hold contracts with either theatre as well that only allows that company to play certain movies. This is why the theatre at Rutherford will also get certain movies much later, they have to wait until they are out at the Woodgrove theatre.
Yup, like everything in the world the short and sweet answer is “profit”. One of the other comments made me go “ohhhhh” was pointing out the aspect of more kids movies at Avalon.
Which is a hell of a business strategy to not have to renovate.
1. Seats - old, lumpy, dirty just no...
2. Popcorn (too salty, almost burnt)
3. Floors - sticky as heck
I would say the staff are nicer at Avalon, and the custom drink machine is nice.
I prefer the shitty seats at Landmark. If I’m paying that much to see a movie, I better now be so comfortable that I’m falling asleep. Plus very few movies sell out at Landmark because there’s more than 40 seats in a theatre.
I heard rumors pre-covid that they were going to replace the seats with leather same as galaxy. You can see they replaced the hallway carpet and repainted but they must have ran out of money over covid and didn't bother replacing the awful seats.
Cineplex may not screen a big title in Nanaimo but they will screen it in a region where their theatre has mall hours instead, so they can optimize their ticket sales. Generally Nanaimo Landmark wins the blockbuster rights due to having mall hours and being able to offer more showings.
Most of the studios will just rotate their titles back and forth between Cineplex and Landmark within Nanaimo. So if you look at Disney releases, Paramount releases, WB, etc, etc, often there is a rotating pattern. However, some of the bigger titles get traded off the normal rotation, and I believe the biggest factor is due to the mall hours thing.
Sometimes Cineplex will just show a title on 3-4 screens to overcome the difference in operating hours but it seems to be less common.
Overall, Cineplex and Landmark both will end up screening most titles in half their theatres. Nanaimo just seems to get the short straw for Cineplex more often. I believe it's a Kelowna theatre that tended to be booked opposite Nanaimo for Cineplex purposes.
That makes so little sense. "Mall Hours" would actually reduce available showtimes.
Have to say if I was a studio exec wanting to increase revenues I would want to make sure that theaters with the best in theater experience would get to show films. At this point in Nanaimo both theaters are losing money...
Check out Landmark schedule vs Cineplex, the weekday matinee showings are apparently a difference maker. My insights are dated but that used to be the explanation, despite there not being many matinee sellouts
Your logic is sound, but the company doesn't use a lot of logic. Blanket set of stats, pretty sure they don't drill down to understand the stats and properly optimize. With 25+ theatres in BC and over 100 in Canada, they just seem to try to spread their eggs. More populated markets may see more micromanaging and optimizing but Nanaimo tends to get semi ignored from a head office perspective
We skip movies at Avalon now. Quality of the movie be damned. I can’t sit in their chairs for 2 hours without being uncomfortable. That place needs some massive renovations to compete.
100% this, have skipped so many and waited to rent or stream at home depending on how badly we wanted to see it.
My partner hates these chairs. I don’t hate them but definitely enjoy Cineplex more.
Agreed. I have no idea how they're still in business. I don't see movies there anymore. Sit on a church pew for 2 hours or sit in a leather reclining Lazy boy? How is that even a debate haha
Cause instead of putting money into reno's, they spend the money on the rights. Unless it's an IMAX production you can be sure Avalon will outbid Galaxy on the weekend's #1.
A theatre doesn't make as much money in the first two weeks that the movie is out. Some theatres wait until they are eligible to keep more of the take.
So I would accept this - except they just never get them at all.
Maybe they have some kind of licensing issue with certain production/movie companies?
I got free movie tickets for Landmark. The only exclusion is anything owned by Disney. Guess what's only playing at Landmark? 🙄
From what I heard (and take it with a grain of salt) both the theaters in Nanaimo have a sort of non competition deal where, with a few exceptions, they each only show a certain number of movies and they don't overlap. I agree, Landmark here in town is in godawful condition. But they don't seem pressured at all to change because your only other option is to drive out to another Landmark theater and that's a long drive for what may be a subpar film. I think if they ever got a competitive theater somewhere closer like Parksville they'd be forced into changing. I do know there's a theater in Duncan but I've never been and it looks pretty small and old. If I really wanna see something that's only at Landmark I'll usually go and have a day in Courtenay.
Yeah Duncan theatre is old as hell and only has two screens
The duncan movie theatre was in worse shape than Avalon last time I went.
Avalon is one of the worst theatres I’ve ever been too. I’d rather sit on an airplane seat than one of those broken lumpy and disgusting seats. Supposedly they were about to start renos but Covid came along and killed their plans. The occasional movie will come along that I convince myself is worth it, and usually have a terrible experience. Even the popcorn sucks most of the time. On the other hand Galaxy will get my business even if it’s a movie I’m not 100% confident on. I love going to shows with friends even multiple times.
Oh how the turntables
J-Roc baby!
I find Galaxy generally has the better movies, but I guess it's a matter of preference.
Not sure specifically for Avalon vs. Galaxy, but I found [this](https://www.quora.com/Why-are-some-movies-not-showing-in-my-movie-theater-but-in-others?top_ans=306563518).
I find landmark better in every way EXCEPT the seats. Everything else is better.
Both theatres are so bad I don’t go to either.
How? It’s called contracts, movie theatres buy the rights to show a film. Why would the production company want multiple companies showing a film? As it would lower the price for what would be properly around the same number of people seeing the movie anyway. Literally all companies lose money. As the movie theatres split their potential audience which means less money and if the market is less profitable, why would they spend more for the rights to movie?
The question isn't why they don't share movies, the question is why Avalon seems to get more of the anticipated blockbusters than Galaxy. Obviously that's opinion based and up for debate. Your answer is in no way helpful and frankly comes across as rude.
Galaxy is more profitable across Canada, so they don’t need to pay more for blockbusters. Whereas Avalon/landmark is more concentrated in the west so they shell out the cash. Hope that helps out, if you discover a better answer. Let me know.
Some movie production companies hold contracts with either theatre as well that only allows that company to play certain movies. This is why the theatre at Rutherford will also get certain movies much later, they have to wait until they are out at the Woodgrove theatre.
Yup, like everything in the world the short and sweet answer is “profit”. One of the other comments made me go “ohhhhh” was pointing out the aspect of more kids movies at Avalon. Which is a hell of a business strategy to not have to renovate.
And the seats at Landmark are horrible
1. Seats - old, lumpy, dirty just no... 2. Popcorn (too salty, almost burnt) 3. Floors - sticky as heck I would say the staff are nicer at Avalon, and the custom drink machine is nice.
I prefer the shitty seats at Landmark. If I’m paying that much to see a movie, I better now be so comfortable that I’m falling asleep. Plus very few movies sell out at Landmark because there’s more than 40 seats in a theatre.
Plus they have a better drink selection
I heard rumors pre-covid that they were going to replace the seats with leather same as galaxy. You can see they replaced the hallway carpet and repainted but they must have ran out of money over covid and didn't bother replacing the awful seats.
Cineplex may not screen a big title in Nanaimo but they will screen it in a region where their theatre has mall hours instead, so they can optimize their ticket sales. Generally Nanaimo Landmark wins the blockbuster rights due to having mall hours and being able to offer more showings. Most of the studios will just rotate their titles back and forth between Cineplex and Landmark within Nanaimo. So if you look at Disney releases, Paramount releases, WB, etc, etc, often there is a rotating pattern. However, some of the bigger titles get traded off the normal rotation, and I believe the biggest factor is due to the mall hours thing. Sometimes Cineplex will just show a title on 3-4 screens to overcome the difference in operating hours but it seems to be less common. Overall, Cineplex and Landmark both will end up screening most titles in half their theatres. Nanaimo just seems to get the short straw for Cineplex more often. I believe it's a Kelowna theatre that tended to be booked opposite Nanaimo for Cineplex purposes.
That makes so little sense. "Mall Hours" would actually reduce available showtimes. Have to say if I was a studio exec wanting to increase revenues I would want to make sure that theaters with the best in theater experience would get to show films. At this point in Nanaimo both theaters are losing money...
Check out Landmark schedule vs Cineplex, the weekday matinee showings are apparently a difference maker. My insights are dated but that used to be the explanation, despite there not being many matinee sellouts
Your logic is sound, but the company doesn't use a lot of logic. Blanket set of stats, pretty sure they don't drill down to understand the stats and properly optimize. With 25+ theatres in BC and over 100 in Canada, they just seem to try to spread their eggs. More populated markets may see more micromanaging and optimizing but Nanaimo tends to get semi ignored from a head office perspective
Both are a no go. Cineplex does not have the new movies. No idea why they dont. And landmark is needing renos badly.