For the past couple of months, The Odeon Cinema Chain, located in Riverside, has been under refurbishment. From personal experience, the cinema always seemed empty, with little foot traffic in comparison to other cinemas such as Vue and Cinema City. Vue offered tickets for five pounds, making it more affordable to the average cinemagoer, something that Odeon started to introduce about a year ago. Nevertheless, the Odeon seemed to be losing a battle of consumers. 

In May, the cinema shut down to start a refurbishment to introduce Odeon Luxe, a more luxurious way to watch films, with reclining seats, larger screens and a focus towards the experience of going to the cinema. The updated cinema also introduced ISense and IMAX into the screens. This seems to be the right way to go about bringing new customers to the cinema. The Norwich Evening News reported that “it will be the largest of its kind in the country.” However, these new types of cinema seem to cater to couples and friends rather than individuals. The seating may be more luxurious and inviting, but the experience of the cinema has changed drastically, not to mention that Vue has also started to switch out their old seating with these new ones.  

The seating is in rows of two, meaning if you do decide after a long day of work to kick back and watch a film by yourself, you’re likely to be sitting next to a stranger, so near in fact that I felt we could touch shoulders if we weren’t careful. Since the capacity of each screen has been reduced due to the size of the chairs, each screen is packed with people, making it virtually impossible to book right before a showing, even if the film has multiple screenings during the day. The love I have for the cinema is the fact that I could go with friends or family or even by myself and still be hypnotized by the action on the screen, a distraction from the drudgery of life. However, these new chairs seem to distract the individual, making the experience more uncomfortable, especially for introverted folk. 

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