A season ticket every autumn
Escaping the cold at the movies
It’s nearly three o’clock in the morning, but the people in room 2 at the Forum don’t care. They’re tired but happy when they leave the theatre, having just watched no fewer than four horror films as part of a Halloween marathon. Usually, tickets are 22 euros, but if you have a Cineville ticket, like most of these people do, it’s completely free.
Now that it’s getting darker and colder, theatres are seeing a rise in visitors. They don’t want to share exact numbers, but it’s clear that the number of people who buy a Cineville season ticket at the Forum or Pathé Unlimited ticket, which allows you to see an unlimited number of films for a fixed monthly fee, rises every autumn. Most of these people are students.
Lovely spot
Rewan Jansen, head of marketing at Cineville, gets it. ‘Especially now that power is so expensive and winter is coming, movie theatres are a nice warm place to be. That’s why I think we’re seeing more young people getting a season ticket.’
Esther Daems, theatre manager at Pathé Groningen, also thinks the cold plays an important role. ‘People associate going to the movies with autumn and getting cosy inside.’
Going to the movies in summer feels like a waste
Sascha Herfkens, student of society, sustainability and planning, feels the movie season doesn’t properly start until the days get shorter. ‘When it’s cold outside, the theatre is a lovely spot to sit in the dark and be entertained’, she says. ‘Going to the movies in summer feels like a waste, because you could also be enjoying the weather.’
Courtney Tay, student of arts, culture and media, feels the movie theatre is like a refuge. ‘Whenever I’m feeling down or just need to leave the house, I go see a movie.’
But there’s also a practical reason students see more movies in autumn and winter, says Sascha’s fellow student Ingmar Vlogman: ‘That’s when all the good movies get released.’
Saving money
A season ticket is quite lucrative if you regularly go to the theatre. ‘I think I went to see six or seven movies in September alone’, says Courtney. ‘I watched two in October. It definitely saves you a lot of money.’
Especially since life in general is so expensive right now, students are looking for entertainment that won’t break the bank, says Daems. That makes movie discounts particularly attractive. ‘Our Dikke Duo days, which allow students to see a movie for 5 euros, attract a lot of them. That’s not a promotion we run during the summer.’
‘People have always gone to the movies during financial hardships’, says Jansen. ‘It provides an escape.’
Love for movies
But if you ask the students themselves, they’re motivated by a love for movies. Watching a movie in the theatre trumps watching it at home on the couch, says Sascha. ‘The big screen is just more of an experience.’
Ingmar simply loves good movies, whether they’re classics or arthouse films. ‘I was in Amsterdam once and this one particular movie was showing at 3 p.m. and at 6 p.m. I loved it so much I went to the second showing as well’, he says, laughing.
The big screen is just more of an experience
Julian van der Walt was convinced to buy a season ticket by the Cineville movie specials showing at the Forum. ‘I’d already seen Blade Runner five times’, says the student of arts, culture and media, ‘but I couldn’t pass up another opportunity.’
One recent visit was especially memorable: Metropolis, from 1927, with live music by Kinetophone. ‘It was such a thrill to see that movie for the first time on the big screen and watch the musicians play along live from the corner of my eye. It wouldn’t have been the same at home on the couch.’
Support
Cineville members like the Forum because it mainly plays smaller movies. ‘I like supporting the cultural sector’, says Ingmar. ‘I just don’t want everybody only watching Marvel’s Avengers or something. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.’
‘It’s a way of supporting independent theatres and independent filmmaking’, marketing guy Jansen says. ‘It’s the same reason people buy vinyl records at smaller record stores. That’s kind of the idea behind the Cineville season ticket.’
It’s okay if the movie sucked, because it didn’t cost me anything
Seeing an unlimited number of movies creates a bond with other season ticket holders, says Ingmar. ‘I think Cineville becomes part of our identity as film lovers. It really feels like we’re in this club together. I don’t feel connected to other people that have Netflix, but I do feel connected to other Cineville people.’
Julian agrees. ‘I’m in a WhatsApp group chat with five friends who all have Cineville. Some of them got it this September. Whenever someone wants to see a movie, they tell the group chat. We’ll make arrangements to go together and afterwards we discuss the movie.’
Blockbusters
Blockbuster lovers are better off at Pathé. ‘Students come to us in droves’, says Daems.
One of them is psychology student Joost Wegter, who is a big fan of bad movies like Hollywood B movies; he says it allows him to appreciate good movies even better. ‘If I have three hours to kill, it doesn’t matter if the movie I saw sucked, because it didn’t cost me any money anyway.’
That’s another advantage of the unlimited season ticket, says Julian: you don’t have to like every single movie you see. ‘My friends and I went to see Don’t Worry Darling and we hated it. If I’d gone to see it alone, I would’ve had a terrible time. Now we all had a good time laughing about it afterwards.’
He won’t be as lucky next time, though. ‘I lost a bet and now I have to go see it two more times, all by myself. I’m trying everything I can do to get out of it’, he says, grinning.