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Toronto to Get Three New Sets of Cineplex VIP Theatres

Moviegoing in Toronto is about to get fancier.

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Are you well off, but not quite aristocratic enough to have a private movie theatre in the basement of your house? Do you love paying $19.99 per ticket for the privilege of watching a movie in a tiny room, where Cineplex employees bring popcorn directly to your seat so you don’t need to wait in line at a concession stand like some kind of hapless prole? You’re in luck: Cineplex announced today that it will be opening three more of its VIP cinemas in Toronto, starting in late 2013.

Currently, Toronto’s only VIP cinema is located inside the Cineplex Odeon Varsity multiplex, at the Manulife Centre, where there are also normal theatres. The VIP theatres justify their premium pricing in a few key ways: they’re much smaller, you can buy alcohol to drink in them, the seats are cushier, nobody under 19 is allowed inside, and there are some specialty snacks on offer, any of which can ordered from your seat. The tickets are an extra five bucks each.

The three new VIP cinemas will be located at the Cineplex Odeon Queensway, the Cineplex Odeon Yonge Eglinton, and the yet-to-be-built Cineplex Odeon Don Mills. The Don Mills VIPs will, in a break with Cineplex tradition, not be located inside a larger multiplex, alongside normal theatres. And so the Cineplex Odeon Don Mills will be 100 per cent VIP, complete with valet parking.

The Don Mills location is expected to open in late 2014. The Yonge-Eglinton and Queensway locations are already operating as normal Cineplex theatres, and will remain open for regular business until construction is finished on their VIP expansions, in late 2014 and late 2013, respectively. Both multiplexes will still offer non-VIP screenings.

Cheers to Cineplex for taking the most democratic form of theatrical entertainment ever invented and imposing a hierarchy on it. At least there will still be plenty of (comparatively) cheap seats for those of us who prefer a different approach to drinking beer during a movie: sneaking in our own.

Comments

  • http://twitter.com/traviswood Travis Wood

    I love the Varsity VIP seats. The extra 5 dollars to know teenagers screaming behind you won’t happen is worth it alone.

  • CMR

    It’s five dollars that could make the difference between sitting in a theatre with kids wrecked on palm bay, or watching a movie without maltballs and popcorn all over your feet. Worth it.

  • Claude Reeves

    What is not democratic about this? If the movie was better, or that some movies were only offered to the VIPs, that might be different. But last time I checked, we have cheap Tuesday, some cinemas (like Guzzo in Quebec) offer lower prices all the time. If there is a market for this then go for it! If you think $12 tickets are democratic and available to the masses, you are already delusional I know some families where the kids have NEVER seen a movie in a cinema as the prices are already to high.

    Oh yeah…and you think about it…the writer should be going to see movies that are in 3D (which push prices to $16 or $17). 3D and VIP cinemas…the weight under which democracy will crumble.

  • Anonymous

    That $5, for a single viewing, is about a quarter of the price of the movie on DVD a year later, which you can watch as many times as you want. I have a hard time justifying seeing most movies in theatres these days when I think of that. Throw in the distraction of the audience (even one without teens), the inconvenience of planning around the show times, and the near-certainty of the movie being crap anyway, and, well…

  • OgtheDim

    I’m pretty sure the democracy of movie theatres is a myth. There have always been places where you can pay more for better service.

  • Patron

    Varsity VIPs are getting a bit shabby. Seats need replacement/reupholstering and theatres should be spruced up. Premium prices demand operators keep treating VIP customers like VIPs and that includes clean, updated facilities.

  • Jimmy.

    Nobody under 19 is pretty good, but nobody under 25 would be a godsend.

  • thino

    You talk about no kids in theatres, well I have never had any problem with any kid or teen, I am a weekly theatre goer and all I can say is there isn’t a movie out there that is worth the extra money. They should be paying us to see this crap.I would like to know how they can even pick an Academy award winner.

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