Last night, after thinking about the issue for a while, I sent an email to the good people at Cineplex Entertainment. This is what was contained in the message to them. (It does contain some stuff that really happened to me here, so anything personal of my own, I'm calling a wash right now. It is what it is, and I'm just pasting it because I wish to preserve the original context of the post, okay? =P XD)
'An Open Letter to Cineplex Entertainment.
Hello.
I have been a loyal customer of Cineplex Entertainment for the last 2 years, as of the date of this communique, and I have thoroughly enjoyed my escape experiences to both your SilverCity Hamilton Mountain Cinemas, and your SilverCity Ancaster Cinemas here in Hamilton, Ontario. Your movie experiences completely soar above anything I ever got at Empire Theatres in my former home of Saint John, New Brunswick.
Within the last few weeks, I've attended the Hamilton Mountain establishment to give myself a screening of both Cars 2, and as of yesterday afternoon, Transformers: Dark of the Moon. I saw them both in RealD 3D, and I must confess that both blew me out of my shoes!
My true intent for this e-letter is actually different, however. One thing that has bothered me as a movie goer and Movie Industry fan here in Canada is that your chain, Cineplex, has no presence in Atlantic Canada, and has not since 2004.
I find that disappointing, however, I can sympathize with the reasons that the 2004 pullout occurred. I do know that Cineplex, in that time, was, how should I put this, more fractured than it is now. You were trying to pull in all of your various theatre brands into a more cohesive network that was more centralized, and I give you a lot of positive credit for managing, somehow, to clear up what had become a bit of a mess.
But, whilst that was happening, Empire Theatres had been living up to it's name in Atlantic Canada, and gained a 'Maritime Monopoly' for itself. Sadly, that has led to diminished options for movie-goers in that region of Canada, and that market has grown stale, and frankly, boring.
I was doing some long thinking inside my head about that issue, and came up with this. With Cineplex now a LOT more unified than it was in 2004, and all that mess now long since cleaned up, why not make your return to Atlantic Canada, a movie market that is in DESPERATE need of SERIOUS competition once again?
Now, this is all just suggestion from this humble film consumer, but I really believe, deep down in my heart, that the time is NOW for Cineplex to make it's way back to the provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia(who has the only Atlantic Canadian IMAX screen, by the way...not really fair), Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland-Labrador.
But, something like this could only work IF Cineplex...
A] Opened new theatres in the 7 cities of Fredericton, NB, Saint John, NB, Moncton, NB, Halifax, NS, Sydney, NS, Charlottetown, PEI, and St. John's(note the spelling), NL.
B] The locations in Saint John, Moncton, and St. John's would have to have 12 screens each, Fredericton, Charlottetown and Sydney would have 10 each, and Halifax would have 14.
C] All 7 propective theatres would have an IMAX screen in each one of them AT LAUNCH, to allow Maritimers and Newfoundlanders the opportunity to experience that huge technology, both in standard IMAX AND in IMAX 3D, without having to spend expensive gas money travelling to Halifax's Empire Bayers Lake Cinemas, and give the IMAX brand much better penetration within that market.
D] Have ticket prices be $10 maximum for adults, and $12 maximum for IMAX films, again, for adults, with special $8 pricing for weekend matinees and Tuesday evenings, no matter the screen or film format.
E] And have all screens be of Digital technology AT LAUNCH as well.
If you were to make your return to Atlantic Canada, you would also become the 1st true National Coast-To-Coast theatre chain in all of Canada, and also break up the Empire Maritime Monopoly that I do not think, feel, or believe is right for Empire to possess.
In terms of naming of the cinemas, I don't really think that you would necessarily have to attach the word 'Atlantic' to any of those possible establishments. My idea would be to name the ones in Saint John, Moncton, and St. John's as SilverCity IMAX, the ones in Fredericton, Charlottetown, and Sydney as your original Cineplex Odeon brand, with IMAX name attachment, and the Halifax location a Coliseum IMAX.
Using the above names would help to give those facilities a true connection to the theatres in other provinces, especially to the ones located in the Golden Horseshoe of Ontario, and really bring movie-goers in the Maritimes and Newfoundland into the larger Cineplex Entertainment family.
Atlantic Canadian film fanatics deserve much better, and all of you at Cineplex, Canada's Movie Leader, can bring that to them in a way they never could dream before. And also, finally, mix things up, as I sometimes say to myself, 'down east'.
Atlantic Canada is waiting for Cineplex. Please, as a humble fan, consider my communique here, and make a return to that part of this great country!
I thank you for taking time to read this, and hope you can reply back to me. Take care.'
So, does my post bear fruit here? =)