Why Are Cineworld Claiming Avatar Is Sold Out?

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brianna_chelsea

New member
I went to my local Cineworld this afternoon to see Avatar. Its been on for a month so it never entered my head that it might be packed out. I got there and was astonished to see a sign saying that all three performances today were sold out. I asked at the counter and they said all the tickets were sold by yesterday. the only other film about to start was The Book of Eli. As I have an unlimited card i thought i may as well see something as I have travelled down there so i got a ticket to that. Just before i was going to go in I walked into the audotorium showing Avatar to see how sold out it was. It seemed weird that not one seat was available. Imagine my shock when I discovered that not only was it not full but it was only about half full. In fact there were whole rows with no one sitting in them. I have seen it more packed at screenings which did not claim to be sold out! So I sat down and ended up seeing Avator after all! Lots of people walked off disappointed when I was in the queue. So why on earth say it is sold out when it is not?
 
I've been to see Avatar four times and every time it was at least almost packed out. When I went the fourth time we asked for a particular time and we were told it was sold out. My friend cheekily asked, "aw, can't you fit us in", and apparantly there were two seats on the front row still available - that seemed a little suspect to me. Why didn't they offer those seats to us to begin with? (We didn't take these seats anyway, we went to the next showing, which was packed again.)
 
on new years eve myself and some frienRAB made the effort to go all the way to manchester to see the movie on the imax - i had already seen it on a normal screen (in 3d) and really wanted to see it on an imax. my frienRAB hadnt seen it all all. we were all suprised when told that it was not only sold out that day - but for the next 10 days!
its interesting that your cineworld would say that and not mean it. it doesnt make sense from a money making perspective.
maybe loaRAB of people had booked and couldnt get there because of the bad weather?
 
When I worked at Showcase cinemas (I know, not Cineworld) I was NEVER allowed to sell the cinema to full capacity and got a verbal battering if I did - overflow issues, they wanted spare seats in case they had to compensate someone somehow, which seemed to often happen.

Nothing irritated me more than a conversation like this:
"Sorry, it's sold out.
"Can't you give us a ticket anyway?"
"No, I can't sell you a ticket, I'm sorry. Booking for it has closed."
"There must be at least ONE SEAT left, for god's sake."
"I'm sorry, I can't sell you a ticket. Would you like the next showing in an hour?"
"I can see right there it says you have three seats left. I want them."
"I can't sell any more tickets to this film, I can't select it, the tickets wouldn't even print."
"But you have seats available!"

What part of "NO!!!!!!!!!!" was so hard to understand? It used to drive me mad, especially because I worked on a Wednesday and they made me do it alone, so I had a queue out of the doors behind them.
 
I went to see "New Moon" on the Saturday of opening weekend (I'd already bought my tickets on Thursday). I arrived about 45mins before it was due to start (so 30mins before they'd let you in) and some were already queueing. The sign said sold out, but my screening was listed twice (only one said sold out). I thought maybe there was a spare screen so they've put on a extra showing.

Anyway, it wasn't actually sold out. I was in one of the big screens where you walk up stairs to get to the seats, but there are also a few rows at the front where you don't need to go up any steps. I think maybe they don't count the few rows right at the front, because if it sold out completely, some people in a group would need to split up, so I think they do it so everyone can sit together.

Anyone work at cineworld and know if they can put on extra screenings. Because they also added an extra showing at 11:15pm that wasn't originally scheduled - meaning the staff would have to work later :eek:
 
Had the film started yet? I'm getting increasingly annoyed these days with people arriving 10 or 15 minutes into a film. They want to avoid the trailers and adverts, but seem to think that arriving 40 minutes later is enough time. In my experience, 25 minutes in the most adverts I've seen.

Anyway, back to your point, many people had probably booked over the internet/phone and were probably still arriving.



Screens are never full to capacity, as you've got to allow for people's sitting patterns.
 
The gf & i went to the Glasgow Imax also on New Years Eve in the afternoon.When we got there there was a sign saying that Avatar was sold out until the 6th January.
 
When I saw Avatar a couple of days after it came out the cinema was only half full and I have seen no signs anywhere on my other visits to the cinema since to say it has sold out
 
How does it work if you have an Unlimited card? Do you still get a ticket for a particular showing? Because I could imagine people "buying" tickets for a film like Avatar in case they wanted to go and then changing their minRAB, but because they have an unlimited card they wouldn't lose anything by not showing up.
 
You can only usually book in advance with an unlimited card on the day of screening. So you could go down at 11am and book fro that day but not for any other day. But there must have been over 100 seats empty when i went and I cant believe that that many people would have booked in advance and not turned up. In reply to a previous post it was about 5 mins before the start of the film when i went in. I actually came back out in case a load of people showed up at the last minute but only about four did. So i walked back in and sat in one of the many empty rows.
 
You answered your own question.

Think about it.

you go all that way to see a specific film and they tell you it's sold out, rather than face a wasted journey you decide to see something else, after all, there will be other times for you to see Avatar.

So instead of going to see the film you intended to they've conned you into paying for something you didn't want, and they'll get your money again next time when the film you wanted to see isn't 'sold out'.

Of course, they probably weren't expecting you to nip into a different screen.
 
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