The Backlot Cinema hosted an exclusive event and invited journalists and influencers to experience what the cinema had to offer to audiences. Including the IMAX screen and to sample the food from the American Diner located within the cinema as well.
The business manager, Fabio Vidotti talked about what the Backlot Cinema had to offer: “We don’t want to play just the Blockbusters, we don’t want to be another chain, we want to be different”. He talked about the films that are being shown at the cinema: “We have shown hits like the fall guy, the kingdom of the planet of the apes and Inside out 2, but we also brought back some Danny Boyle films, Harry Potter and we did the 30th Anniversary of the Crow”.
The business manager, Fabio Vidotti talked about what the Backlot Cinema had to offer: “We don’t want to play just the Blockbusters, we don’t want to be another chain, we want to be different”. He talked about the films that are being shown at the cinema: “We have shown hits like the fall guy, the kingdom of the planet of the apes and Inside out 2, but we also brought back some Danny Boyle films, Harry Potter and we did the 30th Anniversary of the Crow”.
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00:30in just over 14 weeks, 10,000 subscribers and 1,500 actual members that are loyal to
00:43us.
00:44So, that shows in itself how good we are really doing, but we want more, we want everyone
00:50to be a member.
00:51So, that's why we've been pushing our membership with the FY postcode and the whole idea of
00:57the backlot is really to bring back to Blackpool.
01:00We don't want to play just the blockbusters.
01:02We don't want to be just another, you know, chain cinema, we want to be different.
01:08So we've shown hits like the Fall Guy, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, clearly Inside
01:14Out which did really, really well, still playing, which is great.
01:20But we also brought back some, you know, some Danny Boyle season, Harry Potter, we did the
01:2530th anniversary of the Crow, which did really well.
01:30I managed to put the first live event, which was the live TT race, which, thank you, welcome
01:37Joe.
01:38Anybody that likes motorcycles.
01:39So, that as well in itself shows that we're trying to do something really different here.
01:47We played the season finale of Doctor Who at midnight, that did really, really well.
01:51Something about Blackpool, about the night.
01:54Yeah, it goes at midnight, we fool, which is great.
01:58What else did we do for, as you probably know, the capital of dance now.
02:03So we brought the 25th anniversary of the Riverdance, which also performed really well.
02:11We did a marathon of Lord of the Rings.
02:14I couldn't stay.
02:15I did half of the first one and then three, six hours later, I was done.
02:22Ghost as the live concert, if you like rock and roll.
02:26So, you know, all in all, it's just been non-stop trying to activate different things.
02:34We also sold six and a half thousand popcorns in the concession alone.
02:38We did 3,000 burgers downstairs.
02:41I think you're going to taste some sliders tonight, which would be great to have some
02:45feedback on those.
02:47And one and a half thousand milkshakes already sold.
02:54So next coming in, of course, you're going to be watching some trailers.
02:59We would like to keep going with this and invite everyone to see what's coming up.
03:03I think it's really well to get everybody engaged and see before everybody else does.
03:16Yeah, I thought it was a really good, amazing, really nice when you walk in.
03:31The actual IMAX cinema itself is incredible.
03:35The films look amazing on it.
03:38And yeah, first impression's great.
03:42How have you found the diner as well?
03:44Because it's what, if I may have to talk about it, it's like a space for everything, like
03:49events and all that kind of stuff.
03:50Yeah, I mean, it's really nice for a start and the food that they've given us to try
03:54tonight has been really nice.
03:56But the menu also looks incredible.
03:59So I think I definitely want to come back and give the menu a try because there's lots
04:03on there that I want to have a taste of.
04:06What were any of the films that stood out to you?
04:11The films that I really want to see.
04:13I loved the first Twister.
04:15So I want to come back and remind myself of my youth and watch the second one, I think.
04:22So Twisters, the new Lion King, the Mufasa movie looked great as well.
04:27And I think the Joker one, probably.
04:30What did you think about the new screenplay that's going to be introduced for audiences?
04:36Yeah, it sounded really good.
04:39Weird to think of it like a Tinder for films, but I think it could be really great, like
04:45matching you up to films that actually you do want to see.
04:49And yeah, it's something that I'm going to download as soon as I get home.
05:00Thank you.
05:31Can you tell me a little bit about the summer showcase at the Backlot?
05:35Yeah, so today we clearly we invite a lot of influencers, a lot of businesses to say
05:41hello and just to showcase a little bit of what we are trying to achieve with Backlot.
05:46We're going to try to do this on a regular basis.
05:49We clearly had a good reception.
05:53We're going to play some trailers from the upcoming films and have some really good food
06:00here in the diner.
06:01And just a bit of a flavour of what to expect when you come to Backlot.
06:06Yeah, so obviously a lot of people are struggling with the cost of living prices at the moment.
06:11And the way you're trying to tackle that is with the FY membership.
06:18Can you tell me a little bit about that?
06:19So yeah, the FY really was made for Blackpool, just like the Backlot.
06:23So we really try hard to put something together for everybody that is in FY.
06:29So the membership is £5 for the year.
06:32You have 20% discount on pretty much everything apart from the drinks and in the diner as well.
06:39So you don't have to be a cinema goer to come to the diner and vice versa.
06:43So just to use the venue.
06:47And we also have the car park in Hounds Hill, which is just £1 for three hours.
06:52If you have a ticket.
06:54So it's really trying to work together with the community to bring something different.
07:00So talk to us a bit about today, about event spaces.
07:03Can you tell me a little bit about that at the Backlot?
07:05So yeah, we have three main screens that are specifically designed for events.
07:10We have power, data, Wi-Fi inside the auditorium.
07:16Again, we have studio upstairs, which is an event space, private high air.
07:22We don't see ourselves as a cinema.
07:24We see ourselves as an entertainment, a cultural hub, an event space.
07:29And that's what we want to try to do.
07:31And on the back of that, we launch our Screenwave app on the App Store.
07:36And it's trying to get everybody to log into the app, choose the films that they like, share with their friends.
07:42And then in the back end, we can see how many people are sharing, are liking the films.
07:46And once we have a lot of people looking for them, we can start playing them and creating the events for everyone.
07:53So it really is about the people, not about the films itself.
07:58Yeah, I think that would be good.
08:00I've just talked about the Screenwave app.
08:05Are there any more future plans that you'd like to see at the Backlot?
08:09Oh, absolutely.
08:10There's so many activations still to do.
08:12I mean, it's only been three months, and we've done so much.
08:15You know, Marathon for Lord of the Rings.
08:18We had midnight shows, 20th anniversaries, 25th anniversaries.
08:24So there's so much happening.
08:26We don't want to be locked to the mainstream, you know, to the blockbusters.
08:30We want to really challenge the studios and bring different things.
08:36And I think we're going to achieve that just with the community.
08:40You know, listening to what people want to do, want to see, and creating different events.
08:46You know, like we're going to have, clearly we're going to have a really good summer.
08:50We're already starting to pick up business.
08:52We can see how the town starts to change.
08:56And it's just looking at those little niche parts and see what we can do to help.