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All change at cinema
Mar 10 2006
By Neil Elkes
QUINTON Odeon has changed hands for the second time in a matter of weeks as the screen industry undergoes a major shake-up.
The 1930s cinema, in Hagley Road West, will soon be rebranded a Reel Cinema after being acquired by the Loughborough-based chain.
The company, which owns the Reel and Curzon cinema brands, has been rapidly expanding into traditional community cinemas as the bigger companies move to out-of-town multiplexes.
Owner Kailesh Suri said the Odeon's future as a cinema was now secure.
He said: "We have already dropped the admission fee. We are offering better value for money and a good selection of films.
"It is already performing better, more people are coming in."
He added that the building has a sound structure and does not require great investment, beyond the alterations needed for the new Reel brand.
The art-deco Quinton Odeon first opened as the Danilo in 1939 and has changed owner-ship and name several times over
the last 65 years. In December it was snapped up by Ireland's biggest cinema operator Ward Anderson in a £57 million package of 11 UK movie theatres.
They were sold by the Odeon chain's owner Terra Firma under competition regulations, because it already owned the nearby Dudley UCI and would have had a monopoly in the area.
At the same time rival chains UGC and Cineworld were merged leading to a similar potential monopoly and the sale of six of the combined group's cinemas, including Great Park, at Rubery.
Ward Anderson again stepped in and snapped up the batch of six - finding itself in a new local monopoly situation with Great Park and Quinton.
So the same regulations pushed Ward Anderson to sell Quinton to the Reel/Curzon chain within weeks of the purchase.
