Category Archives: cinema

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A list of all Birmingham’s cinema screens

Here’s a list of all of Birmingham’s cinema screens (as of December 2012, January 2013 March 2015). Update Jan 2013: The Showcase Cinema in Erdington shut in January 2013. 

Update March 2015: The Giant Screen has closed and a branch of Everyman Cinema has opened (3 screens, in Mailbox, city centre). That now means Birmingham has 80 screens and 17253 seats. That’s roughly one cinema seat for every 59 people.

Here’s why this list exists: I love watching films on BIG screens. Whenever I go to a multiplex I hate finding out that the film I’m watching is actually in its smallest screen. I kind of feel cheated. So I wanted a single place where I could find out the size of a screen. Obviously size does not necessarily equal a quality cinema going experience but for me it’s 90% of it. Also, the number of seats in the auditorium doesn’t mean that the screen size is the biggest (not now that Cineworld’s LieMAX and Odeon’s ISense screens fill the whole of the back wall of their screens). Including screen size in auditorium information would be useful but most cinemas omit it.

Screen 1 in Sutton Coldfield’s cinema has the most number of seats – 592. (Link to Google doc version of this with additional info)

Cinema Screen Number Seats
Cineworld, 5 Ways 1 364
2 324
3 265
4 177
5 293
5 351
7 335
8 181
9 271
10 236
11 279
12 164
Odeon Broadway Plaza 1 362
2 478
3 478
4 362
5 127
6 219
7 219
8 127
9 100
10 149
11 149
12 135
Odeon New Street 1 161
2 270
3 219
4 172
5 138
6 136
7 106
8 66
Electric Birmingham 1 103
2 78
Midlands Arts Centre 1 150
Vue Cinema Star City 1 434
2 136
3 106
4 191
5 238
6 238
7 177
8 137
9 137
10 118
11 118
12 537
13 213
14 196
15 139
16 39
17 54
18 54
19 537
25 133
26 179
27 242
28 242
29 151
30 333
Empire Cinema Rubery 1 165
2 187
3 165
4 149
5 290
6 194
7 530
8 246
9 400
10 149
11 187
12 165
13 119
Sutton Coldfield Empire 1 592
2 135
3 100
4 329
Everyman Mailbox 1 96
2 91
3 141
80 screens  17,253 seats
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That cinematic backwater thing – maybe I just need to chill

I thought I’d leave a week until I blogged about last Monday’s ‘Cinematic Backwater‘ debate which kicked off the excellent Fazeley Digital Festival. I thought maybe I’d calm down in the interim, that the underlying issue of ‘does it matter that Norwich get cool films before Birmingham?’ would vex me less.

Suffice to say I’m still vexed. And I’m even a bit more vexed because having now aired the topic in public I could see that I wasn’t alone in feeling frustrated at the current state of film exhibition in the city. For those new to me moaning about this take a read of the original post that resulted in this event being created. I was joined by a fantastic panel: Roger Shannon – Film Producer & academic; Ian Francis – film festival curator; Rachel Carter, Film Producer and co-founder of Fullrange Media.

All agreed that yes, it did matter that some films tend to only get to Birmingham on their second-run. Not all in the audience agreed but in general the discussion covered:

  • the dominance of film programming by the few to the detriment of the many;
  • questioned whose role audience development is in the region;
  • pondered the cultural priorities of a city where Digbeth can have three modern art galleries but no cinemas;
  • debated the link between a thriving culture of exhibiting the weird/leftfield/arty/independent and the impact that might have on the films that we produce out of the region.

Roger brought with him a whole bag full of consultants’ reports from the past 20 years that in one way or another touched on the issue of whether Birmingham needs a new arts cinema. He drew our attention in particular to a recent report by Tom Fleming ‘Mixed Art-form and Media Venues in the Digital Age’ (link to PDF).

There was some reference to the Arts Lab/Triangle era and there was much nodding at the suggestion that what we need now is perhaps the best of that (its radical edge for a start) combined with the dynamic and vibrant social media scene that’s currently setting the city apart. That’s perhaps where this discussion should go next.

For me though it still comes back to competitiveness. Those in the city with access to resources and the power to influence decisions need to understand that when Norwich are getting interesting films ahead of us then the time for action is now.

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Birmingham – a cinematic backwater


(Trailer for Synecdoche, New York. I want to see this NOW)

First some nostalgia: I’ve been a Birmingham cinema-goer for a long time. Get me drunk enough and I’ll bore you to within an inch of your life by listing the films I’ve seen in cinemas now long gone. From The Towering Inferno in the upper circle of the ABC New Street to queuing round the block for Jaws at the Beaufort in Washwood Heath and watching Godzilla double-bills with my Mom at Ward End’s Capitol.

At some point in the mid-1980s I discovered ‘arthouse’ cinema. Or rather my brother did and I picked up his interest. The Triangle was our cinema of choice and it did that repertory thing of combining new leftfield film releases with retrospectives and cult movie double bills (I recall a packed 11pm screening of Taxi Driver and Hardcore).

One of the things I discovered as I combined a love of the mainstream with world/independent cinema is that the former would arrive in Brum on the week of release but the latter always tailed behind. I’d be getting excited by reviews of Tarkovsky’s Sacrifice only to realise that it wouldn’t be showing anywhere near here for a week or two or three after its initial release.

The reasons why were partly about the scarcity of prints and the whims of distributors but also to do with the pattern of regional film theatres established by the British Film Institute in the 1960s which effectively overlooked Birmingham as a regional centre for non-mainstream film viewing (see Terry Grimley’s excellent article in The Birmingham Post last year for more context).

This week I note that nothing’s changed. The list of non-London cities showing Charlie Kaufman’s highly-rated new film Synecdoche, New York in the week of its release include: Sheffield, Nottingham, Manchester, Bristol, Liverpool, Newcastle, Norwich, Edinburgh, Glasgow. Birmingham’s not up there. Oh we’ll get it okay – as soon as next week at the superb Electric. But that’s not good enough. I’ve been waiting until next week since the mid-1980s and I’m sick to death of it. It may be just lack of venues and when the MAC is back on stream it’ll all be fine. Or maybe we don’t have the punters, maybe they’re a more eager, cultured lot over in Norwich. If so then let’s get some audience development initiatives underway.

I doubt it somehow – we’ve been seen as a second-run city for cinema for as long as I can remember and I’m really not sure how we can change that perception. Not even publicly subsidised digital distribution has helped. Ideas anyone?