A former employee of Village Cinemas in Australia has responded to my recent post about the coming Gold Class operation that will charge up to $35 a pop for a super-deluxe movie-watching experience.
“Having worked for Village Cinemas in Australia, I can tell you unequivocally that the GC concept already works — and how. In Australia there are lots of these venues (check out villagecinemas.com.au for pix, locations, etc.) and these screens pack out.
“Often, Gold Class seasons outlive ‘standard’ auditorium prints. For instance, a recent acclaimed, high-adrenalin thriller played until after the DVD release. Same could be said for another semi-recent franchise re-boot.
“Most of the commentators have got it all wrong. The audience is not the glitterati (that’s just the sell), but in fact aspirational people who have cash but don\’t know how to spend it. The sort of people who would never go to the theatre or to a nice restaurant with fancy stuff on the menu. And while there’s upscale food on the menu, the highest seller is a Gold Class hamburger.”