The staple 2 for 1 special offered by the Palace Amusement
Co. is a designated movie night for several moviegoers. A lot of people that go
and watch movies at the established cinema houses in Jamaica only go when the 2
for 1special is offered. The major element that bucks that trend is the premier
of highly anticipated films like Furious
7 or The Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Without those highly anticipated films the cash cow for palace amusement is the
2 for 1 special. Going to the movies is fun again when the 2 for 1 special is
in effect. This 2 for 1 special is offered for the 8:00 showing on Monday
nights and the 5: 00 showing on a Tuesday evening. It is my opinion that the 2
for 1 special is a sign that the movie going experience in Jamaica cannot be
sustained unless cheap measures like this are employed because this special has
come to largely define the movie going experience in Jamaica at the established
cinema house. It is also a reflection of business practice in Jamaica that
caters to the many. The 2 for 1 special also reflects a state of perennial
crisis for the Palace Amusement Co. The
success of the 2 for 1 is based on the type of movies being offered i.e. those
which are guaranteed box office material. Even then the range of choice is
still woefully limited because of the small number of screens. These are not
necessarily good films just films that appeal to many people. A means to
increase revenue if not to make a significant profit. This means that most of these films are hardly
the well made dramatic type of films. The good/great dramatic type of films
have no room when there are overriding material concerns that are a reflection
of the poverty/dire necessity of the industry. The good/great dramatic films
still represent the highest standard for film as an art form although those
films are perceived as not being attractive enough to fill the seats in the
established cinema house in Jamaica. There is just no room for them and the
cheapness that comes with the 2 for 1 experience is one of the main factors
that have influenced and reflected this outcome. as it was one of the major reasons that the Palace Amusement Co. can fill the seats.
The blockbuster now reigns supreme at the box office. Gone
are the days when a dramatic film like The
Godfather (1972) could be a box office champ. The Star Wars era is here to stay and the high quality dramatic films
are now known as independents, indie, or small scale in many quarters. The
commercial based films represent a type of genre like comedy, action and
romance. These three elements appeal to a mass audience more than a highly dramatic
piece of work that has a very specific focus regarding human interaction. The 2 for 1 experience has become such a
success in Jamaica that the Palace Amusement Co. plays, primarily, films that are comedic, action packed, hip or
romantic. They tend to show films of
a particular type and not the good transcendent dramatic works unless they are
hugely popular. A good dramatic film being dominant at the box office requires
some high level of action like American
Sniper. This is the effect of the blockbuster which does not deal in
abstraction but revels in action that delights in constant movement and
interaction that is identifiable. The great dramatic works are now seen as
catering to a more mature audience. I am
not in a position to critique the blockbuster because I like them when they’re
done right. I am not going to pretend that I detest their reliance on CGI etc.
The point I am making is that the 2 for 1 experience is a blessing and a curse
because it does shatter the high handed moral values of the Palace Amusement Co. by making it acknowledge the demands of the market but
on the other hand the structure of the business has shifted to cater primarily
to this commercial element without acknowledging those good dramatic works that
will never be seen in a Jamaican cinema because they can’t make a significant
sum of money or fill the seats. The good dramatic works are only shown during
the movie awards season and sometimes not even for a week. The tagline is
always ‘winner of 10 academy awards’ or ‘winner of 5 golden globes’. This is
after the film has premiered long ago. I remember being very hopeful, in 2007,
that I could get to watch No Country for
Old Men but Palace Amusement only
showed it once at a 8 o’ clock screening after it was nominated for several academy
awards.
The shift in the business also reflects the small scale
nature of the Jamaica cinema. The Palace Amusement Co. cannot afford, it seems, to show the
good/great dramatic works. Showing them can be detrimental in some cases. I
will never forget going to watch The
American (starring the great George Clooney)at the Carib 5 (it has five
screens) cinema. It was the first time I nearly fell asleep watching a movie at the movie theatre. I was there with only 3 other people at the screening. I know that at least one
person had to be woken up at the end of the film. In a top cinema this would
not represent much of a loss because it’s a movie and a screen is allotted for
that particular purpose. They run it because they can afford to run it but they
probably show it on one of their smaller screens. I watched The American in one of the large rooms
at Carib 5 with only 3 people in attendance. It is clear that Palace Amusement
cannot accept that kind of situation on a regular basis. This is because the
number of screens are limited and the different theatres that are linked to
palace amusement all play the same movie in the opening week. There is not much
variety on display and they are mostly commercial hits. Palace amusement tries
to move the time slots around in some cases but it’s hardly enough. The scope
of the market is therefore limited to a couple of hits. A sign that the Jamaican market cannot
encourage growth in sales for an advanced industrial product like a movie.
The Jamaican economy in general cannot encourage growth in sales for any major
industrial product which is a reflection of the nation’s great poverty. When
the 2 for 1 comes around you need a commercial hit. The people won’t come if it
is a highly abstract dramatic work that deals with grand themes. These dramatic
works can only be tolerated once there is some action, moments of cheer,
romance or comedy in strong doses. The people just won’t come in droves and this also reflects the limits of
the Jamaican market for this product. When they do come in droves it is an
illusion of prosperity that really masks crisis, desperation, destruction and poverty at the core. A call
for help or a drowning man clutching at a straw. With such a limited offering
of commercially based films it means that you’re already catering for a pretty
small market and the 2 for 1 special is a means to attract that very small
market. Palace amusement must fill the
seats or perish. When that is the overriding concern then it is clear that the
industry is suffering and no investments in order to promote expansion can be
undertaken when such a cheap measure is your major option.
The Jamaican market is pretty small when it comes to movie going
and I doubt this market is even considered, seriously, by the major film companies when they are
tallying their earnings at the international box office. You can’t even make US$1 million from any film at the Jamaican
box office unless it is a MEGA, MEGA blockbuster. A mega blockbuster probably
makes US$10, 000- US50,000 if they’re lucky. My
figures are just guess work but the reality is that there is not much to be
earned at the Jamaican box office and the 2 for 1 special, therefore, provides an illusion of prosperity in such
cases. This report by The Jamaican
Observer shows that the Palace Amusement were in dire straits prior to the closure of the Odeon cineplex. This actually supports my claims regarding the earnings of blockbuster films and I was probably very
generous with my estimates. The Jamaican cinema scene from the established
perspective is in a state of destitution. I looked for some of the unaudited
financial reports for the company online but the links could not be found. In any case the 2 for 1 special can give the impression that movie going is
taken seriously when you see the long lines but it is all because of the
underselling that Palace Amusement has to engage in to attract an audience.
Their most successful nights come when they sell cheap, even for the 3D films.
Many times you will go to a movie when the 2 for 1 special is offered and hear
people in the audience asking their friends as the film is about to start ‘Which movie ah play?’ In some cases it is just a
hangout spot for some that are enjoying the cheapness. They don’t care about
the movie they are watching. Others use the 2 for 1 as an excuse to make movie
going fun again. With such a cheap ticket you can buy more of the highly priced
movie food like pop corn, nachos or hot dogs. This is called the illusion of prosperity. The
fact that the 2 for 1 special is seen as a movie night by many suggests that
the Jamaican market is weak because not many are willing to pay the full price
for a movie ticket. Many instead support illegal DVD sellers where you can get
a movie with poor visual quality (sometimes good quality) for JM$100 or US 90c.
In this case, for the commercially
successful films, Palace Amusement still only fills half of the cinema as a
result of this staple feature that is, on average, the most successful element
in terms of generating revenues. They do need the revenue to pay staff, pay out
dividends to shareholders and to maintain operations even if they are not
making a significant profit. The 2 for 1
keeps Palace Amusement going. It is a hard reality that the Jamaican market
cannot sustain the increased prices that are now a staple of movie going. The
Odeon Cineplex in Mandeville, Manchester has closed down and been dismantled and
it doesn’t look like there will be a reboot anytime soon. The 2 for 1
special could not save it and I will
discuss my own experiences at the Odeon Cineplex in another commentary. It
seems therefore that Palace Amusement has reached a point where it collects
revenue and does not make serious profit. There are many things they could do
to improve the movie going experience without resorting solely to the 2 for 1 special. I already suggested in
the previous post that if they allowed teens 13-15 to be considered for some
films to increase market share. There would have to be a price to correspond to
their age since the palace amusement only charges for adults and children.
Adults begin at 16 and children end at 12. There is therefore some room in the
middle if they take the PG -13 rating seriously. There are other suggestions I will make in later commentaries.
The illusion of prosperity that comes with the 2 for 1
special is also a general reflection of the Jamaican market in general. A
market where per capita incomes are low; a market that demonstrates its poverty
and destitution when cheap products are the norm and the standard of production
for the producers is low or dirt poor. In Jamaica if you want to fill the bus
or taxi you have to be cheap and this leads to people being squeezed and
people willing to wait in the rain as they bypass other options even if they
are JM$10 more. Cheap products are
esteemed so highly that a lot businesses
( most businesses in Jamaica are considered small , micro or mini by the
standards of the advanced industrial nations) must operate in the red to
attract customers. They generate revenue but don’t make a profit. If they make
a profit it is the bare minimum or the company has monopolized the small
Jamaican market for a particular product or service. This revenue is then
sucked away by government taxes, rent, wages (if you have workers to pay),
needs of the family. This is the illusion of prosperity created by the Jamaican
economy as a result of the cheapness. This cheapness provides little or no
incentive for innovation and one can see it in the Palace Amusement operations
where the interface with the customers does not change regularly and not enough
is done in a major way to attract customers apart from the 2 for 1 special.
Stagnation must set in when you cannot earn substantially or cannot be
encouraged to earn substantially. In advanced capitalist nations the incentive
to drive down the price comes with innovation in the technical component which will increase market share
because production costs have gone down as a result of this innovation. A
successful product in a particular industry, especially if it is new, raises income because it has found a way to
expand market share. Wage labour will be in high demand as a result. The growth
in industry throughout the economy leads
to a growth in per capita incomes because the technical requirements of living
becomes higher (wants become needs) especially when market forces are at work.
If the productive base is weak i.e. the economies of scale are small then the standard
of living must adjust accordingly. Jamaica’s productive base is weak, tied to
our dead or dying colonial economic structure that facilitates or encourages
the production of raw materials or semi-finished products. In the case of the
retail sector in Jamaica, of which Palace amusement is a part, that has no bearing on the production values
associated with its imports it must sell at a certain price to make a profit
and this means the price must be raised. If you’re going to raise the price
then give value for money with the sale. Palace Amusement does not do enough of
this and, like I said before, I will be making some suggestions in later
commentaries. If raising the price does not work in order to generate a profit
you must sell cheap like other businesses in other sectors of the economy.
The 2 for 1 special is a reflection of a perennial crisis.
It might have forced the Palace Amusement co. to grapple with reality but it
grapples with reality in a desperate way to stay afloat. Without the 2 for 1
there does not seem to be a significant means to generate revenue apart from
events outside the control of Palace Amusement such as the release of a MEGA
blockbuster( Palace amusement must be looking forward with glee for the release of The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant
Man, Star Wars and Batman vs.
Superman.) Obviously if the productive base of the Jamaican economy
encouraged growth in per capita income then there probably would not be a need
for a 2 for 1 because most people would not frown on spending JM$1, 350 for a
3D movie ticket or people would not limit their experience to just blockbusters
and be willing to watch other films. At this present moment, however, the Jamaican economy is in the gutter for the
many. Most people are motivated by dire necessity. Poverty is more or less like
the hands of hell dragging Jamaicans back to the 1940s when we could walk
around barefooted without worrying about social exclusion because we cannot
afford shoes. Going to movies must also reflect dire necessity. If the economy
continues to stagnate and destroy lives palace amusement will have to consider the
2 for 1 special for every day from
Monday to Friday. We have seen the destruction of the Odeon Cineplex in
Mandeville. The Kingston market will remain artificially vibrant because so
many Jamaicans are concentrated in that area but it is not necessarily a
reflection of real growth; it just provides an illusion of prosperity. The
movie houses in Montego Bay and Ocho Rios will be fine as they are in the
tourist towns which have a fair degree of population density. It doesn’t have to come to this, however, and
I will continue to make suggestions although I doubt they will ever be considered
much less taken in by Palace Amusement Co. They probably won’t read what I am
writing in these commentaries anyway. But I will get them to notice one day.
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