Bond heralds the golden years return for Odeon 5

Odeon 5 Cinema has bounced back from two-and-a-half years of uncertainty to its best couple of weeks since before lockdown.

Blockbusters like Top Gun: Maverick and Jurassic World Dominion matched with locals redeeming their last Dine and Discover vouchers has seen the return of the boomtimes at the local multiplex, new manager Mitzi Cronk explained.

 With concerns that the rise of large-screen home theatres and continuing fears over COVID-19 could spell the end of the golden age of movie-going, it was the oldest and most reliable franchise that brought the fans back, Mitzi said.

“Last week we had one of our busiest days ever, apart from say, Boxing Day, we were just flat-out all day with Top Gun, which was selling out every weekend for the first few weeks, Jurassic World, and Elvis,” she said.

“The big movie that brought everyone back though, was James Bond, No Time to Die, that was when everyone started to return in numbers,” Mitzi believes.

“It took us two years to get that sort of crowd back, we were the busiest since we first went in and out of COVID,” she said.

Mitzi for one is glad that the social-distancing restrictions and seat allocations have ended proving, as they did, a nightmare for staff to administer.

“We had assigned seating, but no one did it, everyone just ignored the seat numbers and sat where they wanted to, and I had to explain to some people, we simply don’t have the staff to stand there and check people sitting down in every single theatre.”

She said that older cinema-goers, a strong cohort for movie theatres, have, however, been the most reluctant to return.

“We’re only just starting to get our senior customers back; the oldies are only just returning now.

“They’re starting to come in together in little groups, and it’s great to see them back,” she said.

After two long years of the coronavirus, three-month lockdowns, near-empty theatres, and social distancing, people have seemingly rediscovered the escapist magic that is a day at “the pictures”.

“We’re seeing grandparents bringing their grandkids, and multiple generations all coming in together.”

Mitzi understands the sentiment, coming from a movie-loving family and bearing the name from the golden years of Hollywood herself.

“I’m named after a movie star, Mitzi Gaynor. My mum thought of it after watching the musical, South Pacific,” she explained. “All my family are movie buffs.”

With more than a decade at the Odeon, she can even recall the first film that she ever saw as a child, and for which she now bears an unusual example of body art.

“My mum took me to see Beauty and the Beast in 1992 when it was first released, it’s one of my favourite movies.

“I have posters, collectables, I even have a tattoo… though my Mum said that I ran up and down the aisle for most of the film and only sat for short periods.

“I was only three, but I must have taken it in at some point… I just love movies, they’re an escape from the real world,” Mitzi concluded.