Here's a load of 80's adverts and stings from Rank Cinemas. This Is Cinema! from the days when you could smoke, but only on the left
Wow - such a bygone era - smoking in cinemas, intermissions... when the film was only the main attraction rather than the only attraction. Rank's logo is really bloody scary as well!
No 3D ****, no extravagant prices, tickets which shot out at you from a silver slot in the desk, sticky floors, popcorn that wasn't 99% air, coke that wasn't 99% water, half-time ice-cream vendors, ushers who cared about getting you to your seat, one big speaker rather than 24902 little ones "strategically placed for the optimal cinema experience..."
Pearl and Deans problems go back to the mid 80’s when ABC Cinema’s owners Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment were bought by Cannon, who then merged ABC with its own cinema division. ABC was rebranded Cannon, dropped Pearl and Dean and went to Rank Screen Advertising, Ironically – Rank owned rivals Odeon! Being about 10 at the time and having an early interest in Idents I was devastated!
Pearl and Dean lost half of its market share and only starting to gain ground again a decade later with the growing Warner/Vue chain, followed by UGC. and Showcase. But it gone the other way again with Digital Cinema Media’s website stating they have a 79.96% market share .
Latest titles from DCM (Not that keen):
This ABC set was good, but only used for a couple of years due to the Cannon rebrand:
If ABC was rebranded as Cannon in the 80s, how come the brand had re-emerged in the late 90s?
New ABC Cinemas was started by Barry Jenkins (ex Cannon) took 90% of the high street former ABC''s from Virgin Cinemas and opened up a few multiscreens such as the rather atractive [url]http://www.scottishcinemas.org.uk/edinburgh/picture.php?loc=odeonwester.html&filen=Pages/as_wh_1.jpg[/url
New ABC Cinemas was:
ABC triangle logo launching into space - very crap and very boring.
A Few ABC's too their crediet to use the 1985 set such as ABC Eacher, ABC Streataham
oh that reminds me so much of my childhood, used to scare the crap out of my friends. Shame that Odeon doesn't even have a proper ident no more, they just have a brief one for Odeon Digital HD projection.
I really like this one as well. Not only is it Alexander Calder-esque, but the understated yellow-grey color combination is wonderfully modern and elegant.
I never feel the new Disney ident comes over well via compressed youtube. The sheer level of detail (leaves on the hedges) in the thing really requires a massive cinema screen and all the speakers to do it justice. I think I first saw it at Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and it is the first and only time I've ever experienced a cinema audience actually gasp at an ident. It really is incredible when seen properly.
Still adore the old Video Collection ident of course, along with Channel 5 Video. Marvellously retro.
