A group of Keswick School pupils have set themselves a challenge of getting more bums on seats at the town’s Alhambra Cinema.
The Alhambra Cinematic Society (ACS) has been programming films of its choice over the school year and earlier this month organised a 7pm showing of Dr Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
As this was a new film by Marvel, an extremely popular entertainment company, the hope was that, through advertising around school, it could encourage Keswick students to go see it at the Alhambra rather than at more modern cinemas in Workington or Rheged.
“Although it’s quite risky showing a fairly new film, the whole point of ACS is to try and attract young people to go to their local cinema,” said Cameron Wear, one of the members of ACS.
This led to the decision to make the showing into an event that would allow for an exciting cinematic experience.
Members of ACS decided to host a competition where Keswick School students were challenged to dress in what they thought a Marvel character would wear on a normal day, when they are not all suited up for action. The reward for wearing an outfit to the cinema and explaining to a member of staff who they are dressed as was free popcorn.
The tagline used on the posters that went up around school and on the cinema’s Instagram page was “Ditch the suit! What would a Marvel character wear on a normal day? Come and show us for free popcorn!”.
Next to these posters were ‘Marvel character sheets’, which gave advice on the type of clothing students could wear to represent their favourite Marvel character.
“We thought, if we could pull this off and if we did enough advertising, it could be a big success,” said Poppy Slater, another member of ACS. “I’m pleased to say it was a success.”
More than 40 people in came to watch the film and around 15 of them were Keswick School students who had dressed up.
Another strategy that ACS implemented on the night to try and attract a younger audience was to offer group bookings for 18-year-olds and under. The team at the cinema agreed to this and created a ‘Gang of 4’ option on the booking website.
The fee was at a reduced cost and the idea was that groups of four friends could book to see the film together. A couple of groups turned up on the night who had used that booking option and the – the cinema owners have decided to keep the option ongoing for future showings.
This Keswick Alhambra project is supported by Film Hub North with National Lottery funding on behalf of the British Film Institute Audience Network.
