Kinepolis Group will soon be numbering all the seats in its Belgian cinemas and offering cinemagoers the facility to specify a seat when purchasing a ticket, both at ticket machines and from home via www.kinepolis.com. Kinepolis Imagibraine (Braine-l'Alleud) will set the ball rolling at the end of February, followed by Kinepolis Hasselt and Kinepolis Leuven in March, Kinepolis Ghent and Kinepolis Liège in April, Metropolis Antwerp and Kinepolis Brussels in May, and Kinepolis Kortrijk in the summer of this year.
Kinepolis Belgium is introducing seat reservation in order to further enhance the cinema experience.
The ability to guarantee a seat at the cinema will make life easier for movie fans, who will no longer have to endure stress, uncertainty or queues in order to see the film of their choice. Reserved, numbered seats remove any doubt as to the availability of good seats, enabling cinemagoers to roll up just before the film starts, safe in the knowledge that their seats are secured.
The reservation initiative was born of the positive feedback on Kinepolis Bruges, Kinepolis' "latest showpiece" (opened in July 2006) which has played host to a range of pioneering, world-first concepts. For Kinepolis audiences at other Kinepolis Belgium cinemas, it would seem that the seat reservation system cannot come soon enough.
A reservation system is a highly novel concept at Belgian cinemas, unlike Spain where it has been the norm for years. The atmosphere at evening and weekend screenings in Spanish Kinepolis cinemas is distinctly more "relaxed" than in Belgium, due in part to the reservation culture. But that will soon change.
The new ticketing software automatically proposes the most central available seat, and movie fans can accept or amend this suggestion via the website or the ticket machines at the cinema. Kinepolis is also encouraging cinemagoers to purchase tickets electronically, by offering cheaper film tickets through the website than at the ticket machines or box offices in its complexes. Film tickets bought via an (unmanned) ticket machine also cost less than tickets bought at the manned box office.
At the same time, Kinepolis Group is taking the opportunity to give all of its Belgian auditoria a facelift. Carpets, seats and technical installations will be updated and, during the course of 2007, all Kinepolis cinema auditoria in Belgian will go digital, delivering better image and sound quality and expanding the range of films on offer.
Other revolutionary Kinepolis Bruges innovations are then set to be rolled out at existing complexes over the next three years, such as the open foyer and automatic ticket-checking using inbuilt seat sensors. First in line, in 2007, is Kinepolis Kortrijk. The concept of the Kinepolis Oostende complex, which is currently under construction, is also based on the Kinepolis Bruges concept.
Contact Kinepolis Group
Myriam Dassonville
Corporate Communication Manager
T +32 2 474 26 91