Cinemas in the Netherlands are hiking up their ticket prices in order to compensate for their sky-high energy bills.
While we may witness plenty of magic on those screens, even cinemas can’t escape the reality of the Dutch energy crisis.
From projectors to heating, movie theatres require a lot of energy to operate, ergo why their monthly bills are becoming a very real problem.
More expensive? Why?
A large reason behind these high builds is, well, the large and old buildings in which Dutch cinemas are located.
Take the Rialto theatre in Amsterdam, for instance. Located in a one-hundred-year-old, poorly insulated building, a hefty energy bill for the heating is inevitable.
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Plus, considering its age, the building regularly needs fixes and repairs to remain intact. As a result, they had to boost their ticket prices.
“Our building in the De Pijp district is a hundred years old. That is why we are currently in the process of replacing the last windows with double glazing,” head of operations Jennie Zijlmans tells NU.nl.
Fortunately, the price hike doesn’t apply to children and students.
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Taking a similar route, the Lumière Cinema in Maastricht raised its ticket prices a few months ago to combat the high energy bills.
“We are now gathering all the cost items together to see where we can still cut costs. The main concern is, of course, that energy prices will continue to rise and thus become an unmanageable and unaffordable cost item”, director Nico Haenen tells NU.nl.
Unless the Dutch government steps in to offer financial aid, they see no other choice but to raise their ticket prices for customers.
A stepping stone to cutting costs
Movie theatres have been looking at ways to cut costs as much as possible, such as by turning off projectors in rooms that aren’t being used, and by turning down the heating a few degrees.
However, this won’t make much of a difference, particularly because of how big the buildings are, and how much energy they guzzle on a daily basis.
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“We buy the energy with the other organisations and are therefore large consumers. For us, it means that next year we will go from €400,000 to €1.2 million in energy costs,” CEO Dirk Nijdam tells NU.nl.
Looking to the Dutch government for support
Movie theatres will try everything in their power to limit the increase in ticket prices and ensure that it remains a place where one can escape the house for a cheap night out.
“We do what we can, but we don’t have that many options. For a solution to the high energy costs, we look to the government. They must step in”, Nijdam of Forum Groningen tells NU.nl
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