Take a look inside the new Everyman Cinema at The Mailbox

Take a look inside the new Everyman Cinema at The Mailbox

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Here’s a first look inside Birmingham’s brand new Everyman cinema - a £3 million complex that’s a bar and diner combined with three screens and comfy seats.

A place to meet up with friends an hour before your film begins so that you can savour the whole experience.

And where, if running late, you can even take your food and drinks in, too.

That’s the grown-up attitude that will greet customers eager to try out the cinema at the back of the Mailbox when it opens on Friday, February 27.

Built underneath BBC Birmingham – a company with a ready-made audience if ever there was one – its neat canalside entrance is next door to Tesco Express.

Visitors are immediately greeted by a cavernous bar and diner area, where the treats include the company’s signature gourmet burger, comprising a pure-bred Aberdeen Angus beef pattie, with the cheese of your choice, dressed with house sauce and wrapped in a glazed brioche bun (£7.50, cured bacon 50p extra).

They’re available to eat in the bar or can be served directly to your seat, with skin on, hand cut chips costing an additional £2.50 per portion.

Wines vary from £5.20 for 175ml to £24.50 for the top-priced bottle; half a litre of Purity Ubu is £5.50, a large 660ml bottle of Peroni is £6.25 and a pint of Guinness £4.

Most coffees are £2.60, a mineral water £2.10, cocktails £6.95, cakes £4.20 and popcorn is from £3 to £5.

And how much just to see a film, I hear you ask?

That’ll be £10 off peak and £12.50 peak for adults (call it £25 for a couple having a Saturday night out on the town) and £8 and £9 respectively for children under the age of 14.

All seats have the novelty of footrests (except the front rows) and the largest Screen 3 has curved rows, too, to improve sight lines.

Everyman’s new chief operating officer Crispin Lilly on the new venue

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Everyman’s new chief operating officer Crispin Lilly says the Everyman Cinema chain now has 11 cinemas and there are annual plans to open three to four per year in the near future.

“People make the mistake of calling us art house, but we are quite mainstream,” says Crispin, who is as proud of his loos as he is of the screens.

“We won’t be showing Transformers, but we will show Bond – we are not elitist."

While Screens 2 and 3 at the Everyman Mailbox will have 3D capable screens, less obvious touches include a promise not to raise the house lights in the cinema the second that any film ends.

“When that happens, it can completely kill the mood you are in,” says Crispin, who had hoped the Mailbox cinema would have been open in time for the release of Fifty Shades of Grey.

Friday’s opening programme will be appreciated by customers, with films including The Second Best Exotic Hotel, Big Hero 6, Jennifer Aniston’s Cake, Will Smith’s Focus and the odd screening of Fifty Shades.

All will be screened using Sony 4K digital projectors with Dolby 7:1 sound.

“Digital technology is what makes places like this viable instead of 35mm,” says Crispin.

“We find that people are happy to spend a bit more so long as they are going to get good value.”

Crispin says the company is learning about what works and what doesn’t as Everyman evolves.

“In Leeds we opened a restaurant, but you then find you are competing with other restaurants

“In Maida Vale we have two small screens and have used that model for Birmingham, so that you can buy really nice quality pizzas and burgers and take them into the cinema.

“We don’t make anything that is overly intensive in smells and we have non-rustle cartons for popcorn and sweets.”

And what if someone slops a £6 margherita pizza all over the nice new sofas?

“We have steam cleaners,” smiles Crispin.

“When you treat people right, you get that back.”

Like most cinemas, each Everyman screening will be preceded with about 20 minutes of ads and trailers with the house lights half dimmed.

As if to prove you can’t have absolutely everything, even in 2015, the only thing I could find missing on my first Everyman Mailbox tour were... some old fashioned pairs of curtains.

Just like every other cinema in Birmingham today, it won’t have the one thing that turns a cinema-going experience into a truly theatrical one with a swoosh of pleats giving way to the opening titles.

All you need to know

Everyman Mailbox Cinema covers 12,350 sq ft of space.

SCREEN 1

96 capacity

Armchairs (premier) seating with footrests, other than row 1.

Projection: Sony 4K Digital with 7:1 digital audio sound, HD Satellite, Blu-ray and DVD.

Bar located in the foyer next to Screen 1

SCREEN 2

91 capacity

Armchairs (premier) seating with footrests, other than row 1.

Projection: Sony 4K Digital with 7:1 digital audio sound, 3D, HD Satellite, Blu-ray and DVD.

SCREEN 3

141 capacity

Armchairs (premier) seating with footrests, other than row 1.

Projection: Sony 4K Digital with 7:1 digital audio sound, 3D, HD Satellite, Blu-ray and DVD.

Stage

Bar located in the lobby of Screen 3

PARKING

Mailbox Car Park is at Wharfside Street, The Mailbox, Birmingham, B1 1RD – open 24/7.

ACCESSIBILITY

There is disabled access directly into all screens with dedicated space at the front of each auditorium. The lower level Screen 3 can be accessed via a lift and there is a disabled toilet located on the upper level. The Mailbox car park has 16 accessible spaces, located on Levels 1 and 2 of the car park. All accessible spaces are located close to pay machines and lifts for convenience.

TRAIN

The Mailbox can be easily accessed via Birmingham’s main train station: Birmingham New Street, with connections to all parts of the UK. Serves all train operators including Virgin, Cross Country and London Midland.

BUS

Nearest bus terminals: Navigation Street, Hill Street, Suffolk Street, Queensway, Broad Street, Stephenson Street and Corporation Street.