Cineplex theatres aren’t just for movie-goers anymore

By Rhiannon Lotze/ Converged Citizen Staff

Video gamers may have found a friend in Cineplex Odeon Corporation following the company’s announcement about introducing e-sports to the big screen.

Cineplex’s plan is to partner with Canadian e-sports company WorldGaming to bring local, national and international video game tournaments to Cineplex-owned theatres. Gamers can participate in these tournaments for prizes or they can choose to watch instead.

When big events in the gaming community happen, such as world e-sport championships, Cineplex also intends to live stream the events on the big screen.

The company first dabbled in the world of video games in 2008 when they began renting out auditoriums for Xbox 360 players who wanted to play on the theatre screen. They have since held localized events and company-wide streaming shows.

The popularity of video games has been steadily increasing and Newzoo, a video game research company, has predicted by 2017 revenues from the video game industry could be as high as $465 million Canadian.

Spokespeople at Cineplex say they are confident that their expansion into the world of gaming will bring in a lot of money at the theatres.

“We have done some forays into the e-sports world and we know that it’s a worldwide phenomenon,” said Cineplex Vice-President of Communications and Investor Relations, Pat Marshall, according to The Star. “It enables access to a demographic and gets them into a theatre with more frequency.”

They aren’t the only ones who say they believe e-sports will be a money-maker for the company.

“I could see it being really popular in bigger cities like Toronto and Vancouver. I think even in Windsor it could be pretty popular,” said Frankie Horvath, 20, a former employee of SilverCity Windsor Cinemas. Horvath has seen many special events held at the theatre and said the popularity of the event depends on the event itself. However, in her opinion, gaming is a big enough industry to do well for Cineplex. “Gaming tournaments are huge so I could see Cineplex wanting to capitalize on that and I could see it being really successful.”

There are some people, however, who do not agree.

“I think movies are more popular,” said 20-year-old Ashley Hawken. She rarely plays video games but said she feels they are not popular enough to make money in a theatre.

“People play video games at home to just hang out with friends or because they’re bored. I don’t think they are going to go out of their way to have strangers watch them play or pay to rent a room when they can just stay at home with their friends,” said Hawken.

Hawken said she believes there are simply not enough dedicated gamers for Cineplex’s venture to be profitable.

Long-time gamer, Chris Bennett, has been playing video games for 18 years and also does not see gaming on the big screen as a profitable prospect, despite the rise in e-sport popularity.

“I don’t think we have the demographic for it,” said Bennett. “It’s a very niche market.” He also said, while he would pay to participate in e-sports in theatres, he believes most people would not unless they were able to win cash prizes or if the event was a global championship.

While Cineplex is eager to get into the (video) game, it may be too early to tell how popular their virtual venture will be.