— witsandnuts

A generous cinema promo from HSBC

I thought I would be watching a film in UAE for the first time when When Love Begins and Caregiver were shown, but no. Bad reviews. I had hoped for Sex and the City to come, but no. Close to impossible to be aired here probably for being inconsistent with the religious, cultural, political and moral values of UAE. So finally, I catched Kung Fu Panda and experienced being inside one of the cinemas in Abu Dhabi. First hand observations:

• You can’t get in once the film started rolling.  We’ve got the tickets before 1pm and next screening was at 2pm (as printed on our ticket).  In the Philippines, you’ll be allowed to get inside even at the middle of the showing.
• Same ticket fare whether you’d be seating in the balcony or orchestra.  Tip:  Be punctual.
• The usual cheese and salty popcorns flavors, nachos and sodas as cinema ‘buddies’.  No hotdogs though.  But I had chocolates and Filipino chicharons as ‘extra baggage’, which I didn’t get to eat inside because the cheese flavored popcorn and sodas we got were enough.
• Credit cards are accepted.  Is it also implemented in the Philippines by now?
• And to top it all, be careful with cinema promos.  Glad that we didn’t pay out cash yet, we noticed HSBC’s promo of buy 1 take 1 cinema ticket.  How cool is that?!

Well, I am not from HSBC.  Whatever marketing strategy it is, go grab it.  Promo runs until January 2009.  So probably, I would be encouraged and looking forward to catching more films in the big screen.