Thousands of movie buffs, especially low-income single foreign workers, are sore as the twin Doha and Gulf cinemas show no signs of reopening soon. The theatres have remained closed for the seventh month.
The cinema complex was frequented by expats, and it was arguably the most popular and cheapest source of entertainment for them.
The theatres were closed on January 31 for maintenance and officials said at the time that they would reopen soon.
Tickets at both cinemas cost between QR15 and QR25, the lowest in the country, as tickets at cinemas now start at QR35.
Attempts to contact Doha and Gulf Cinema officials for comments failed.
With both cinemas remaining shut, Indian film enthusiasts were left with no options during Eid holidays as most theatres screening Indian films were fully booked.
Most shows of the Indian film Chennai Express, for example, were full at the Villagio Cinema during Eid, with a ‘sold-out’ board displayed outside the theatre.
Cinemas across Qatar see huge rush of people during Eid holidays, and most theatres are packed to capacity.
Many workers said they had to wait in long queues for tickets, while some returned home high and dry as there were no seats left for them.
One cinema supervisor said that some malls increased security around cinema halls to deal with the crowd during holidays.
Some cine-goers quarrelled with mall officials when they were told that no more seats were available.
“We stopped advance booking because people reserved seats one day in advance and those who waited in long queues fought with us when we told them that the theatre was full,” Syed Ghulam Afridi from The Mall Cinema said yesterday.
He said that apart from Indian films, cartoon films such as Smurfs 2 and Despicable Me 2 saw the largest turnout. “We only have three theatres and each can seat 136. But even other cinemas that have at least 11 screens were packed to capacity during Eid,” Afridi said.
Some workers complained about the shortage of theatres in Qatar.
“I went at 3pm to buy a few tickets for Pacific Rim at the Villagio Cinema on the first day of Eid. But there were no seats available for any of the shows for the day,” said Khalid Ali.
He said that the following day his friends got seats for the 1am show, which was also full.
“The last shows at the cinema were around 2am for Red 2 and Pacific Rim and even they didn’t have any good seats left, which are usually at the back or in the middle,” Ali added.
Source:The Peninsula
