UCI woos women away from World Cup with ‘hunk’ films

UCI Cinemas, the largest multiplex cinema chain in the country, is launching a cut-price season of romantic films to attract women bored by World Cup ties between foreign teams.

But the screenings will avoid the dates when England and Scotland play – because so many women are expected to watch the football.

During Euro 96 UCI was surprised by women’s interest in the progress of the home teams. The cinema chain ran a similar romantic film season, but scheduled the films against England and Scotland matches, and failed to attract the expected high audiences.

Paul Biggins, UCI marketing director, recently told Marketing Week: “The group we were targeting got behind the England team because they did so well. In the end we took a bit of a beating. Audiences were definitely down” (MW March 19).

The UCI season will be called Hollywood Hunks and include films starring hearthrobs such as Leonardo DiCaprio and George Clooney.

It combines eight recent releases – including Great Expectations, Red Corner, and The Peacemaker – that will be shown between June 11 and July 5 at a reduced ticket price of 2.50.