The curtains are blue (though partly lit magenta) and yes, blue is the circuit colour for screen curtains. The Odeon, Leicester Square has blue satin screen curtains and silver satin house curtains but in the majority of Odeons, curtains are no longer used, the screens simply having a blue LED surround which definitely is not a “good look”!
Cinefan, Yes, the rebranding first appeared when the Odeon, Camden Town reopened on 11th July 1997. The new signage, blue and silver livery, reappearance of neon outlining and mission statement: “FANATICAL ABOUT FILM”, created by design consultancy Wolff Olins, were all applied here and it gave the then owners, the Rank Group, the chance to inspect the treatment away from the glare of the West End. There were niggles about the vertical name sign where the two dimensional characters only read correctly when approached from one direction (later solved by being replaced with double-sided letter-bearing signs internally lit) but, on the whole, the designs were considered successful and, over the next few years, were applied – with variations – to every Odeon cinema except York. Ignorance and intransigence on the part of the City of York Council’s Planning Committee meant that, despite two modified submissions to “meet the Council half way”, the Company were not allowed to re-brand that cinema in anything like the new circuit scheme with the result that York Odeon was neither re-branded nor refurbished and closed in 2006.
Three years later it reopened as a Reel cinema with standards of comfort and presentation inferior to that of the Odeon chain. The Planning Committee were adamant that the 1937 name sign was part of the building and therefore had to remain. The neon had ceased to work safely many years ago so the ODEON sign remains, rusting and broken – not to mention somewhat potentially confusing.
The curtains are blue (though partly lit magenta) and yes, blue is the circuit colour for screen curtains. The Odeon, Leicester Square has blue satin screen curtains and silver satin house curtains but in the majority of Odeons, curtains are no longer used, the screens simply having a blue LED surround which definitely is not a “good look”!
Cinefan, Yes, the rebranding first appeared when the Odeon, Camden Town reopened on 11th July 1997. The new signage, blue and silver livery, reappearance of neon outlining and mission statement: “FANATICAL ABOUT FILM”, created by design consultancy Wolff Olins, were all applied here and it gave the then owners, the Rank Group, the chance to inspect the treatment away from the glare of the West End. There were niggles about the vertical name sign where the two dimensional characters only read correctly when approached from one direction (later solved by being replaced with double-sided letter-bearing signs internally lit) but, on the whole, the designs were considered successful and, over the next few years, were applied – with variations – to every Odeon cinema except York. Ignorance and intransigence on the part of the City of York Council’s Planning Committee meant that, despite two modified submissions to “meet the Council half way”, the Company were not allowed to re-brand that cinema in anything like the new circuit scheme with the result that York Odeon was neither re-branded nor refurbished and closed in 2006. Three years later it reopened as a Reel cinema with standards of comfort and presentation inferior to that of the Odeon chain. The Planning Committee were adamant that the 1937 name sign was part of the building and therefore had to remain. The neon had ceased to work safely many years ago so the ODEON sign remains, rusting and broken – not to mention somewhat potentially confusing.