This column hosts portraits of cinemas in Europe and the rest of the world which are quite different from one another but have in common the fact that they have all adopted digital projection.
 

Country	Site	Town	No. of screens	No. of digital screens
The Netherlands	Pathé Spuimarkt	The Hague	9	9

Pathé Spuimarkt, The Hague
by Elisabetta Brunella

It's the afternoon of Sunday 7th July, in the Hague: in just over an hour's time the final of the women's football World Cup will start, with the Dutch team playing the United States. Vera and Riccardo are a classic, twenty-first-century couple: she is Dutch, from Leeuwarden, he is Italian from Vigolo Vattaro - to put it briefly Trento - and they met at the University of Twente, where he was studying for his master's degree. Today both support the team of the "orange lionesses" - cela va sans dire. And where will they watch the decisive game? On the big screen at the Pathé Spuimarkt, the nine-screen complex at the heart of the city, only a stone's throw from the seat of government. At five euros each they have just secured two of the last four seats still available and can now share their thrills, fears and - they hope - joy with many other spectators, who have chosen one of the Pathé Special programmes - Sport. It is by far the most popular "screening" on this sunny, summer afternoon: for the films that begin around the same time - from Aladdin and Men in Black: International, both in 3D, to Toy Story 4, there are from 138 to 217 free seats left. Today so-called "added content" or "cinema events" are going strong!
In fact, Pathé offers them on a regular basis, creating "seasons": at the moment it’s the turn of pop music with a cycle that starts with "The Cure anniversary" (11/07) and ends with "Live tribute to the Beatles" (31/08).
ut for those with more classical taste there is also the Dutch idol André Rieu: at the end of July Pathé cinemas will be presenting "Shall we dance?", the 2019 version of the traditional concert from Maastricht.
In the months between 2019 and 2020 live ballet from the Bolshoi and live opera from the New York Metropolitan have already been announced.
And while Vera and Riccardo watch the game on a screen that is 300 times bigger than the one they have at home, we stroll round the cinema. It is one of three that Pathé - leader on the Dutch market, with a total of 26 venues - owns in the Hague, together with the Buitenhof, again in the city centre, and the Scheveningen, situated in the neighbourhood of the same name on the North Sea coast. In the latter entertainment and tourist centre, Pathé offers 4DX, the system that makes it possible to sense the movement of the action on screen, thanks to moving seats. But the Spuimarkt complex, too, is a technological jewel: it is one of the six Pathé cinemas fitted with Imax screens. Right now, the films that can be watched with this technology, which uses the laser projector, are: Super - Man: far from home, Lion King, Fast and furious: Hobbs and Shaw.
Technology then, but with customer services: the Pathé Spuimarkt offers screenings for women, with "branded" goodies bags, as well as the "dinner and cinema" formula. In collaboration with nine local restaurants, the cinema sells a packet including a three-course dinner and cinema ticket (which normally costs 11 euros) at 24.50 euros.
Meanwhile the game is over: Holland has lost three-nil. The fans/spectators leave the cinema a little downcast. But the exhibitor, at least, will be happy that all the tickets sold out!

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