Showcasecinemas Reviews 

The best cinema good value reveal popcorn staff helpful cost 51 pound got vip bad toilets

I paid for luxury cinema with recliners seat but my seat doesn't work. Staff talking each other just scan my iq and didn't tell us which room is my film.

Peterborough screen we went to was really poor and not clear at all.

Sent them an email and had a case number given but since then which was over 3 weeks ago I have had no response despite sending them two further mails. Customer service poor too.

Avoid Bluewater cinema,it's filthy and nobody bothers to clean the soft drinks machine of the floors.
The atmosphere is unpleasant due to unpredictable gangs wandering around.
Forget this appalling place.

We Pre-booked the tickets. Upon arrival we were directed to the screen. No mention that there was a problem with heating in that screen. Sooo cold in there. Had to wear my coat with hood up and gloves. A really unpleasant experience. When we mentioned it we told we should have been informed before entering the screen. Peterborough

HORRID COSTUMER SERVICE ABSOLUTELY APPALLING THAT THEY WOULDN’T LET US SEE OUR FILM JUST BECAUSE WE DIDNT HAVE ID. CLEARLY LOOK ABOVE THE AGE RANGE AND WOULDN’T HAVE BOOKED IT IF WERENT IN THE RANGE. TRIED TO GET A REFUND BUT TOOK 40 MINUTES TO GET ONE. THEY TRIED TO GET US TO WATCH A KIDS MOVIE WHEN WE HAD BEEN WAITING ALL DAY TO SEE IT. IT DOESNT SPECIFICALLY SAY WE NEEDED ID AND HAD NEVER BEEN CHECKED BEFORE. WE ARE SO MAD AND IT FULLY RUINED OUR DAY!

DO NOT GO TO THIS CINEMA PLEASE SAVE YOURSELF FROM THIS HASSLE IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR AN OVER 15 RATED FILM.

I have been taking my daughter (who is disabled and has a CEA card) to Showcase Reading ever since it opened in (I forget ... 1998? - in other words a _long_ time).

2 days ago things went abruptly down hill.
Ordered tickets for a film. The "Senior" ticket tariff has just gone up by 106% since 1-8-2025. Gross profiteering. Certainly a little bit above inflation.
And just a little point about the booking fee: now that all the personnel are gone from the front of house and the bookings is all by "terminal" there is no material difference between on-line booking and "front of house" booking - so no justification for the £1 fee any more. So take that one away...

Moving along, ordered tickets anyway, receipt e-mailed stated as follows:
CEA card £0.00
Ticket £10.29 (ugh)
Insider Rewards -£0.60
Booking fee £1.00
Sub-total £9.57
Tax (incl. in ticket price) £1.72
Order total £11.29

EXCEPT
Ticket £10.29
Insider Rewards -£0.60
Booking fee £1.00
makes £10.69 (not £9.57) (so the maths in the invoice job is broken)
AND
I was billed £11.29 (so over billed by £0.60 - or in fact lots more if we include the £1 booking fee and the 106% inflation)
AND
the VAT element in £10.69 is £1.78 (noting that this amounts to mis-applying VAT, something for HMRC)
AND
a VAT figure of £1.72 is the VAT element in £10.29 (ie excluding the service of the on-line fee and that the sale price of the ticket was not £10.29 but (£10.29 - £0.60)
AND
"VAT" is not actually mentioned at all, nor is the VAT rate, nor is the total mount to which VAT is applied, so non-compliant VAT invoice.
So by and large the whole thing has become a mess.

I called into the Reading venue and spoke to the manager. He said "I can't take 60p out of the till, do you want me to refund the ticket?".
I replied saying "No, we're seeing the film anyway" and he replied "So you need to take this up with Head Office".
PM'ed Head Office, go a phone number for ... Reading. Asked for a phone number for Head Office... no reply.

Taken in the round my take aways are "what a mess" and "sort this all out or we won't be back".

~~~~
UPDATE 25-01-2026:
Showcase Reading confirmed that the amount I was billed was correct (but not as stated on the receipt) but didn't comment on the dodgy VAT invoice nor the hiked prices nor the removal of "senior" discounts nor - dare I suggest - an apology for the running around.
Typical

My wife lost her credit cards after a visit to the Bluewater cinema so we tried to call to ask if anyone had found them.
We discovered that no-one answers the phone.
We tried calling several times and stayed on the line for ages but no-one answered. I'm guessing the contact number also acts as their complaints line and they don't like dealing with complaints!

Very disappointing experience.

My wife briefly took a couple of photos inside the cinema for personal use. We were given no warning at all. Staff immediately approached us, called the action "illegal", forced us to delete the photos, and then removed us from the screening.

Despite fully cooperating and not recording any video, we were not allowed to return to the film and were refused a refund.

The response was completely disproportionate and lacked basic customer service. A simple warning would have resolved the situation.

I would not recommend this cinema based on how this situation was handled.

Went to this cinema in castle gate Dudley awful experience . No longer have staff doing tickets have to do them yourself on machines . Que to the food was ridiculous 3 staff slow service didn’t bother in the end . My daughter was very annoyed as was promised as a treat and couldn’t get served to get food for the movie . Wouldn’t go again odeon will be our choice in future disgusting service and freezing in there too which didn’t help

I went to watch a Bollywood film and had a really poor experience. The volume was randomly turned down so low I could hear people around me, the subtitles disappeared during the film, and about 15 minutes before it ended the lights were turned on.

When I raised this with the manager, Francis, he said there was a complaint from the screen next door in the noise. Bear in mind this film had been running for over two weeks.

The manager Francis repeated kept cutting me off, spoke over me, and stood towering over me while I was seated, which felt intimidating. Instead of listening, he just tried to throw free tickets at me — which I repeatedly said I didn’t want. I only wanted to give feedback, but he wouldn’t even let me finish. I didn’t take any tickets, as I wouldn’t go back here or spend another penny at Showcase Dudley after that experience.

⭐☆☆☆☆ Horrible customer service and unfair charges
I’m extremely disappointed with my experience. I bought a student ticket for Monday (£7.99) by mistake, and when I realized I actually needed Sunday (£5.99), I changed the date. That means the cinema owed me £1.99, right?
Instead, they charged me an extra £3.99 on top of what I had already paid — I ended up paying more than a full-price general ticket (£11.75) for a student one.
When I called to fix the issue, one employee even confirmed that I should have been refunded £1.99, but then another person refused to do anything, claiming it’s “policy.” No refund, no apology, just a careless attitude.
Honestly, this feels like a scam. Completely unprofessional and unfair — if you’re a student, double-check your booking because they clearly don’t care about customer satisfaction or basic honesty.

Very nice cinema in winnersh, lots of parking outside which is convenient

Went to see Jaws 50th, which is great btw, but no mention on tickets, booking ref, or by the staff at the cinema that it is 3D!!! Only when it started and was blurry was it clear 😉. I had to go back to the staff and ask for some 3D glasses so missed part of the beginning. There was a brief advert saying put your 3D glasses on quickly followed by a Peugeot advert so not obvious it was for the actual movie.
Jaws the Film 5*, service and comms by Showcase 2*

I haven’t been for years due to my last experience. Nothings changed. In fact it’s worse.

The new seats are really uncomfortable. The large pad on the headrest pushes your head forwards into an unnatural position. My main gripe is the eating! I couldn’t enjoy the film at all as the constant rustling of someone’s crisp and biscuit packets highly irritated me. It took the kid the whole film to eat his snacks so I spent the entire film with my hand over the ear nearest him. When I’ve paid £17 to watch a film, I want to watch it in peace.

No doubt you will say we need food sales to exist. His food wasn’t even bought there. Please. Only allow quiet foods.

Hope they will keep selling DVDs as I won’t be going again! Waste of money. I left highly irritated/annoyed!

If I could give no stars I would.

I booked tickets, entered my bank details and money has been taken. The system crashed during this process and I haven't received any tickets. I have been on hold trying to get hold of someone at the Southampton cinema for an hour and no one is picking up.

Not possible to buy tickets online, registered few accounts, not able to login with any of them. Web site just full of errors.

Winnersh cinema visited

Took the wife for a date night, was a alright movie but loud for me.

The food so very expensive though, more than the cost of the film.
Might rent a video next time, watch with a cuppa.

Nice staff though, friendly lot.

What a difference, same company, completely different staff and seating! Firstly, they refused to accept the national disability and carers cards, even though these are thoroughly checked on registration. Then, absolutely NO recliners! The gallery 'sofas' are like park benches wrapped in pleather - not comfortable showcase! Why hasn't dudley got what bexley heath has and why don't they accept the same cards????

Went to watch Thunderbolts @ Reading Showcase on Bank Holiday on the 5th May 2025 tried to use my Insider card when paying was told systems are down cannot use, the lady served me looked like she didn`t want to be there and was miserable that she was working and had to serve, received the same from the person at the popcorn counter when ordered again no offer of a discount due to their error or being unhappy was not offered a receipt also, so disappointing experience, No passion, No care for customers makes you think why bother spending all that money, yeah so have to think twice whether want to spend to watch a movie especially in Xplus there again?