Stelios has no-frills cinema in frame

LIKE a next-generation, Greek Cypriot mini-me of Richard Branson, Stelios Haji-Ioannou certainly has an unabashed eye for a publicity stunt.

So it is that the 37-year-old airline tycoon is on the streets of Notting Hill Gate today protesting at the feared closure of the local cinema and its rumoured sale to an unnamed corporation which apparently has plans to convert the 105-year-old Coronet into a casino and lapdancing club.

Stelios (as he is universally known) has no moral problem with gaming or stripping; if he could think of a budget way of selling either he would probably do it. Neither is he a resident of Notting Hill.

He is there to get publicity for his latest venture, easyCinema. And if he can get his hands on the Coronet - which retains the faded glory of a Victorian music hall - with a knockdown bid of £2m then all the better.

Having had enough of running easyJet, the no-frills carrier which has made him a substantial personal fortune, Stelios is now concentrating on his wholly-owned private interests. His easyInternetCafe and easyCar have lost him large amounts of money, but he believes easyCinema has the potential to be a real winner.

Different films have different values at different times, says Stelios - with the business-school logic that British cinema-going can be revolutionised in the same way that flexible ticketing strategies rocked the airline industry.

The key is what is known in executive-speak as 'yield management'. Anyone who has flown easyJet may know what he is talking about. Tickets go on sale well in advance at heavily-marketed low prices. However, as the date of departure approaches and/or demand grows, the price increases.

Stelios reckons he could flog the final cinema tickets for a must-see sell-out film for as much as £10. At a certain point he starts covering costs and making a profit.

And those costs are kept to a minimum selling tickets on the internet and telling customers to bring their own food and drink. But does the business model work for film-going?

The evidence of his first - and so far only - easyCinema at a multiplex in Milton Keynes, Bucks, is not persuasive. Launched last summer, it has lost about £1m. Stelios has been unable to secure the rights to blockbuster movies, having instead to settle for 'second-run' films that have been out for weeks - Christmas smashes Cold Mountain and Love Actually opened at easyCinema last weekend.

If you want to see the Oscar-winning Cold Mountain next Thursday you can buy a ticket for just 75p. But even for last-minute buyers for tonight, the website is indicating the maximum Stelios is getting away with charging is £2. Good news for the punter but not for Stelios.

But as far as Stelios is concerned, it is London that will prove whether his idea will work. He has been scouring the commercial estate agencies of the capital since before Christmas for a site within the M25 to launch the second easyCinema.

The local brouhaha in Notting Hill has fallen right into his lap. But whether the old-fashioned Coronet is what Stelios is really looking for or just a convenient peg for free publicity is a moot point.

His real fight is with Hollywood and the all-important rights to new films. Distributors license films to cinema operators on a percentage based on box-office revenues. Stelios wants to pay a fixed amount for a film and then have the freedom to charge whatever he likes, at a loss or at a profit.

That the Hollywood giants will not play ball and are freezing him out has led Stelios to sniff a hint of a cartel and unfair practices. Lawyers have been instructed and potential competition law breaches reported to the Office of Fair Trading.

'Having the Coronet would strengthen our negotiating position as the distributors could not justify making films available to the previous owners but not to me,' he said.