A wet afternoon has an obvious answer, and in central Bournemouth this is it. The Odeon in the BH2 complex is the town’s main multiplex — ten screens a few minutes from the Square and the seafront — and it is the sort of reliable, roofed option a longer stay needs when the weather turns or the children have had their fill of sand for one day.
The cinema
This is a modern multiplex, and it makes no pretence of being anything else — but it is a well-equipped one. It opened in 2017 with ten screens, and alongside the standard auditoriums there is an iSense screen: a large-format setup with a wall-sized picture and a Dolby Atmos sound system built around dozens of speakers, for the films that reward being seen big. Several screens are fitted with recliner and Premier seats, so you can pay a little more for room to stretch out, and there is a Costa bar in the foyer for the coffee-and-a-matinee sort of afternoon.
What to expect
The programme follows the national release schedule — the week’s blockbusters, family films through the school holidays, and the occasional live broadcast or one-off event screening — rather than an arthouse selection. Booking ahead online or through the Odeon app is worth doing for a Friday night or a holiday matinee, when the recliner rows fill first. If a big release is out and you only see it once, the iSense screen is the one to pick; a standard screen is fine for everything else. For a quiet weekday showing you can usually just turn up and buy a ticket at the door.
Where it is
The Odeon sits inside the BH2 leisure complex on Exeter Crescent, part of the terrace of restaurants that overlooks the Lower Gardens at the top of the town. That setting makes it easy to build an evening around a film: ASK Italian and several other places ring the same courtyard, and the Square and Bournemouth beach are both a short walk downhill. If you are staying centrally, it is comfortably reached on foot.
Good to know
Tickets are best booked online or in the Odeon app, especially for busy evenings and weekends. There are accessible spaces in every screen, and the BH2 complex has its own multi-storey car park if you are driving in; it is plotted on our map of the bay. Programmes and prices change weekly, so check the current times before you set out — and for more indoor ideas, see things to do.
