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Topic: What's the latest theatre to close or open you have heard about? (part 2)
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Mike Rivest
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 185
From: Montréal QC Canada
Registered: Nov 2009
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posted 05-15-2013 05:24 PM
Mega-Plex Sainte-Thérèse 12: (Montreal area)
Les Cinémas Guzzo veulent implanter deux écrans IMAX à Sainte-Thérèse
...since you guys don't speak French, here it is in the Queen's English.
An investment of approximately $ 18 million project would be on the table
Topics: IMAX , Cinemas Guzzo , St. Thérèse.Le newspaper Le Courrier , Sainte-Therese , Montreal Region
IMAX Corporation and Cinemas Guzzo announced April 17 the addition of new IMAX projection systems in the region of Montreal, Sainte-Thérèse.
The newspaper Le Courrier announced featured in its edition of January 16 for Cinemas Guzzo to rebuild their theater of Santa Teresa, on the site of the Plaza Santa Teresa, but outside the walls of the existing shopping center .
Reached by telephone, Vincenzo Guzzo confirms its intention to go ahead with this project, about $ 18 million, involving the development of conventional ten rooms and two IMAX theaters with 400 seats.
The new Mega-Plex Santa Teresa look like cinema Guzzo Terrebonne, says Mr. Guzzo, there would find arcades, bumper cars, short of attractions to make it a place of fun and lively entertainment.
If those efforts with the City of Santa Teresa go at the pace hope Vincenzo Guzzo, construction could begin in the next few months for an opening in the holiday season 2013.
The side of the Planning Department of the City of Santa Teresa, we stated on April 18 did not receive specific project recently, communications are limited to an information meeting before Christmas 2012 and a notice intent on the part of the promoter
Article is at http://www.journallecourrier.com/Actualites/2013-04-23/article-3225705/Les-Cinemas-Guzzo-veulent-implanter-deux-ecrans-IMAX-a-Sainte-Therese/1
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Terry Lynn-Stevens
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1081
From: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Registered: Dec 2012
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posted 05-17-2013 04:17 PM
Drive-In closes after 58 years
Another bit of small-town history has faded to black with the announcement that the North York Drive In — located in the hamlet of Holland Landing, north of Newmarket — won’t be opening this summer.
A notice on the drive-in’s Facebook site points the finger at “new technology,” specifically digital projection, the new industry standard that has threatened independent theatres that can’t afford the pricey upgrade.
“For 58 years we have enjoyed sharing summers with loyal customers and staff, many of whom have become good friends,” the notice states.“Unfortunately due to development and changes to digital film we are unable to continue the tradition this year. It is with much regret that we say goodbye to summer evenings at North York.”
The Murrell family, which ran the operation, were unavailable for comment, but the Facebook announcement has attracted more than 1,000 comments since Tuesday, mostly laments from former patrons, as well as an emotional note from Natalie Murrell, who “grew up sleeping in the projection room while my parents worked, running around the snack bar as a child with my quarters and making grab bags on my summer days for the nights ahead. . .
“I deeply understand everyone’s sadness here,” Murrell continues, “but I am also excited that my family will be able to retire and enjoy their summers now.”
East Gwillimbury Mayor Virginia Hackson said in an email that the closing was a “loss for the town.”
“The drive-in is an icon in East Gwillimbury, and for those who grew up here,” she says. “Many in our community have fond memories of family outings there and we have long felt a sense of connection to the drive-in.”
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Mike Rivest
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 185
From: Montréal QC Canada
Registered: Nov 2009
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posted 05-21-2013 04:14 AM
Carson,CA (Los Angeles area) Cinemark South Bay 14
Article with picture at http://articles.latimes.com/2013/may/16/business/la-fi-ct-cinemark-carson-20130516
The Plano, Texas, circuit, which has 5,259 movie screens in the U.S. and Latin America, already has a dozen cinemas in the Los Angeles area and is expanding its footprint in Southern California. Cinemark, which also operates the Century Theatres chain, also plans to open a new theater in Playa Vista.
The Carson theater will include the latest digital projection and sound equipment as well as an extra-large-screen auditorium known as Cinemark XD: Extreme Digital Cinema. It will feature a 72-foot wall-to-wall screen, plush seating and digital surround sound.
"Our new high-tech theater will be the perfect entertainment environment for enjoying the best that Hollywood has to offer," Cinemark Chief Executive Tim Warner said.
Cinemark's expansion comes as other theater chains are stepping up their presence in Los Angeles. AMC Entertainment opened a dine-in theater in Marina del Rey last year. Cinepolis, Latin America's largest theater chain, opened its first Los Angeles-area theater in Westlake Village in July. And Drafthouse Cinemas of Austin, Texas, has signed a letter of intent to open a theater in downtown L.A.
"Cinemark is a premier operator, and its theaters at SouthBay Pavilion will be a tremendous addition to this underserved market," said Fred Sands, chief executive of Vintage Real Estate, a Los Angeles company that owns and manages retail centers across the country.
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Jeffry L. Johnson
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 809
From: Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Registered: Apr 2000
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posted 06-09-2013 11:37 AM
The sun is setting on the Sunset Drive-In in Mansfield
quote:
The sun is setting on the Sunset Drive-In in Mansfield | cleveland.com
Mansfield -- Nelda Spore was 12 years old in 1960 when she started selling candy at the concession stand of the Sunset Drive-In in Mansfield, following her mother who worked there.
Nelda learned every job, met and married Richard Spore who also worked there, left to teach, then returned 13 years ago and has managed the drive-in ever since. Now, at age 66, with her husband ill, she will be the one to turn out the lights forever.
"It's so sad," she said. "I feel like this drive-in has been my life for so long. Now it's just going to fade away."
The theater's owner, Jay Phillips, lives in California. He and his three brothers opened the place in 1946. It lasted through the tough times of the 1980s, when most drive-ins in the country closed.
But today, Phillips, the last surviving brother, is unwilling to put up the $70,000 to convert from film to digital video. So later this year when Hollywood studios stop using film, drive-ins that don't adapt -- like the Sunset -- will shut.
Likely to close for the same reason is the Springmill, also in Mansfield. The manager there holds out a hope that if business booms the owners will reconsider. He knows it is a long shot.
Nelda Spore often works seven days a week to keep the Sunset running. She does everything from popping the popcorn to handling paperwork.
"We can get up to 500 cars in here," she said. "But we're lucky if we get 200. Our biggest show I can remember was 'Finding Nemo.' We squeezed 700 cars in that night. Now, the place is in bad shape. The owner refuses to put any money into it, but we're doing the best we can."
If patrons notice tall grass in the field where they park, or the rust-stained ceiling in the tiny snack bar, they don't say anything. For decades, this has been their theater. They accept its shortcomings.
"This is where my father proposed to my mother," said Joseph Border, 18, of nearby Galion. "They were watching 'Footloose.' "
Azariah Kindler, 21, also of Galion, said the Sunset is part of his childhood, a piece of his life.
"My parents would take all four of us kids every weekend," he said. "Where else could six people go see a new movie for under $15? We'd put on our pj's and eat lots of candy and watch the movies, though our parents thought we were sleeping through the second feature."
Spore said the drive-in will be open every day, at least through summer.
"Summer is what drive-ins were made for," she said.
The Sunset is particularly picturesque, an old-time theater along Park Avenue West, in the country outside Mansfield. In the 1950s, there were around 5,000 drive-ins in America. Now there are less than 400. The Sunset is surrounded by woods and sits on a carpet of grass that is interrupted by the old poles that car speakers once sat on.
"My mother, Dorothy Dent, worked here almost from the beginning," Spore said. "We worked here together for a long time. She retired in 1985. I worked here until 1972, when I left to become a teacher.
"I knew I would some day come back," she said. "In 2000 when I retired from teaching, I came back here and my husband and I ran the place. We were always the first ones here and the last ones to leave."
Word is slowly getting out that the sun is truly setting on the Sunset. Customers ask if the rumors are true.
"It breaks my heart," Spore said. "If my husband did not get sick, we might have fought harder to keep it going. With his illness, I just can't do it. It will close up, then just sit here and rust away.
"It will be a very sad day when I turn out the lights one last time," she said.
Drive-in theaters fighting to survive against modern technology
quote:
Drive-in theaters fighting to survive against modern technology | cleveland.com
For many people, drive-in theaters conjure up memories of catching a movie on a hot summer night with family and friends, necking in a back seat with a sweetheart or watching dancing hot dogs singing "Let's all go to the lobby" on the big screen.
Despite a dramatic downturn in the business in the 1970s and 1980s and big cinemas that now dot suburbs, drive-ins live on. But their numbers are threatened again as movie studios force owners to switch to expensive digital equipment.
Some drive-in owners will decline to buy the necessary $70,000 projectors. Owners of two theaters in Mansfield already have decided not to. Once the supply of film stops later this year, those theaters will have nothing new to show and will die.
The studios will save a billion dollars a year by no longer putting movies both on film and digital hard drives. They are abandoning film. Most indoor theaters made the transition to digital years ago, but lots of outdoor theaters delayed obtaining the new technology.
The closest outdoor theater to Cleveland, North Ridgeville's Aut-O-Rama Drive-In, installed a digital system for its two screens in April. The theater is best known as the drive-in you can see from the Ohio Turnpike.
"We were nervous about it," said co-owner Deb Sherman. "We had to take out a loan. We wondered if the change in picture would even be noticeable. Once it was hooked up, it was amazing. Everyone notices how beautiful the pictures are. It was expensive but something we had to do."
You probably don't know it, but you live within the largest concentration of drive-in theaters in the country. There are 11 of them no more than a 70-mile drive from Cleveland. The number is more than in the entirety of many states.
Ohio's 29 drive-ins tie us with New York for the second most outdoor theaters in the country. Only Pennsylvania with 30 has more, according to the United Drive-in Theater Owners Association.
Ohio has had 270 drive-ins since the 1930s. Over the years, seven have closed in the Cleveland area, four around Akron and 13 near Columbus.
The tiny Pymatuning Lake Drive-In in Andover, Ashtabula County, closed last year. The Sunset and Springmill drive-ins in Mansfield will do the same by the end of the year.
More dollars for digital
The $70,000 projectors are only the start of the cost of going digital. The amount increases depending on other improvements that must be made to accommodate the technology, such as 24-hour air conditioning to keep the unit cool.
Drive-ins pay more than three times as much for the digital system as indoor theaters do because giant screens require larger projectors.
Eight other drive-ins in the region already have bought in, though not without some soul-searching.
Rich Reding, co-owner of the Lynn Drive-In Movie in Strasburg, south of Massillon, said the theater could afford to buy the new equipment for only one screen.
"It was time to move up or move out," he said. "I guess we'll just let the old projector sit there and let people look at it, like a museum piece."
He and his family live in trailers parked on the drive-in property. He said his life is tied to the place, the second-oldest operating drive-in in the country. It has been on Ohio 21 since 1937, just four years after the first drive-in opened in New Jersey.
Reding's grandfather bought the theater in 1957 along with the slogan: "Come as you are in the family car."
Reding said he learned the business at his grandfather's side. The drive-in is in his blood, and, tough as it is, he can't imagine making a living any other way.
Movie is only part of the fun
Some people consider the drive-in as an expression of another age, a throwback like eight-tracks, reel-to-reel tape recorders and cassettes.
But they miss the point.
Drive-ins are not just places to see a cheap movie -- admission is much less than at indoor theaters, $5 is common, and most show double features. Starting a few hours before the movies begin, drive-ins become a small community. People meet and talk, trot out their pets, grill hamburgers, smoke cigarettes and drink beer.
"You can relax here, be yourself," said Natasha Peters, of Mount Gilead, shepherding a flock of nieces and nephews recently at the Sunset. "You don't have to dress up. You don't have to hire a baby sitter. The kids put on their pajamas and treat it like an adventure."
The gray speaker boxes that used to hang from car windows are mostly gone. Outdoor theaters now broadcast the movie's sound over a car's FM radio. Most retained a few of the clunky metal contraptions for people with broken radios or those who want the nostalgic feeling.
On a recent evening at the Sunset in Mansfield, a group of boys play touch football on grass in front of the screen. Kids in pajamas giggle and eat hot dogs and corn chips while lying on sleeping bags and blankets set outside the family car. Mom reads a romance novel, dad the sports pages.
For many customers, the movie is almost secondary to "going to the drive-in."
Sunset patrons are stunned to hear the place is shutting, although signs all around should have given hints.
"Oh no," said Peters, 39. "I've only been coming here for five years, but I always enjoy myself."
The sign on the street side of the big screen says "Sunset Dr ----- eatre." A windstorm blew away letters last year. The grass is uncut in the parking area, where about 75 vehicles are here early for "Fast and Furious 6." It seems as if every piece of metal is discolored by rust.
People sit inside and outside their cars as a full moon illuminates nearby woods. The movie is crisp and clear on this dark and cloudless night, even though the theater uses "old" film technology.
Either switch or close
Gary Grieve made the switch to digital equipment at his Magic City Drive-In in Barberton and will install it at the Blue Sky Drive-In in Wadsworth, which he also owns.'
"None of us will have a choice if we want to stay in business," he said.
No one has a handle on how many of the country's remaining 357 drive-ins will go digital.
A Kickstarter fund saved the Skyline Drive-In in Shelton., Wash. It raised $40,000 to help the theater make the change.
The Fairlee Motel & Drive-in Theater in Vermont is running a campaign to raise the money. The theater is one of a few that let customers watch a movie from motel rooms.
Surprising innovations
People who think drive-ins are relics of the 1950s will be surprised to learn that 42 new ones have been built nationally since 1990, and 62 others reopened during that period.
Something that might shock those who have not been to a drive-in in a long time is the quality of the food in the snack bars. Most theaters now make their burgers and hot dogs fresh on the spot. Some make pizza from scratch, and others have exotic items on their menus. Asparagus stir fry anyone?
Still, there is no dispute: Drive-ins are disappearing.
Nationally, the business peaked in the 1950s, with 5,000 locations. The number dropped to 3,000 in 1977, and 750 in 1990.
Many were sold for the value of their land. As one industry spokesman said, it's hard to turn down a million-dollar offer when you're struggling to pay for popcorn.
Besides Pymatuning, the Memphis Drive-In on Cleveland's West Side and the Sandusky Drive-In, near Cedar Point, are the most recent to close in the region.
Studios will save a cool billion dollars a year going all digital, said Pat Corcoran of the National Association of Theatre Owners. They will avoid spending $1,000 for each movie print. A digital copy costs about $100, including shipping.
The future of drive-ins is as hard to discern as their screens on a foggy night, said D. Edward Vogel, secretary of the drive-in owners group and owner of the popular Bengies Drive-In in Baltimore.
"Owners have got to decide whether to invest the money in a digital system or go under," he said. "Many drive-ins are owned by families, so perhaps it's time for younger members to pitch in and take over. It's the mark that families make that makes them a unique part of Americana."
View Drive-in theaters around Northeast Ohio in a larger map
Drive-ins in all directions
It may seem like all the drive-in theaters have vanished, but 11 are within about a 70-mile drive of Cleveland. Northeast Ohio has more drive-ins than almost anywhere in the world. If you want to watch a movie under the stars, here is where you can go:
Aut-O-Rama Drive-In, 33395 Lorain Road, North Ridgeville. Holds 1,000 vehicles. Opened in 1965. 1-440-327-9595.
Blue Sky Drive-In, 959 Broad St., Wadsworth. Holds 428 vehicles. Opened in 1947. 1-330-334-1809.
Elm Road Triple Drive-In, 1895 Elm Road, Warren. Holds 900 vehicles. Opened in 1950. 1-330-372-9732.
Lynn Auto Theatre, 9735 U.S. 250, Strasburg. Holds 225 vehicles. Opened in 1937. (330) 330-878-5797.
Magic City Drive-In, 5602 Cleveland-Massillon Road, Barberton. Holds 700 vehicles. Opened in 1953. 330-825-4333.
Mayfield Drive-In, 12010 Mayfield Road, Chardon. Holds 500 vehicles. Opened in 1952. 1-440-286-7173.
Midway Drive-In, 2736 Ohio 59, Ravenna. Holds 600 vehicles. Opened in 1949. 1-330-296-9829.
Skyway Drive-In, 1805 North Leavitt Road Northwest, Warren. Holds 650 vehicles. Opened in 1949. 1-330-898-3059.
Springmill Drive-In, 1040 Springmill St., Mansfield. Holds 750 vehicles. Opened in 1958. 1-419-747-2156. (Closing this year.)
Star View Drive-in, 2083 U.S. 20, Norwalk. Holds 520 vehicles. Opened in 1949. 1-419-668-1819.
Sunset Drive-In, 4018 Park Ave., Mansfield. Holds 600 vehicles. Opened in 1946. 419-529-5676. (Closing this year.)
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Mike Rivest
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 185
From: Montréal QC Canada
Registered: Nov 2009
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posted 06-16-2013 08:22 PM
VIP theatres coming to Saskatoon
Cineplex is expanding their 12-plex to add 3 more VIP screens.
article with pictures
http://www.thestarphoenix.com/business/theatres+coming+Saskatoon/8428674/story.html
Film lovers will soon be able to order food from their seats and then have cocktails in an adjacent lounge. Cineplex Entertainment announced it's bringing Saskatchewan's first VIP Cinemas to Saskatoon.
Galaxy Cinemas Saskatoon will see the addition of a 12,500 square foot addition that will house three VIP Cinemas and a licensed lounge at its downtown location, which already boasts 11 traditional screens and an UltraAVX auditorium.
The theatre will be renamed Cineplex Cinemas Saskatoon and VIP. Construction is expected to begin later this year and the VIP Cinemas is scheduled to open in 2014.
"It will be a separate VIP section added to the existing theatre," said Pat Marshall, vice-president of communications and investor relations for Cineplex Entertainment.
The VIP Cinemas is adults-only and offers reserved seating, a licensed lounge and premium in-theatre menu service. The expanded menu includes traditional movie snacks and a wide variety of specialty appetizers such as calamari, chili chicken nuggets, flat bread pizzas and burgers. The seats are larger and have table tops embedded in their armrests.
Orders are placed and delivered before the movie begins, Marshall said.
"You can have a (alcoholic) beverage in the lounge or you can be served directly in your seat in one of those three VIP cinemas, but only there."
Marshall said the VIP cinemas are very popular.
"They are a smaller, more intimate auditorium," she said.
There are about 150 seats in each VIP auditorium. A regular cinema with the same space would hold about 250 seats.
"They are often the first auditoriums to sell out in the complex showing the same films," Marshall said.
The new theatres and lounge will be located on the second floor of the expansion, above 11,000 square feet of retail space on the main floor.
Blair Sinclair, senior vice-president of leasing and development with Triovest Realty Advisors Inc., said it's likely a couple of restaurants will fill the retail space.
"We are in discussions with several national and regional restaurant groups for the main level of the Cineplex that will enhance the entertainment corridor that we are starting to create at the south end," said Sinclair, referring to the State & Main restaurant that has opened in River Centre.
Triovest developed River Centre and has plans for River Centre 2, an 11-storey, 178,000 square foot office tower located just south of the Galaxy Cinemas.
"It will twin River Centre 1 in design, albeit bigger," Sinclair said.
"We are making our submission for a development permit on the office tower in the next phase," he said, but added, "construction will not commence until we secure an anchor tenant."
Galaxy will remain open during construction.
Cineplex currently operates seven VIP Cinemas across Canada, with announced plans to open nine more in the next three years.
Read more: http://www.thestarphoenix.com/theatres+coming+Saskatoon/8428674/story.html#ixzz2WQrqD7MF
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