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Topic: What's the latest theatre to close or open you have heard about? (part 2)
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Martin McCaffery
Film God
Posts: 2481
From: Montgomery, AL
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 06-22-2014 10:23 AM
Carmike Big D to open in (or near, I still haven't figured out if it is within city limits) Montgomery, AL July 18, 2014.
http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/local/2014/06/18/new-carmike-cinemas-theater-serve-beer-wine/10759705/
quote:
Carmike Cinemas' new theater on Chantilly Parkway will open July 18 and feature a 561-seat, "Big D" auditorium that "blows IMAX out of the water," according to a district manager.
The auditorium will be the centerpiece of Carmike 13 and will feature stadium seating with leather, reclining seats and an 85-foot screen.
The theater also will cater to moviegoers who like to sip some beer or wine while taking in a movie. The Montgomery City Council approved the theater's request for a beer and wine license Tuesday evening.
There will be no box office outside the theater. Instead, visitors will buy both their tickets and concessions inside at the same counter. There will be a separate line devoted solely to alcohol purchases.
Customers will be able to order popcorn at the concessions stand and then pick it up at a standalone "popcorn factory" across the lobby. Carmike Cinemas General Manager Tony Sellers said that will speed up the process of buying tickets and concessions.
The "Big D" auditorium
screen will feature 11.1 surround sound and two digital projectors casting more than 30,000 lumens onto the screen.
"It is far better than IMAX," District Manager Domenick Barone said. "Better sound, bigger screens, better seating. IMAX can't really hold a candle to this ... auditorium."
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Mike Frese
Master Film Handler
Posts: 465
From: Holts Summit, MO
Registered: Jun 2007
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posted 06-29-2014 09:09 AM
Noland Fashion Cinema 6, Independence MO (KC burb)
http://www.examiner.net/article/20140628/NEWS/140628877/1994/NEWS
Noland Fashion Cinema 6 closes as age of 35mm fades
By Brandon Dumsky
brandon.dumsky@examiner.net
Posted Jun. 28, 2014 @ 1:17 am
Independence, Mo.
The last dollar-house theater in the Kansas City metropolitan area has succumbed to the era of digital film.
Noland Fashion Cinema 6, 13520 E. U.S. 40 in Independence, closed its doors for good June 22. The movie theater ran films that had been out weeks, or even months, prior to their initial release at discounted ticket prices since 2002. It opened in the mid 1980s as a first-run theater, said former General Manager Daryl Smith.
“We sure didn’t want to close, but had no choice,” he said.
The major reason behind the theater’s closing was the movie studios’ push for digital film, he added. Both he and Brian Wolfgang of Pharaoh 4 Cinemas, 114 West Maple Ave., in Independence, said it is harder to secure 35 millimeter film prints for exhibition due to many Hollywood movie studios releasing movies only in a digital format. The two theaters still use celluloid film projectors.
“The cost ... didn’t justify the need to continue,” said Smith. He added that attendance at Noland Fashion Cinema 6 declined over the past few years, too. Given the low volume of business, it didn’t warrant the purchase of expensive digital projectors. Plus the time between a film’s theatrical release and its release on either DVD or Blu-ray has considerably shortened over the years, he added.
Now the Pharaoh 4 remains as the only theater in Independence that still uses 35mm prints, but hopefully that is about to change soon, said Wolfgang.
He said his theater is in the process of financing digital projectors that should be installed by late summer. However, it is estimated that four digital projectors for all of Pharaoh’s auditoriums would be in the price range of $250,000.
But it should pay off.
“Developing a 35mm print could be up to $2,000 to $2,500,” Smith said. “It’s cheaper on the digital factor.”
With digital projectors comes the opportunity to also have a 3-D projector, he added. “There should be a resurgence when we become digital.”
Currently, Wolfgang says he had to pass up on some films because the ones they previously acquired have to be shown for a specific amount of time. “We have to make a deal with the studio to show a film for two to three weeks, and we just don’t have the auditorium space.” And given the movie business, it’s hard to foresee what will be a box office draw.
Wolfgang said a kick start program will be set up soon to help raise money for new digital projectors.
As for Smith, he believes the movie theater market will not become obsolete
“People want to get out of the house. It’s a social experience instead of sitting in front of a screen at home.”
Read more: http://www.examiner.net/article/20140628/News/140628877#ixzz362MTLyVZ
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Mike Frese
Master Film Handler
Posts: 465
From: Holts Summit, MO
Registered: Jun 2007
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posted 07-07-2014 05:30 PM
Warner Robins, GA
Parkway Cinemas to close next month
http://www.macon.com/2014/07/07/3185883/parkway-cinemas-to-close-next.html?sp=/99/148/
WARNER ROBINS -- Parkway Cinemas, a mainstay of Russell Parkway for 30 years, is scheduled to close its doors in a month.
Bill Stembler, chairman and chief executive officer of Georgia Theatre Co., said the discounted theater doesn’t have the equipment to go on.
At $2.50 per ticket, the six-screen theater had been one of the cheapest entertainment options around. But film companies have been pushing away from actual film prints, which are costly. The companies had been financing conversions for regular movie theaters from film to digital, but they would not finance conversions of the discount theaters, Stembler said.
“They made the decision that they would not allow discount theaters to participate in that program of financing. This theater doesn’t have the right equipment to show (digital) movies,” he said.
In the late 1990s, Georgia Theatre Co. opened a more modern theater in what’s now known as the Houston County Galleria. Several years ago, Georgia Theatre Co. opened another movie theater in nearby Kathleen, at the corner of Lake Joy Road and Ga. 96. That newest theater has since been expanded with a 70-foot-wide screen comparable to some of the IMAX movies.
“It’s been more than replaced by other newer, more modern theaters,” Stembler said.
Georgia Theatre Co. closed another discount theater in Valdosta earlier this year, and it has just three other discount theaters in operation in a chain of 30 theaters. The film companies aren’t distributing much on film any more, making non-digital theaters like Parkway Cinemas no longer viable.
“It’s kind of hard if you don’t have something on the screen,” Stembler said.
The theater has screened some movies, such as “The Lego Movie,” after they’ve been released on DVD.
Stembler said the building will be leased by Mark Fogarty, pastor of the First United Pentecostal Church. Fogarty could not be reached for comment.
A Facebook group formed to save the Parkway Cinemas had 135 members as of Monday afternoon. A drive to raise $1 million to buy equipment for the theater and keep it open had attracted no contributions by Monday.
Some employees will move to other locations, Stembler said.
To contact writer Mike Stucka, call 744-4251.
Read more here: http://www.macon.com/2014/07/07/3185883/parkway-cinemas-to-close-next.html?sp=/99/148/#storylink=cpy
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Mike Rivest
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 185
From: Montréal QC Canada
Registered: Nov 2009
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posted 07-23-2014 05:32 PM
Indonesia:
Cinemaxx to open 2,000 screens in 85 cities. (that right, TWO THOUSAND)
http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/business/cinemaxx-set-open-300-cineplexes-next-decade/
Jakarta. Cinemaxx Global Pasifik, the movie theater chain operator unit of Lippo Group, has set aside Rp 6 trillion ($517 million) to open up to 300 cineplexes across the country within the next 10 years.
Cinemaxx Global plans to have some 2,000 cinema screens in 85 cities across the country over the decade, the company said in a statement on Thursday.
“Cinemaxx plans to expand its network in places that have the minimum number of movie theaters or even none at all,” Brian Riady, chief executive at Cinemaxx, said in the statement.
Cinema demand in Indonesia exceeds supply with less than 900 cinema screens across the archipelago at present, compared with 2,300 in 1992.
To kick-start the expansion, Cinemaxx is set to start operations of its first cineplex at the Palembang Icon shopping center in Palembang, South Sumatra, in September this year.
“[Palembang Icon] is the first location ready to operate a cineplex and the market there is huge as well,” Infany Suryadji, head of marketing at Cinemaxx, told the Jakarta Globe on Thursday.
The new cineplex, which will use the Cinemaxx brand name, is set to feature 15 cinema screens, becoming the largest in the country.
After Palembang, Infany said, Cinemaxx would also open cineplexes in Manado (North Sulawesi), Medan (North Sumatra), Ponorogo (East Java) and Jakarta through the rest of this year.
“The cineplexes still have to be built in the shopping centers. Each cineplex will have an average of seven cinema screens,” Infany said.
Lippo Group is currently constructing the Manado Xchange (MX) Lippo Plaza shopping mall and entertainment center in Manado.
The group said in February that the MX Plaza was set to open by the end of this month and it would also house a Cinemaxx and Hypermart.
Cinemaxx will compete with two rivals, namely Blitzmegaplex — owned by Graha Layar Prima, the only listed cinema chain operator — and the country’s largest theater chain, 21 Cineplex.
Graha Layar Prima said in April that it would build three new cineplexes, with 10 screens each, in Yogyakarta, Surabaya (East Java) and Bandung (West Java) in the second half of this year. The company has set aside a combined $6 million for the cinemas.
Cinemaxx and the Jakarta Globe are both affiliated with Lippo Group.
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