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Topic: What's the latest theatre to close or open you have heard about? (part 2)
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Jonathan Goeldner
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1360
From: Washington, District of Columbia
Registered: Jun 2008
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posted 01-04-2012 10:43 PM
Alexandria's Old Town Theater closes this weekend:
"The marquee is coming down and the curtains at Old Town Theater are drawing to a permanent close after this weekend, ending Roger Fons’s nine-year stint as the film house’s owner.
Fons said a year of poor ticket sales played a pivotal role in his decision to sell the King Street property to Robert J. Kaufman, president of PMA Properties, in October. Sales had dropped by about 50 percent from 2010, he said.
Though Fons can’t say for sure what precipitated the theater’s final financial downfall, he believes the turbulent economy and a lackluster string of Hollywood films combined to seal the theater’s fate.
“I thought the movies were all pretty bad,” he said. “There wasn’t very many good movies last year. You’ve got to have a product that’s worth something.”
But, “it’s probably a number of things,” Fons added, indicating the addition of the King Street Trolley and last year’s temporary parking fee hike likely played a roll in deterring sales.
The trolley, a popular and free way for tourists and commuters to travel up and down Alexandria’s main drag, tends to ferry passengers from the King Street Metro station to the waterfront and skip everything in between, he said, including the 800 block cinema.
And after nine years of running the theater, Fons is “burnt out.” He never intended to open a movie theater, but unable to rent the space, he resumed the nearly century old building’s original purpose.
In retrospect, he admits it was a mistake. Financial difficulties, constant maintenance and rampant employee theft plagued his tenure as owner.
“I’m disillusioned quite a bit,” he said. “It’s like being Atlas and somebody removed the world. I’m whipped.”
Kaufman likely will rent out the theater as retail space, Fons said. Kaufman did not return calls, but the 8,500 square foot film house is listed for a five-year lease on PMA’s website. The property holding company is asking for a rent of $42.50 per square foot.
Barbara Ross, the city’s deputy director of planning and zoning, confirmed staff was working with Kaufman to determine the property’s future. There are no definite plans yet, though the parcel is zoned for retail use.
“The loss of the theater on a main street is a common occurrence in towns across the country, but it is still a very sad thing,” Ross said.
Kaufman submitted an application to restore the building’s original façade — essentially removing the box office and the overhang — before the board of architectural review. Al Cox, the city’s chief preservationist, doesn’t see any reason the board won’t approve the changes at its mid-January meeting.
In the interim, Fons plans to auction off as much of his goods as possible the weekend of January 14. Theater seats, television sets, even film projection equipment will be available to the highest bidder.
Nine years after buying the theater, Fons is washing his hands of the endeavor.
“It’s just a business, that’s all,” he said. “Everybody said, ‘But you get to watch the movies for free.’ But hell, you don’t have the time for it.”
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Jonathan M. Crist
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 531
From: Hershey, PA, USA
Registered: Apr 2000
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posted 01-13-2012 10:34 PM
Looks like the 4 year old Great Escapes 14 Plex at the Harrisburg Mall in Harrisburg PA will probably be closing at the end of this month. I guess thats what happens when you way overscreen a market:
Great Escapes Harrisburg 14 Closing?
Will the screens be going dark soon at Great Escape 14 in the Harrisburg Mall?
That could hinge on the outcome of a financial battle being waged between the mall’s owner and the theater operator in Dauphin County Court.
Maine-based mall owner COBA Inc. is contending that Ragains Enterprises LLC, the theater’s operator, is more than $1 million behind in its rent.
COBA is not only demanding payment of that money, but in a breach of lease complaint is asking the court to bar Ragains from carrying out an alleged threat to close the 4-year-old theater and yank out its projectors.
Although the theater, one of the midstate’s largest, was still operating as of Friday, COBA in its lawsuit has voiced fear that a closure of the 14-screen theater would cripple customer traffic at the mall in Swatara Township.
According to COBA, Ragains officials have threatened to close the theater this month if COBA refuses to modify the lease terms and forgive the rent arrearages.
COBA is so concerned about that prospect that it asked Judge Lawrence F. Clark Jr. for an injunction to bar Ragains from removing equipment, particularly its digital projection gear.
Clark didn’t grant an injunction, but he has issued an order giving both sides until Jan. 21 to start talking “for the purpose of attempting to reach an amicable resolution of this dispute.”
COBA and Ragains must give him a status report by Jan. 25.
Meanwhile, Clark has barred Ragains from closing the theater or removing equipment without first giving him and COBA written notice at least seven days in advance of such an act.
Ragains is an affiliate of Alliance Entertainment, which is based in the state of Indiana and is the 23rd-largest movie theater chain in the U.S., with about 300 theaters in several states.
Attempts to reach Chance Ragains, chief operating officer of Alliance, and Scranton attorney Eugene F. Hickey II, who is listed in court papers as representing the theater operator, for comment on the lease dispute were not successful.
The Great Escapes franchise has operated at the 43-year-old mall since November 2007. COBA claims the lease requires Ragains to show first-run movies continuously at the mall for at least 10 years.
Its original lease for the 52,600-square-foot theater was with prior mall owner Feldman Lubert Adler Harrisburg LP, which lost the property in sheriff’s sale to creditor TD Bank of Toronto, Canada, in December 2008 after defaulting on a $52.5 million mortgage. The bank sold the mall to COBA in mid-2009.
According to court filings, the original theater lease with Feldman called for Ragains to pay a minimum of $789,345 a year, or nearly $66,000 a month, plus a percentage of gross annual sales at the theater once those sales exceeded $6 million.
COBA said TD Bank modified the lease in June 2009 to give Ragains a temporary reduction. That modification pared the annual minimum rent to $250,000, or just shy of $21,000 monthly.
That reprieve expired in April 2010, COBA claims, but Ragains didn’t resume making its full rent payments. The arrearage, including late fees, now is at least $1.013 million, the mall owner contends.
COBA claims it doesn’t know how much more rent the theater operator might actually owe under the lease provision that requires additional payment based on the theater’s gross receipts.
Ragains won’t provide it with those revenue figures, COBA contends.
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Monte L Fullmer
Film God
Posts: 8367
From: Nampa, Idaho, USA
Registered: Nov 2004
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posted 04-17-2012 03:52 AM
Megaplex Theatres, based out of SLC, UTAH acquired most of the screens of the Westates circuit.
Westates has been around for a good 40 years plus. The late Tony Sr. owned the company and also ran Westates Film Buyers as a booker for the cinemas in the intermountain region.
Link
quote:
Megaplex Theatres acquires 11 theaters in Utah, Nevada
Published: Monday, April 16 2012 7:18 p.m. MDT
SALT LAKE CITY — Larry H. Miller Megaplex Theatres announced Monday that it would acquire 11 Westates Theatres locations across Utah and one in Nevada.
The acquisition includes theaters in Logan, Cedar City, St. George and Mesquite, Nev., for a total of 71 new screens and 11,968 new seats, Megaplex Theatres said in a news release. Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed.
"Westates thanks all of its loyal patrons, and is excited about the future expansions and upgrades that Megaplex is planning to bring to moviegoers," said Tony Rudman, president of Westates Theatres, in the news release.
The acquisition represents nearly 70 percent of Westate's theaters. It will operate five remaining theaters, including its only remaining Utah location at 1945 E. Murray-Holladay Rd. in Holladay. The other theaters are located in Idaho, Nevada and Arizona.
Megaplex said the acquisition was "part of a larger expansion program" that includes more than doubling the number of screens, from 70 to 150, in three years. Megaplex also plans to open a new location at Valley Fair Mall in West Valley City, and open two new auditoriums at Jordan Commons in Sandy.
— Hunter Schwarz
The Holliday is a 6plex where the other locations are mainly single screens in small remote towns in their respective states.
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Michael Riley
Film Handler
Posts: 52
From: New Jersey
Registered: Apr 2010
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posted 04-19-2012 09:54 PM
Some geniuses have purchased the money pit that is the Mallview Cinemas 10 building in Waterbury CT and is renovating and reopening it. Of course, no one has been able to successfully run a theater there since Hoyts abandoned it 15 years ago, and Regal is now the dominant company in that market, but hey, who am I to destroy a persons dreams of fiscal insolvency?
The building is old, and in a bad location, and not worth converting to digital, especially since the people buying it are planning to play first run product eventually, which they would split with Regal, and that worked out REAL well for the last company that tried that (not). What happens is that Regal has the pull to get the movies people actually want to see, and every week the competitor gets the third string new release. If you want to make money, operate it at as a second run. Trying to compete with Regal in the same city is how you will hemorrhage money.
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Is the Clarion, PA Clarion Mall Destinta Theatre closing this summer?
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