Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Chinese 16 Theater in Aurora, Co...Information wanted

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Topic: Chinese 16 Theater in Aurora, Co...Information wanted

Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 04-21-2009 03:44 PM

I've only been to the "real Chinese" once, as a tourist, which means I didn't go to a show - just put my feet in John Wayne's footprints! Given the above comments, I think I'll just hang on to my fantasy that it's a perfect place to see a movie.

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Don Furr
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 509
From: Sun City, Ca USA
Registered: Nov 2002

posted 04-21-2009 04:13 PM

We've been to the Chinese in Hollywood a dozen times and the presentation has been all over the place from PERFECT when I saw "The Fugitive" to something back in October of last year (non digital) that looked like crap. Sad thing is that is was the second time that print had been run at that location. The film was fluttering in the gate for the first hour and there was a sound problem. I kept hearing a low-grade buzz in the stage speakers. The one digital presentation I saw there was pretty impressive. Aside all of that, I think it's a beautiful theatre.

Don

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Bill Gabel
Film God

Posts: 3873
From: Technicolor / Postworks NY, USA
Registered: Jan 2002

posted 04-21-2009 04:20 PM

It's funny that the many times over the years that I went to the Chinese Theatre complex in Hollywood. I never had any trouble with a presentation weather it was 70MM or 35mm (1979-2000, my time frame). The two regular guys at the theatre were top operators (Kenny and Mike). Tony you must have chosen that one lucky night that Ralph (Business Agent-Local 150) sent some clown to run the theatre that night. That was a problem in that local, of sending sub-par operators as reliefs from the extra board. During the mid 1990's the theatre was on some form of a limited service type contract with local 150 with management and booth usher types running the theatre.

ps. You should have seen it over at that Plitt Century Plaza. [thumbsup]

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Scott Norwood
Film God

Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

posted 04-21-2009 05:40 PM

I saw something crappy ("Eye of the Beholder") at the Chinese (the real one) in 2000, before they moved the booth back to the original location. Film presentation was fine, but the sound quality was terrible. It is by far the worst sounding THX house that I have ever heard.

If the sound quality were better, it would be a nice house. As it is (was?), I felt that it was completely over-rated.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 04-21-2009 05:50 PM

quote: Brad Miller
it is so important to put on a flawless show (at least as flawless as your equipment is capable of) every single time no matter what, because many customers simply won't give you a second chance

EXACTLY! Just because you don't get any complaints doesn't mean everything is perfect (with the exception being maybe the sound volume). People DO notice when you put on a sub-par presentation and they just stay away forever.

Tony, I am currently employed at the Tamarac Square now as a part time gig. We're a lot better now than it ever was before. That is a personal guarantee, at least when I'm there. I have done a lot of work there to improve many things, like rewiring everything from mono to stereo surround... just one more auditorium to go). When I'm not it might be risky due to it being a manager operated booth when I am absent. I wish they'd realize that people come to the theater to see movies, not check out the awesome lobby. Customers spend, what, 8 to 10 times longer in the auditorium watching the film print and seeing our presentation than they do in our lobby? I'd say the booth is the MOST important aspect of the theater bar none. It is what draws people to the building so they can buy concessions.

I have no idea when the Tiffany Plaza was built. It was recently sold to Elvis and is still a discount house.

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Monte L Fullmer
Film God

Posts: 8367
From: Nampa, Idaho, USA
Registered: Nov 2004

posted 04-21-2009 07:34 PM

..and the Tamarac was a MANN, like the Chinese 16..and MANN still has the Chinese in Hollyrock..

Not much left of that company when I knew it when it was a good 1000 screen strong in numerous states. They used to shoot on the other side of " 'ol Miss" river in the late 70's when Ted MANN was still alive along with his bride of Rhonda Fleming.

I remember when the Tamarac 6 was built in the mid 70's - It was quite the occasion for MANN to expand in the Denver market which became one of the largest districts in the company outside of California - that, and the SLC district.

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Adam Martin
I'm not even gonna point out the irony.

Posts: 3686
From: Dallas, TX
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 04-21-2009 09:22 PM

I'll save you the drive to Aurora. Cinematour link

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Tony Bandiera Jr
Film God

Posts: 3067
From: Moreland Idaho
Registered: Apr 2004

posted 04-21-2009 10:53 PM

quote: Bill Gabel
Tony you must have chosen that one lucky night that Ralph (Business Agent-Local 150) sent some clown to run the theatre that night. That was a problem in that local, of sending sub-par operators as reliefs from the extra board.

That would explain the crappy startups, BUT would NOT excuse whoever made the decision for the intermission point or the absence of the left channel throughout the movie.

And the quality of the extra board was legendary..as in bad. I was in Tucson and the operator there was a nice guy (The Plitt Twin) who simply snorted and laughed "Huh, Local 150" when I told him I was from Los Angeles.

quote: Bill Gabel
ps. You should have seen it over at that Plitt Century Plaza.

Or the Edwards Big Newport. Saw "Top Gun" there and it was the best looking and sounding presentation in 70mm that I had seen. A visit to the booth afterwards revealed some surprises: The processor was a CP-100, they had a hodge-podge of amps, and the projector was a Simplex 35/70 XL. Speakers (including the surrounds which were Altec A5's (or A4's, been too long and I always confuse the two)) were all Altec except for subs which were Kintek.

quote: Don Furr
We've been to the Chinese in Hollywood a dozen times and the presentation has been all over the place from PERFECT when I saw "The Fugitive" to something back in October of last year (non digital) that looked like crap. Sad thing is that is was the second time that print had been run at that location. The film was fluttering in the gate for the first hour and there was a sound problem. I kept hearing a low-grade buzz in the stage speakers.<snip>

(Bold added by me.)

And that shows how fucked up the management of that place is. A theatre that is so famous should ALWAYS have the best possible presentation. And there is absolutely NO excuse for any kind of sound issues to persist for more than one day's worth of shows, there are too many techs in L.A. so no reason they couldn't get one on emergency call to fix whatever's wrong.

And there is NO excuse for having a flutter last for that long!! Again, still sloppy operators who have no business being in a booth. [Mad]

quote: Brad Miller
And the above is why it is so important to put on a flawless show (at least as flawless as your equipment is capable of) every single time no matter what, because many customers simply won't give you a second chance and that means lost potential revenue from that person forever.

My vote for F-T quote of the Year. [thumbsup]

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Chris Slycord
Film God

Posts: 2986
From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea
Registered: Mar 2007

posted 04-22-2009 12:29 AM

quote: Tony Bandiera Jr
And the quality of the extra board was legendary..as in bad. I was in Tucson and the operator there was a nice guy (The Plitt Twin) who simply snorted and laughed "Huh, Local 150" when I told him I was from Los Angeles.

And stuff like that is partly to blame for the chains fighting against having to use Union people. I know someone who had to regularly wake the guy to switch reels and another mentioned that their union guys regularly showed up drunk and mostly worked on taking poster tubes to make themselves chairs because they thought it was fun.

Unions have their place, but the unions that didn't care didn't help the rest of you guys, obviously.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 04-22-2009 11:33 AM

I really don't understand why the movie theater industry generally speaking makes such a poor effort in maintaining good show presentation quality. It seems like QC begins and ends with bathroom maintenance and accurate accounting of the concessions inventory.

The folks calling the shots at big theater chains don't seem to care about what is happening in the auditoriums, be it mediocre to poor presentation quality or the now too common distractions coming from certain assholes in the audience. The act of properly dealing with those problems seems to be very optional these days.

To contrast, quite a few restaurant chains are anal-retentive as hell about all the details in delivering a "positive dining experience." One of my best friends manages the Red Lobster location here in Lawton. His restaurant can be turning in great numbers and the executives at Darden will still be chewing on him about something. Basically nothing is ever judged to be perfect. There's always some area that can be improved. And this isn't a high priced four star New York City restaurant either. It's just Red Lobster.

quote: Joe Redifer
Just because you don't get any complaints doesn't mean everything is perfect (with the exception being maybe the sound volume). People DO notice when you put on a sub-par presentation and they just stay away forever.

I wish I could agree with that, but I don't think it's true -especially when it comes to smaller markets with fewer movie theaters. People will get angered by a poor presentation of a movie and swear they're not going back to that theater, but end up doing so anyway.

I see that all the time here in Lawton.

The problem was common back in the days when the UA Cache 8 theater was still operating and showing certain first run movies exclusively. People hated that theater, but only had the choice of driving an hour or two to another city in order to see the same movie at a different, better theater. So they just put up with botched shows as a cost of seeing the movie now rather than waiting several months for it to show up on VHS or DVD.

Our market's choices improved when the Cache 8 converted to a bargain/2nd run operation. Dickinson opened the Central Mall 12 and it was located a far enough distance from the Carmike 8 so both places could show many of the same 1st run movies. We had a clear choice on choosing one theater over another in terms of presentation quality.

The Central Mall 12 has never been a good place to see movies, even when the place was brand new -all thanks to the bargain basement level of equipment they installed in the booth and the "let's sleep walk through our job" caliber of employees they tasked with running it. The Carmike 8 has been a much better alternative. Better equipped, better managed and operated. Nevertheless, the mall theater's numbers are routinely better than the Carmike 8, even with the Carmike 8 being an all D-cinema, all stadium seated site. And that's all by virtue of the Central Mall 12 theater being inside Central Mall.

I hear people bitch about out of focus projection, the glory of mono sound (with an idle, unused DTS machine in the booth) and hoards of noisy, cell-phone abusing teens as cornerstone features of Central Mall 12 film presentations. Yet those same people will mention they saw a certain movie and I'll ask, "did you watch it out at Carmike?" Nope. They saw it in the mall theater anyway because they had to pick up something at Dillards.

The people who run large movie theater chains are well aware of this reality and they avoid maintaining their theaters properly because they know the customers will keep coming back regardless of how presentation quality degrades.

To add to that, a lot of people have never experienced film done right and aren't aware of the difference.

I think the rising popularity of HDTV and Blu-ray poses at least some threat to shitty theaters. Increased ticket and concessions prices may drive away other cost conscious customers. Of course the specter of day and date release of movies in theaters and on home video at the same time would be extremely destructive to movie theaters. Poor show quality alone isn't enough to ruin the business of poorly operated theaters, even though it should be out of some form of justice. A lot of audience members are too absorbed by their damned cell phones to even notice the difference.

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Scott D. Neff
Theatre Dork

Posts: 919
From: San Francisco, CA
Registered: Oct 1999

posted 04-22-2009 11:38 AM

RE: The Mann Chinese in Hollywood... do locals even go there?!?! I mean if you're going to put on a bad presentation, wouldn't you wanna do it at a place where your chance of having a repeat customer is slim to none?

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 04-22-2009 01:12 PM

I've heard that the Mann Chinese in Hollywood has the worst sounding THX room that exists, period. Oh, and I heard this when I was working for Mann Theaters. I've only been in front of the place, never inside so I can't offer first hand experience.

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 04-22-2009 01:32 PM

So if it's a "bad-sounding" THX room how did (do) they get certified? I thought all THX certified rooms sounded like heaven, or something.

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Tony Bandiera Jr
Film God

Posts: 3067
From: Moreland Idaho
Registered: Apr 2004

posted 04-22-2009 01:32 PM

To use Joe's favorite phrase, the THX at the Mann's Chinese "sucks ass." A perfect match for their presentation quality.

RE Scott: I doubt many locals go there for any reason. Traffic and parking in the area suck. The only attraction is the damn footprints.

RE Mike: Money talks. Since that dump is so "high profile" I'm sure a big enough payment to Lucas was enough to get the tag. And since THX was supposed to be more than just the room acoustics (equipment choices, PRESENTATION QUALITY, etc.) it is obvious that someone gave someone some [sex]

to get that dump certified.

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Daniel Wright
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 163
From: Okmulgee, Ok , USA
Registered: Oct 2003

posted 04-22-2009 02:08 PM

I remember someone on this board years ago I believe it was Brad making a comment about the THX setup at the Promenade Mall in Tulsa being a joke.

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