Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Loews Cineplex

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Posted by Antonio Marcheselli (Member # 373) on 09-18-2000, 05:19 PM:

Hello everyone

In Italy Loews and De Laurentiis group are going to build their first "De Laurentiis Cineplex".
I know the quality of De Laurentiis theaters. What about the quality of Loews theaters?

Bye
Antonio

Posted by Sean McKinnon (Member # 612) on 09-18-2000, 10:39 PM:

my best friend works for loews I work across the street in thier old building and before that I worked at another of thier old buildings.they are like any major circuit they suck at the local loews 20 all the prints are scratched, all the aperature plates are cut incorrectly, and the SDDS is... well... its SDDS!!!!!!!!

Posted by Antonio Marcheselli (Member # 373) on 09-19-2000, 09:09 AM:

But this is because their projectionists are bad or because there is an exactly choice of management?
I don't know if I'm clear. For example: the print were scratched because the projectionist was poor or because management set the maximum time to make up a film to 20 minutes?

I wonder this because perhaps in one or two year I'll work for a loews theater and I would like to know what can do in a loews a projectionist that want to make good job.

Sorry if my english is not very clear...

Bye,
Antonio

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 09-19-2000, 09:56 AM:

In Rochester NY, Loews-Cineplex operates a 12-plex in the suburb of Webster. It is about 15 years old, with conventional (not stadium) auditoriums and a mix of older projection equipment (Century, Simplex and even a DP70, with Christie lamps and AW-3 platters). AFAIK, it still has IATSE projectionists on staff, although I don't know if they handle all shows.

IMHO, this theatre does a very good job in maintaining presentation quality, and the local/district management seems to treat presentation quality as a high priority. I have rarely been disappointed with a dirty print, dim picture or sound quality at this theatre, although they were slow to upgrade to digital sound (mostly SDDS of course, since Sony is the "parent" company of Loews).

As is usually the case, the committment of LOCAL and district management and staff to presentation quality is the most important factor in customer and employee satisfaction at a particular theatre, or in a particular city.

In recent years, Loews did close older "strip mall" 2-plex, 4-plex and 3-plex theatres in Rochester, likely due to the competition from several new stadium theatres, leaving the 12-plex as their "flagship" theatre here.

Other circuits in Rochester are Hoyts (12 screens), General Cinema (6 and 7 screens), Regal (13, 16 and 18 screens) and Cinemark (16 + IMAX, 10 sub-run), plus independents.

------------------
John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Eastman Kodak Company
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7419
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com

Posted by Antonio Marcheselli (Member # 373) on 09-19-2000, 05:29 PM:

Very good. Hope that in Italy loews and De laurentiis will have the same quality attention to presentation. Since Mr De Laurentiis has ALL of his theater with THX certification, perhaps the future cineplex will be good...
I don't know if SDDS will be pushed in Italy since there are only few titles in SDDS format: all columbia/tristar, some UIP and some Fox.
I also know that they are trying to make audio/video systems with 60.000$ for each auditorium...

Bye,
Antonio

Posted by Sean M. Grimes (Member # 445) on 09-19-2000, 11:33 PM:

John,

In your honest opinion how do you rate the quality at Greece Ridge. I know for certain that Hoyts put alot of money and time into the development of that theater and just wondering how the quality is to a "knowledgeable" patron. That is if you ever make it out the Greece Ridge way. Thank you in advance for your input.

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 09-20-2000, 05:46 AM:

Sean: Living on the east side of Rochester (Penfield), I don't get out to the Greece Ridge Hoyts 12 very often. But I did a TAP evaluation for "Simon Birch" there two years ago, and was very pleased with the presentation quality at that screening.
Being a retrofit to the mall, and with stadium seating, the multiple projection rooms have to be hard to manage for one operator. When they first opened, they had alot of green exit sign light spilling onto the sides of the screens in some of the auditoriums, which I believe has been corrected. As we make film improvements, we sometimes arrange to run projector "wear-and-tear" tests with Jim R. on the projectors there in the mornings, before the afternoon shows.