The Super-Deluxe Screen #1, which also has the full stage and the 5/100 theatre pipe organ... I envisage this as being completely separate with its own public entrance, although otherwise it would be a part of the same building.
You shouldn't make the larger aditoriums super deluxe and then make the smaller auditoriums "cheaper." That will just piss off the customers that find out that the film they wanted to see was in an inferior house. If you make the smaller aditoriums very nice as well then people will really like the whole plex. The trick isn't designing a great large auditorium, the trick is to make a small auditoium great.
Late 1980s theater (8 plex)
2 screens THX with Dolby
6 screens mono!
Late 1990s theater (12 plex)
4 screens THX with SRD/DTS/SDDS (because films sound best when played simultaneously in all digital formats, right?)
4 screens with DTS (based purely on cost)
4 screens with Ultra Stereo analog (not even with SR emulator cards)
Who dreams up these kind of layouts??? The money has already been spent! This 12 plex could've been built with SRD in every auditorium and more THX certified auditoriums to boot for the same amount of money.
I used to argue with Bobby Pinkston about that all the time. But his hands were tied as well. The Greenwood was a mistake. Somebody goofed and they put Dolby CP65s in every auditorium with subwoofers in every auditorium, but with center/surround in the small houses. The extra speakers were still on the truck! The new theatre manager took over and pulled half the SR cards to send back for a credit! When he left, they were still under his desk. So Joe and I grabbed them and put them all back in. We moved the subwoofers all to the big houses when we got digital. After the digital blew half the surrounds, we got full stereo in the small and JBL 8340s in the big houses. It was just goofy.
Later, Bobby Pinkston went to work for Dolby and one of his first triumphs was to get Edwards to sign a contract that stated that 100% of their auditoriums would feature Dolby Digital. 
When you put your budgets together and you start lining up the cost for booth and stage set which includes screen, screen frames, masking, masking motors, curtains, Valance, speakers, speakers platforms, THX Wall and/or Baffles, speaker isolation pads, Location of HVAC units, Location of pipes in walls,THX Monitors, Certification cost per auditorium, and re-certification each and every year be ready to up your budget from a non THX auditorium.
You can still do most of what THX asks you to do but you do not need a THX Monitor at the price they charge. You can still purchase THX approved speakers, and THX approved amplifiers and I don't think anyone is going to go in the auditoriums without test equipment and tell the difference.
If Joe Schmidt is going to go to the trouble of putting in a separate entrance with a higher class concession area or restaurant with real food, then I think he can not only charge more but I believe the patrons will expect more. This does not mean that you don't build the smaller theatres to perfection, when you are charging the for first run they deserve the very best for the money they are spending.
Sorry fellows but the budgets for THX auditoriums and a non THX auditorium will not be close to each other.
OK, I'm holding my ears,start the screaming.
The point is don't shortchange the smaller auditoriums when building a multiplex. They should still have stereo, digital, movable masking the proper ratios, nice seats, look good and not feel dinky. If people are calling you up asking you what room a film is in, your doing something wrong.
-- 2-projector 70/35 plus a platter
-- 70/35 mag playback capability custom-built by me
-- 3-projector Cinerama with separate mag playback system for this, also custom-built. 3-proj. should be easy to do with platters. This adds 2 more 35mm proj. + 2 platters to the booth. I have this peculiar revival idea of playing "How the west was won" in the summer to try and catch people on the way to Yellowstone Park; tie-in; probably just a matinee daily.
-- Dolby Digital & surrounds
-- Custom audio switching system to set up whatever sound format needed
-- Custom-built, by me, Interlocked mag film recorder for scoring silent movies using the 5/100 theatre pipe organ
-- Full stage for occasional dramatic arts use, special business convention presentations, etc.
So, this Screen #1 is not designed to be a full-time movie house exclusively anyway and I'd want it to stay nice; that's why no popcorns & etc. As an Archival house run by a non-profit corporation it does not necessarily have to make money -- however, there rarely is such a thing as a "no-profit" corporation.
Furthermore, if all the sound is designed by me, I can absolutely guarantee to everyone here there will no such thing as a bad house soundwise in the 10-plex. Then, in Billings MT if all the competition I have is carmike, I won't even have to work very hard to surpass this by 1000%!
It don't smell good, does it?
Center for the Performing Arts
I think maybe I will join Ian for a bite of pie. Make mine Chocolate Cream, Please.
Oh, yes a latte also.
Ian, the Alberta Bair is alive and well; and it presents performing arts all the time almost exclusively. It does NOT do movies well, steep projection angle from the old booth, but these are only occasionally. But it's one of these things run by "committee" of society ladies, an environment from which any sensible person will run like hell. An unfilled need is for something that can handle "intermediate" events for which the Bair is just too big and expensive. As you know about the Bair, you may also know about the Babcock, dead in the middle of what we call Dreadful Downtown Billings. Also bad movie house with steep angle too. Insurmountable problem here is ownership by landlord who wants huge rents and thus nothing can work in the Babcock, hasn't for years. Sits empty. The whole downtown area is well known as a Graveyard For Capital and no knowledgeable business person would do anything down there.
It is entirely probable that Billings, MT is the wrong place completely for such a project, however it just happens that here is where I live. This used to be a good movie town before carmike came along, wrecked everything and drove people away. For the moment, conceptually the 10-plex is quite conventional for screens #3 thru 10.
One thing's a slam-dunk certainty, a multiplex properly run with good projection will take away most of whatever business carmike has left. The challenge will be to make people aware and get them to come back to the movies again.
Now is not the time to build anything. There are VERY worrisome danger signs on the economic horizon. At what I see now, no decision can be made on the financial practicality for another 2-3 years.
Anyway, I like my 10 plex layout. All theatres have the same basic equipment with digital sound, Christie projectors, same amps, same moveable masking, same 2:1 screens (!!). Though if there's any intelligence upstairs, they take the Simplex XL's from the closed locations and give them all to me
We have 2 large(er) auditoriums with 4000 watt bulbs instead of 3k like the others and much bigger screens. Its more equal this way and cuts down on people getting angry when a movie goes from a big theatre to a small one. I have Along Came A Spider in our smallest theatre and there are no complaints because the experience in the same, just closer.
At the gigaplexes, its the same way, except the big halls get bigger. Much bigger. And are promoted as much more of a shi-shi o-la-la experience.
Someone actually said "Yes, its 1985, and while Dolby is nice and all, I think we'll go the mono route. The people won't notice, they'll be too distracted by the pretty lobby." ???
------------------
Jonathan Haglund
Edwards Theatre Circuit, Inc
Park Place 10