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RAVE RISING 79 BY YEAR'S END

Dallas-based exhibitor Rave Motion Pictures launched its 2003 expansion on June 27 with the opening of the West Chester Village 18 in West Chester, Ohio. The circuit, which currently operates 118 screens at eight sites, says it will construct 61 screens at four additional multis by the end of 2003. Upcoming locations include the East Baton Rouge 16 in Baton Rouge, La., the Destin Commons 14 in Destin, Fla., the Rave Motion Pictures 13 at Ridgmar in Fort Worth, Texas, and The Shoppes at Grande Prairie 18 in Peoria, Ill. The West Chester site, situated at the southeast corner of Interstate 75 and Union Center Boulevard, features wall-to-wall screens, 18-inch stadium-style risers with 48-inch row-depths, plush seats with retractable armrests, digital surround sound and a plethora of concession selections.

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All I know is they opened a 10-plex in Vestavia Hills not long back (southern part of Birmingham, AL) on November 1, 2002.

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Anyone remember Starplex? Some near Dallas might. Just about any theater chain can open a fairly decent theater. But another thing is keeping it well maintained. I never saw Hollywood, Wallace or Starplex, etc. do any of that.

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Gee, thanks. Actually, considering that both of our locations in the Dallas area are discount theaters and have had traffic of at least 12,000 customers a week since they opened in 1995 and 1996, I believe that both of those theaters are in VERY good shape, especially considering the type of clientele they serve. Many of our customers in Irving, in fact, prefer us over the AMC first-run across the street. If I'm not mistaken, our theater in Mesquite is the only discount theater in the state to offer all three digital sound formats. I will admit that neither one is the best-looking theater in the world, but I think they are well maintained, especially for discount theaters.

Our other locations throughout the state of Texas are in even better condition than those two theaters. In the past, I have worked for companies which were unwilling to invest money in a theater after it opened, but I'm happy to say that's certainly not the case now.
 

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Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 09-03-2003, 05:36 PM:
 
Sorry to be presumptuous about Starplex. Wasn't it an offshoot of the Hollywood chain and helmed by former Cinemark officers (like Hollywood)? Starplex was supposed to open a 14-plex in Wichita Falls, but the site never materialized (and neither did a Century 16-plex proposed for Wichita Falls either).

I suppose if the Hollywood guys aren't involved in Starplex' operations then that might be one reason why the Starplex locations are being maintained. Regardless of theater chain, the most important element in keeping a theater site in good shape is having managers and staff who give a damn.
 

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Posted by Nicholas Roznovsky (Member # 861) on 09-03-2003, 11:13 PM:
 
Hey, no offense taken. We're not exactly in the same spending league as the large chains, but we do try to maximize our budget with an emphasis on facility quality.

Actually, the gentlemen who run Starplex now used to own Trans-Texas Theaters, which had quite a few screens throughout the southwest but was based primarily in small towns in Texas. They were always run locally with the appearance of an indepent theater (no visible chain name), but were all owned and managed by the same company. Anyhoo, that company was bought out by Hollywood in early 1995. In fact, the exorbinant price they paid for Trans-Texas and their inability to curb spending in general led to their financial troubles.

Our owner decided that getting rid of all those facilities was a blessing (plus the money from selling Trans-Texas didn't hurt either ) and decided to set up shop again as a new entity, Starplex Cinemas. Our owner, J.C. Mitchell is the brother of Leeroy "Cinemark" Mitchell, which is why many presume that we're some wayward cousin of Cinemark. We're completely indepedent from Cinemark and have never been involved with their company in any fashion, other than some friendly fishing trips and some great barbeques at the Mitchell mansion.

We did have plans for 14-plex in Wichita Falls, but had to back out when Cinemark purchased land and made it clear that they would build right across the street from us if we decided to do anything there. To make the story short, we didn't build anything and neither did Cinemark, but they still own that land and will presumably build something there in the future to compete with the two Carmike theaters in town. I wish that we could have gone ahead with that theater (because the Carmikes there are very poorly run and don't feature stadium seating), but we certainly don't have the resources to go head-to-head with the deep pockets of Cinemark. We are currently building a six-screen, all-stadium facility in Sulphur Springs, TX and are looking to expand some of our current facilites and build some more big ones in the future.

Now, since I've rambled on and on about my own company, here's something on the topic of the thread:

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Regardless of theater chain, the most important element in keeping a theater site in good shape is having managers and staff who give a damn.

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I usually get onto Carmike because I've visited a lot of their theaters in Texas which are below sub-standard, but even in that chain I have seen examples of managers who have made the effort to keep their theaters in shape and it really pays off.

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Carmike's Sikes Ten in Wichita Falls is not a very good theater. It sure does get that company some excellent numbers though, so much so that the Century City Six across from the mall has trouble getting bookings (even though their screens on the whole are a bit better). I've been to other Carmikes and been pretty disappointed in them. I guess that's why I feel lucky the Carmike here in Lawton is a well-run theater. The management is the big, positive difference there. I agree Cinemark will probably make a pretty good amount of money if they ever build in Wichita Falls.
 

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Posted by Chris Hipp (Member # 1788) on 09-08-2003, 11:50 PM:
 
I don't know anything about the chain, but I remember seeing a theatre called the rave in pennsacola, florida when I was there last year.

Nicholas,
Does starplex have any kind of booth guideline or training program for the booth operators? I go to the starplex in mesquite if I lose a movie before I got a chance to see it. The prints are always trashed; I know it is a sub run but there is no way that every single print that they get is like that.

Either that or the sound is messed up or shadows on screen, I always wnat to to say "let me go upstairs and I will fix it."

I'm not trying to trash Starplex, I see a lot of potential for Starplex, but I also know that it, at least the one in Mesquite, does a lot of business and they should at least be able to keep up the equipment so the prints wont get trashed. I can't remember the last time I Saw a movie there on a friday or saturday night that wasn't sold out.
 

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Posted by Nicholas Roznovsky (Member # 861) on 09-09-2003, 04:53 PM:
 
Actually since we have to wait for almost all product to be completely cleared out of the first-run DFW market, a lot of the prints that we do get are pretty shabby.

Of course, that's a lame excuse and certainly doesn't account for all of them though. We've had a "revolving door panel of short-term guest projectionists" at that theater in the past which led to a lot of the problems there, but I think they've finally found a couple of guys willing to stick around and actually do some decent work. I look for the projection situation to improve there dramatically in the future.
 

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Posted by Chris Hipp (Member # 1788) on 09-09-2003, 05:11 PM:
 
I spoke with one of the guys there about a year ago, he seemed to care about what he was doing. I don't know if it was one of the guys you are referring to.

I tried to get a job there a while back. I thought it would be fun, but they didn't like me.
 

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Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 09-13-2003, 04:47 AM:
 
Regardless of what anyone thinks of this company (Rave). Go to their website, they have some serious growth going on.

www.ravemotionpictures.com
 

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Posted by Jesse Stanley (Member # 943) on 10-25-2003, 09:45 PM:
 
They have a very nice location outside of Cincinnati Ohio. They are competing well with a Dominant ShowCase market in the area.
 

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Posted by Justin West (Member # 920) on 10-27-2003, 12:26 AM:
 
Rave is entering the Peoria, ILL market with an 18-plex under construction...only 2 miles away from an existing competitor's 14-plex!!!
 

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Posted by Evans A Criswell (Member # 381) on 10-27-2003, 09:54 AM:
 
This is similar to something I've posted in another thread. I'll mention it here because it fits with the above post: It has been announced that Rave wants to put an 18-plex in Huntsville, AL just 4 miles or less from an existing Regal 18-plex in South Huntsville. The current 18-plex does the most business of any theatre in Huntsville and it doesn't have to share product with anyone. Rave may be looking to get half of that pie.
 

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Posted by Mark Huff (Member # 480) on 10-27-2003, 04:42 PM:
 
I talked with a guy from Rave and they don't split product at any of there theatres. Maybe thats why they do so well.
 

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Posted by Jesse Stanley (Member # 943) on 10-27-2003, 07:11 PM:
 
From what I heard they are taking alot of business from a Regal in Fort Wayne Indiana.
 

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Posted by Robert L. Fischer (Member # 2424) on 07-22-2004, 02:03 AM:
 
I finally decided to pay the West Chester Village 18 a visit (40 minutes from my house) and I must say that I was very impressed. The sound system was on par with or better than the few-year-old National Amusements theaters around here and they have the most comfortable seats and the most legroom of any stadium theater I've been to. The wall-to-wall screen looked awesome in scope -- I was viewing I, Robot (for the 2nd time ) in one of their largest houses, which seated around 450 if I remember correctly. Also, of less importance, but interesting to note, the concessions menu board was a flat-screen (LCD maybe?) monitor of some sort. The whole place had a very sleek and futuristic design that was pleasing to the eye, as well as easy to navigate and comfortable to inhabit.
 

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Posted by Evans A Criswell (Member # 381) on 07-23-2004, 10:09 AM:
 
Rave has opened two new theatres in Birmingham, AL recently. Patton Creek 15 on April 30 and Lee Branch 15 on June 30. The Vestavia Hills 10 in Birmingham opened November 1, 2002. So in less than 2 years, that's 3 new theatres there. I wonder if it will cause some of the Regal and Carmike locations to close there. The Patton Creek 15 is near the Regal [originally Cobb] Galleria 10 and the Carmike 10 (originally Consolidated's Riverchase 6). The Lee Branch 15 is near the Regal Brook Highland 10 and the Carmike Summit 16.
 

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Posted by Robert L. Fischer (Member # 2424) on 07-23-2004, 01:35 PM:
 
I would think so because their theaters have an attention-grabbing design and pretty decent equipment. Coupled with competitive pricing and the roomy seating, I'd imagine they'll put a lot of older theaters in the grave. I personally prefer their 18-screen theater in West Chester to the AMC, Regal, and National Amusements theaters around here, many of which are 16+ screens with stadium seating and just a few years old or less.
 

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Posted by Wolff King Morrow (Member # 2226) on 07-23-2004, 08:51 PM:
 
Yours truly works at a Rave 16-screen. Probably the best thing about Rave is the seating and decor.
 

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Posted by Shane Cooper (Member # 2510) on 07-31-2004, 04:14 PM:
 
I am the general manager of a 16-screen Rave Motion Pictures.
 

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