quote: Scott Norwood

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Mine would be something from the 1930s, art-deco style, 500-700 seats with a balcony, showing daily double features of classic films (with printed calendar schedules)

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Sounds like the Harvard Square Cinema a long time ago. I used to LIVE in that place, late 70s to early 80s, when I was dating a gal from Somerville. She used to have the printed calendar tacked up in her kitchen, their classic double feature was Harold and Maude and King Of Hearts. The red line of the T would drop you off right in front. I would see movies all day while she worked, either there or at the Janus, or the Orson Wells. Lord, what memories.
 

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Posted by Buck Wilson (Member # 5885) on 01-05-2014, 12:43 AM:
 
Ahh, yes, Aaron, not sure how I forgot. No ads ANYWHERE. Maybe 2-3 hand picked trailers but that's IT. Would probably show trailers in flat then close the curtain, small lightshow/sound interlude, then opening up to full scope with a cool 'feature presentation' tag, then movie!
 

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Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 01-05-2014, 10:13 AM:
 
The building itself would be a 70's National Amusements shoebox. White with the red "CINEMA I-II-III" lettering, even though it would probably be a five-to-nine-screen operation in a small market.

There would be no online ticketing, no advanced ticket sales, and we would accept cash only. The ticket booth would be staffed by identical twins dressed as Wednesday Addams. They would never smile.

The lobby would have wood paneling with 70's supermarket green and white floor tile and globe ball lighting. There would be vinyl sofas to sit on. There would be traditional phone booths without phones, but people could step into to have private conversations on their cell phones in.

The concession stand would have an all-girl staff wearing uniforms similar to those worn at Hot Dog on a Stick. We would sell corn dogs instead of hot dogs which we would batter and fry on site, though probably not to order due to the need to quickly flow traffic. We would also sell chili and maybe krinkle-cut chili-cheese fries. We would also have an interesting variety of retro candy. Our soda would be the cane sugar variety from Dublin Bottling Works, plus Cheerwine and Green River too if I could get the syrup in real sugar formulas. Freshly made sweet tea and lemonade would also be available.

The auditorium corridor would be a horrible boring white on adobe texture with wrought iron amber carriage lamps and the only fluorescent overheads in the entire building. The bathrooms would have entrances that were modified kybos (a trick I'm stealing from Jungle Jim's of Cincinnati). When you walk in to the kybos, you would enter the most opulent bathrooms in the history of the world. The urinals in the men's room might surround a volcano, complete with fire and faux flowing lava. The women's rest room would be themed like a Barbie dream palace, with harp music playing and maybe a waterfall effect.

The auditoriums would not use fixed numbers. They would change with each feature, they would not be sequential, and not be limited to the number of auditoriums. What was Auditorium 4 one week might be Auditorium 72 the next. The current number would be clearly posted on an LCD screen in front of each auditorium door (as well as the movie playing in said auditorium).

The auditoriums themselves would be laid out like the Warren's stadium rooms (no director's suites, no fancy recliners, no balconies), but have dark blue curtains and the Act III wall sconces. The ceilings would be shaped and decorated to provide for a night sky theme, complete with lit stars. More subtle than theatres that did something like punched in Christmas lights...way better quality than that. Something that would make patrons look up and think "Oh my God". Something more detailed than anyone's ever seen, while still being able to accommodate required lighting, ventilation, and sprinklers. Each auditorium would be uniform in equipment with 4k projection and Dolby ATMOS sound. Yes, I would have THX certification, just so I can play that fucking "Amazing Life" trailer, because I still fucking geek out every time they play it at the Warren.

There would be no 3-D.

There would be a proper projection booth, if nothing else so I have a space to hang out alone in and be creepy.
 

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Posted by Edward Havens (Member # 4715) on 01-05-2014, 02:42 PM:
 
Scott came close to describing mine, expect I don't think I'd go quite 500-700 screens. Maybe ~400. Partly because I'd worry about how it'd look if there were only 40 people in a 700 seat house, partly because I'd worry about the bill to keep the room cool in the summer and warm in the winter. I used to manage a Fox Theatre years ago, one with a balcony converted to tiny theatres. The main floor house sat ~700 and it was a bitch to keep it at a good temperature during the winter.

But otherwise, yeah. Something from the 1930s, art-deco style, with a balcony, thrice-weekly changing schedule of double features of classic films with printed calendar schedules. Uniformed ushers, top-of-the-line 16/35/70mm film and video projection, curtains, proper masking and comfy seats. Definitely a sloped seating area.

I would love to have an Automaticket machine in a free-standing box office under the marquee, but I would also absolutely do online ticketing, and maybe even offer the print-at-home option. Make it easier for the guest to commit to the shows.

A well-stocked snack bar featuring all your old movie theatre candy favorites, and reasonably sized popcorn boxes/tubs and waxy soda cups, all at affordable prices.

While I would never do modern pre-show advertising, I would want to run a series of classic snipes like Let's All Go to the Lobby before and between shows.

And there would be notices everywhere I could get them up concerning my theatre that all electronic devices are not to be brought in to the theatre. No phones, no tablets, no phablets, no pagers. One strike and you're out. No exceptions.
 

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Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 01-05-2014, 04:30 PM:
 
I would build a Faraday cage around my dream theatre, to ensure that there is no cellphone or wifi coverage in the auditorium, and deal with the cellphone nuisance that way. No need for the trouble and expense of ongoing enforcement. I would also advertise prominently in my venue's printed program and on placards in the lobby that if you have a problem with not being able to receive a text or go on Facebook for a couple of hours, kindly bugger off somewhere else (my dream theatre, of course, being a venue that receives regular philanthropic donations such that its management doesn't have to worry about attracting enough customers to pay the bills)!

My ideal venue would have two auditoria. The first would be crescent-shaped and used for exclusively for 1:1.85 and wider movies, similar to Pictureville at Bradford. The second would be taller and squarer, and used for silent, Academy and 1:1.66 (the now sadly closed Heights Theater in Minneapolis would be sort of what I have in mind). It would also have a fully restored Wurlitzer pipe organ (console on a hydraulic lift under the stage, of course), a piano and a small orchestra pit for doing silent movies right. The widescreen theatre would have DP70s for 35/70 and whatever is the latest Kinoton FP-18 successor for 16, plus 4K digital. The "tallscreen" theatre would be similarly equipped, but with Cinemeccanica Vic 5s equipped with three-blade shutters (IMHO these offer the least flicker of any 35mm machine I've seen in action running at the lower end of the silent speed range, i.e. 16-18fps, and cause the least dye shedding on tinted and/or toned prints) and powerful enough lamps to achieve 16ft-l with the three-blade shutters.

Oh, and just to really push the boat out, I'd include a Flashscan HD in the rep screen, connected to the d-cinema projector, so that if experimental filmmakers etc. wanted to show Super 8 on the big screen, this would be possible.
 

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Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 01-05-2014, 04:36 PM:
 
this one would fit the bill nicely
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/24261
the allen theatres were all built for only movies having no stage house most of the larger ones had a organ usually a hill-green lane
the one that was in this theatre was 2 manuals 28 ranks
there was a full orchestra pit as well
It had DP70 (AA2) with gertner ventarc lamphouses originally later hycandescents and in the end super cinex
 

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Posted by Victor Liorentas (Member # 5272) on 01-05-2014, 04:47 PM:
 
The architect was C Howard Crane who also did The Fox in Detroit and London Ontario's Capitol among many others.
He made the prosceniums very wide as if predicting scope films!
 

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Posted by Adam Fraser (Member # 1074) on 01-05-2014, 05:00 PM:
 
C. Howard Crane also designed our theatre, along with many others in Michigan.

http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/1863

As far as my dream cinema, we already have it. I would love to add another screen (not split up the current theatre), do some sound upgrades, and add much larger bathrooms.

Other than that, if money were not an object, playing more important films than what happens to be currently in the top 10.
 

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Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 01-05-2014, 06:31 PM:
 
According to an article he wanted the organ chambers on stage adjacent to the screen so the sound would more appear to come from the image and the stage
 

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Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 01-05-2014, 08:31 PM:
 
How about 4 organ chambers? QUAD.
 

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Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 01-05-2014, 09:19 PM:
 
I would pay extra for a ticket at a movie theatre like this one (they have a very aggressive anti-cell-phone policy).
 

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Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 01-06-2014, 09:09 AM:
 
That video made me laugh almost as much as the Alamo Drafthouse angry caller trailer.
 

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Posted by Scott Jentsch (Member # 1681) on 01-07-2014, 12:38 PM:
 
If I were to create my dream movie theater, the first thing I would do is tour every single location that everyone here is involved in. You're here because you give a damn, and those personal conversations and site visits would provide invaluable information.

From a styling standpoint, I would do something that combines art deco and craftsman/prairie style. It would not be casual but it would also not be faux-stuffy.

I think people respond to the atmosphere, and will act differently when going to a nicely appointed theater with well-dressed, mannered staff than they do when attending a discount house that has ripped carpeting and staff the looks like mental zombies.

I would mix large auditoriums with smaller ones to handle the variety of movies and audiences effectively. But every room would perform the same. Sight lines, viewing angles, and sound quality should be equivalent in every auditorium. THX standards would be the starting point and then hopefully improved from there.

I would want enough auditoriums to show the current new releases, but then also have a room or two that would have lesser-known material and/or classics, etc.

I would pay to clone Robert Osborne and have him introduce every movie. That man represents movies in my mind. (Is it possible to have a theater where Turner Classic Movies is playing 24/7?) If I can't have him in person, then I'd like to have him do his intro on-screen in lieu of advertising, which there wouldn't be any. Maybe one or two relevant trailers after the lights dimmed and the curtain opened.

Did I not mention the curtain? Every screen would be covered by a curtain.

The ceiling would be painted by this place: Night Sky Murals

The front of the building would prepare people for what was inside. I believe the moviegoing experience starts at the curb, so I would want to impress people from the start. The marquee would be tastefully done, but feature electronic signage that would be filled with custom images created by Bobby or some other skilled person that would put in the kind of effort that the carpenters of old did with their custom work on the marquees.

Staff would be attentive and professional. Random auditorium visits would ensure sound quality, picture quality, and audience behavior standards. I would expect finding and retaining quality staff would be the biggest challenge to my theater.

Operations-wise, I think I would go all-digital, with the centralized service that Brad supplies. From what I have read, that seems to be the best way to go for a worry-free and efficient operation from the technical side of things. A NOC that can detect, diagnose, and possibly solve remotely, and then dispatch technicians when necessary seems like a given in a modern operation to me.

Concession-wise, I would offer the traditional options, with edible popcorn that was the best possible. I would charge the usual high price as the other chains, but it would have to be remarkable when compared to the others. I would find out if Garrett's would do licensing, as that stuff is incredible!

I would not offer in-theater dining, as I think it's too difficult to do that well and not create all kinds of issues. I went to a movie recently where the people in front of us had 15x15 pizza boxes that they kept flipping open, which was distracting and it looked very clumsy for them to handle. I've enjoyed getting a burger and fries at a local theater, but it's difficult to eat that in a darkened auditorium, so I'd rather offer a food court of sorts in the lobby that offered dining options instead. Lou Malnati's Pizza, Kopp's Frozen Custard, the aforementioned Garrett's Popcorn, and the like. Those food court options could be accessible to the public as well, which would help drive traffic to them and the theater, and the ticket gate would have to be set up so that handling that traffic wouldn't be a problem.

So, who wants to front me the money?
 

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 01-07-2014, 03:40 PM:
 

quote: Scott Jentsch

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The marquee would be tastefully done, but feature electronic signage that would be filled with custom images created by Bobby or some other skilled person

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quote: Mike Blakesley

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This is an illustration of where I have the occasional quandary. I want to outfit our place with the best stuff I can afford, BUT I want to keep the nostalgic/classic feel. I'd love to have an electronic marquee but I'd probably still keep the static letters - no fancy moving or colored images. It would distract from the rest of the building which is still all-original looking on the outside.

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• Four auditoriums, all identical, so that you don't have to worry about whether your film is on the good screen.

• Curved 80' wide screens with full curtains and side masking.

• Projection equipment for 70MM, 35mm, 4k digital with money in escrow to upgrade to 8k or better.

• Thunderous sound system with all available formats including 64 channel Atmos surround sound.

• Enough soundproofing that you never hear the film next door.

• 800 seat sloped seating with rows wide enough to walk down without disturbing those around you.

• Aisles down the sides - no center aisle.

• Before showtime, relevant film scores play over the sound system and colored spotlights animate gently on the curtains.

• Two or three trailers per feature and an appropriate sound system trailer.

• Filmmaker appearances once or twice a month for Q&A following the feature.

• 1-strike policy for talking, texting, cell phones, etc

• Showing a mixture of classic and current films.

• Basement - an environment-controlled 500 film storage vault with room for expansion and pristine prints of every great blockbuster and classic. (Plus one-sheets)

• Sub Basement features a laboratory capable of striking new 70MM and 35mm prints.