Single-screen struggle. Vintage cinemas strive to survive in the multiplex world
Mr. Hole the Magnificent
Multiplexes are spread from coast to coast, but dotted across the
country are a few plucky operators of single screen theaters.
In a cutthroat exhibition climate, these theaters are looking to
become centerpieces for revitalized downtowns, and doing everything
they can to survive.
In L.A.'s Westwood Village, once the hub of the city's moviegoing,
single-screen theaters have been vanishing with two closing in the
last year. Mann Theaters has said it won't renew the leases on The
Village and the Bruin.
But four hundred miles away, the city of Davis near Sacramento has
moved to keep the 88-year-old Varsity Theater open, hoping that making
it a double instead of a single will help keep the town's centerpiece
alive.
The city is spending nearly $1 million to fund the addition of a
second screen with 100 seats next month, and adding digital
projection. Operators of single-screen theaters are trying everything
they can to keep their theaters alive -- asking for support from city
coffers, adding coffeehouses and restaurants, and switching between
live events and film programming, to name a few.
The city support comes as a relief to Varsity leaseholders Jon Fenske
and Sinisa Novakovic, who've operated the streamline moderne 333-seat
facility as an arthouse for the past three and a half years in the
university town.
"We just can't compete with the 11 screens that Regal has in this town
-- not with one screen, anyhow," Fenske admits. "We've got the right
demographic, particularly with the university here, but the problem is
that we have to commit to films four and five weeks out. So we've
wound up losing some arthouse films that people kind of expected us to
have, like 'Little Miss Sunshine.'"
With just one screen, Fenske explains, the Varsity's relationship with
distributors has been particularly tricky.
"We did very well with 'Slumdog Millionaire' earlier this year but we
had to keep it running for three months because the our weekends were
still above $3,000," he recalls. "The problem is that you wind up not
being able to run other films and that makes it difficult to get other
films you want down the line."
With the installation of the second screen in the space behind the
first screen, Fenske believes the Varsity's will be able to book films
like "Precious" and "Broken Embraces" at the same time -- and make
enough to cover the lease payments.
"This is the only way we'll be able to survive as a single screen
venue," he adds. "It's just too tough these days."
Two decades ago, the Varsity was close to turning off the projector
forever when the city council gave its owner permission to open a pair
of multiplexes and redevelop the site as office buildings. But the
city's mayor persuaded the council to save the Varsity from demolition
by turning it into a performing arts space.
Fifteen years later, Fesnke was attending a Jackie Green concert at
the theater and wondered if maybe it could work as a movie theater
again.
Novakovic, who also operates a coffeehouse in the neighborhood, and
Fenske, who works for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, persauded the
city that they could make a moviehouse work.
"This kind of partnership is what forward-looking cities are doing,"
Novakovic asserts. "Having an arthouse in the downtown drives foot
traffic."
There are 1,447 single-screen locations in the U.S. today, down from
1,629 in 2004. Patrick Corcoran, director of research for the National
Assn. of Theater Owners, said no exhibitors are opening new single
screen locations.
The Varsity also plans to occasionally program mainstream films, now
that it has digital projection. It's already booked "Shrek Forever"
for next summer.
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118012609.html?categoryid=13&cs=1
Rich
news:c1d711c2-6dd0-428a...@f6g2000vbp.googlegroups.com:
> By DAVE MCNARY
>
> Multiplexes are spread from coast to coast, but dotted across the
> country are a few plucky operators of single screen theaters.
>
> In a cutthroat exhibition climate, these theaters are looking to
> become centerpieces for revitalized downtowns, and doing everything
> they can to survive.
The truth is, prior to the multiplexes (the revamped ones, not the crap
from the 1980's) all theatres (some of them) could brag about was Art Deco
or some other significant interior or exterior design touches. As far as
comfort went, they STUNK! New, modern multiplexes (aside from some
suffering from sound bleed from room to room) offer a much more comfortable
movie-going experience, and in major cities, the numbers of them mean no
more waiting for (sometimes) HOURS in line to see a movie. No one wants to
go back to that.
sirblob2
ah yes may the multiplex not mention this in their moral countenance
thou coercion about what naturally kills it, file sharing, so much for
the bullshit that we live in a free competitive and capitalist world
weary flake
So the city of Davis is using city funds to support the management
of a movie theatre because it wanted to show "little miss sunshine"
but couldn't? Thanks Variety, for this piece of muckraking.