Theater Chains Preparing to Offer Audiences the Deluxe Treatment

If you’ve ever sat behind a group of rowdy teenagers or a crying baby in a movie theater, you’ve probably said to yourself, “Can’t they put them somewhere else?”

Well, no. But they may soon be able to put you somewhere else. Theater chains such as Los Angeles-based Pacific Theaters are rolling out new lines of super-deluxe theaters catering exclusively to patrons 25 and older who’d rather mix with a more civilized crowd.

Pacific’s first theater of this kind, tentatively named ArcLight, is set to open next year in a new retail center called the Grove, adjacent to Farmers Market at Third Street and Fairfax Avenue. And Virgin Entertainment Group plans to open one of its Virgin Cinemas Premier Screen Theaters at Plaza Pasadena in about two years when developer TrizecHahn makes over the Colorado Boulevard mall.

In this new breed of theaters, pampered moviegoers will be able to sit in wider, ergonomically correct chairs, munch on hors d’oeuvres and even order a glass of wine. The target audience is middle-aged baby boomers, but anybody willing to pay a few extra dollars can get in.

“We believe the movies should be an entertaining and escapist experience,” says Kate Baker, who heads the ArcLight project for Pacific. “We’re just enhancing that.”

Some critics say that these expensive theaters, like stadium box seats, encourage snobbery in a social venue that has been blissfully status-free. Typically, everyone pays the same price for admission and gets access to the same seats.

But that hasn’t always been the case, says Richard D. Jewell, associate dean of USC’s School of Cinema and Television. Before movie theaters began following their patrons to the suburbs in the 1950s, grand urban movie palaces commonly had premium seating sections and areas set aside for mothers with small children. But those concepts died, Jewell said, when those palaces closed their doors.

Theater chains are giving premium treatment another try, analysts say, because they need another hook to bring in more customers in cities saturated with movie screens. And baby boomers now make up a larger share of movie audiences: 61% in 1996, compared with 48% a decade before, according to Motion Picture Assn. of America data. They’re also watching more movies than they used to, 5.5 per year compared with 4.2 in 1986. Meanwhile, the number of movies teenagers see annually has remained high, but virtually unchanged, at 12.

Boomers are generally willing to pay more than their teen counterparts for a night out. Theater executives say some are willing pay up to double the standard admission price to get luxury treatment that will impress a date or help them escape from boisterous younger patrons.

General Cinema and Cineplex Odeon began catering to extravagant tastes last year in Toronto and Chicago by adding food, liquor, special lounges and reclining chairs. At General Cinema’s Premium Cinema in Chicago, for instance, patrons enter through a separate entrance where a concierge greets them, checks their coats and escorts them to their reserved seats. Waiters serve food and drinks until the movie begins.

Oh, and admission costs $15 a ticket. Popcorn is free, but other food and drinks are extra.

Loews Cineplex and Virgin Entertainment have said they plan new luxury theaters in coming years. Virgin Entertainment did not return calls for comment.

Even small cinema chains such as Krikorian Premier Theatres of Redondo Beach are getting into the game. Krikorian plans to add VIP service in the new 12-screen IMAX theater it is building in Monrovia.

“The public is demanding more and more,” says Neil Meyer, Krikorian director of operations. “We have to keep up. Theaters built five years ago are now obsolete.”

Pacific officials declined to say how much they expect to spend on the ArcLight project. Final plans for the theater at the Grove aren’t ready, but officials say the 10- to 12-screen theater will include more pristine projection and sound. Seating will be reserved and offer more legroom. There will be both stadium seating and more traditional sloped-floor seating areas to serve patrons who don’t want to negotiate stairs.

In the lobby, patrons will be able to purchase exotic hors d’oeuvres and gourmet coffee as well as the traditional movie staples: popcorn and candy. Baker says ArcLight will incorporate a lounge area, a design element that has proved popular in many art-house theaters, where people can congregate before and after the movie.

Pacific executives expect ArcLight to be a prototype for other theaters in the chain. “People are willing to pay a premium to be more comfortable,” Baker says. “We think they’ll drive past older theaters just to get to one of these.”