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The films may not be getting any better, but the theaters sure are. When Misty Croughen and Dara Robertson of Ventura County, Calif., went to see "Nutty Professor II: The Klumps," they enjoyed stadium seating, gourmet snacks, handy cupholders, a choice of starting times at convenient 30-minute intervals and crystal-clear digital sound. "You pay more," says computer programmer Croughen, who handed over $7.75 per ticket at the Edwards Camarillo Palace 12 Cinemas. "But it's worth it."
The moviegoers' nirvana, however, has turned into a financial hell for the nation's big theater chains. Five years ago such exhibitors as AMC and Regal launched a building blitz as they set out to transform the pedestrian act of moviegoing into a plush theme-park-like experience. Sony's popular Metreon in San Francisco touts 15 theaters, one giant Imax screen, nine restaurants and even a Maurice Sendak "Where the Wild Things Are" store. The goal was to lure people to the movies more often and have them spend more per trip on fancier concessions. The proliferation of new theaters was also supposed to usher in a golden new era of moviegoing, with screens available for new hits, the classics and indie films. In 1995 there were 27,805 screens in the United States. By last year the number had jumped 34 percent to 37,185.
The construction boom, however, hasn't had a happy Hollywood ending. While the number of theaters exploded, ticket sales have increased at a far slower rate. Now the new theaters are fighting over the same customers and killing off the older shoebox-size theaters. In Houston the AMC Studio 30 sits less than four miles from the 24-screen Cinemark Tinseltown, and last week both were showing 21 of the same movies. "We put megaplexes too close to competing megaplexes and even our own theaters," admits Edwards Theatres' Steve Coffey.
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Now theater owners are filling the seats of bankruptcy courts. In the last month alone Edwards Theatres, Carmike Cinemas and United Artists Theatres all sought bankruptcy protection, joining Silver Cinemas, which filed earlier this year. Loews Cineplex said it needs to restructure its bank loans. Movie distributors worry that national screen leader Regal Cinemas, already planning to close theaters, is running out of cash. And it's going to get even nastier. Says PaineWebber analyst Christopher Dixon, "There is a very simple solution: close one third of the screens."
The problems are starting to worry the big studios. They are beginning to have trouble collecting their 50 percent share of ticket sales from theater owners. Warner Bros. didn't book its new Wesley Snipes drama, "The Art of War," with Carmike, because of court proceedings. Some studios say they are rooting for the few remaining solvent chains to go into bankruptcy because the court-supervised process means bills get paid faster. Desperate for cash to pay rent and bank loans, theater owners now track a movie's performance the way nervous day traders follow investment portfolios. By the first afternoon of a film's opening day, box-office prognosticators can accurately say how well the title will perform over the entire weekend. "If one movie comes in lukewarm, they kick it out," says Larry Gleason, MGM's president for worldwide theatrical distribution. Adds Disney's distribution president Chuck Viane, "Films aren't allowed to be found by audiences anymore."
For pampered moviegoers, the closings are bad news. By the time upcoming big-budget films, such as "Pearl Harbor" and the "Planet of the Apes" remake, debut next summer, empty seats could be as hard to come by as affordable popcorn.
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