BoxOffice® Pro - December 2010

BOXOFFICE TRIBUTE > MARCUS THEATRES CELEBRATES 75 YEARS (continued from page 40)
RIPON NIGHT LIFE
The Campus Theatre, 1940s. Ben Marcus not only ran the Campus Theatre himself, he had a hand in much of the refurbishing. (Image courtesy of Ripon Historical
Society)
and the Campus Theatre thrived. In 1940,
Ben moved into the big city market when
he bought the Tosa Theatre, in suburban
Milwaukee, setting the groundwork for a
circuit, and later, an empire.
By the close of World War II, the movie
business was booming. But the next decade,
television cast its cathode ray glow over the
industry and cinema audiences shriveled.
Just as television wounded the “Hard Top”
Theatres, the drive-in arrived to give the
baby boom a new option for entertainment
outside the home.
The Marcus Company heeded the call
to invest in drive-ins, erecting their first in
1949. At the peak of the trend, the company
had 14 of them. Ben Marcus began to buy
up choice theater sites from his struggling
competition, adding former Fox and Warner
screens to the company fold. By 1956, the
Marcus Company comprised 36 cinemas
and more than 900 employees.
“Every house has a kitchen,” Ben Marcus
was often quoted as saying, “but there are
still restaurants.” People needed to be out,
they needed to mix with their community.
When other industry investors were feeling
the post-boom bust, the Marcus Company
managed to stay buoyant.
“You never know who’s going to show up
on any given day,” says Ben’s grandson, President,
CEO and Director Greg Marcus. “So it
never made sense to us to put yourself in a
position where you have to have everybody
show up on any given day.” This ingrained
sense of practicality gave Ben Marcus the
capitol and motivation to expand the company
interests beyond film and into the next
big trend: family dining.
In 1958, the Marcus Company opened
its first Marc’s Big Boy family restaurant in
Milwaukee. In 1967, there was a Kentucky
Fried Chicken; in 1969, a Captain’s Steak
Joynt. And in between, Ben Marcus built the
company’s first motel, the Guest House Inn
in Appleton, Wis.
After that and the Marcus’ 1962 purchase
of downtown Milwaukee’s venerable Pfister
Hotel, the company’s interests were now
three-fold. Ben put his son, Steve, in charge
of managing and renovating the Pfister
Hotel.
By 1972, Marcus had gone public and
launched itself as the Marcus Corporation—
just as exhibition underwent another transition
as the rapid growth of suburban communities
led to the rise of the multiplex.
“The advent of the multiplex came at
that time when the industry was really
struggling,” says Steve Marcus. “It had an
overhead structure which just wouldn’t support
a single movie theater, especially given
that movies tend to have some big hits, big
blockbusters and others that don’t do very
well. You had a boom and bust scenario going,
but when you put them altogether into
a multiplex, it meant you always had one or
two very compelling pictures drawing big
crowds to your complex.”
42 BOXOFFICE DECEMBER 2010