BoxOffice® Pro - December 2010

MODERN THEATER
THE TRIP STARTS HERE
Buy tickets under the ArcLight’s trademark Departure Board
PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT
With the opening of their fourth ArcLight Cinema, Pacific Theatres shares their secrets for
designing the ultimate upscale theater
by Amy Nicholson / photos by Mike Fischer
What is the role of the theater when
movies can be streamed on cellphones?
Fending off the flank assaults from
home and in-pocket entertainment has
made the industry look inward to find and
celebrate what makes the big screen experience
worth the audience’s energy to drive,
park and pay.
Pacific Theatres, a 170-screen chain in
California, has found an answer with their
three successful Los Angeles-area ArcLight
Cinemas, boutique offshoots of their main
brand. And with the November 5 th opening
of their fourth multiplex, ArcLight Beach
Cities in El Segundo, CA, an astounding
three-month complete renovation of their
Pacific 16-screener, the detail-oriented company
shares their secrets for transforming a
theater into an upscale destination in a tour
that covers doublewide armrests to digital
cinema and the anthropological reason
their cafe serves popcorn chicken instead of
cheeseburgers.
“If I had to put what ArcLight is in one
phrase, ArcLight came to be because we
have a passion about the transformational
power of going to the movies,” says Nora
Dashwood, COO of Pacific Theatres and
Chief Brand Officer for ArcLight Cinemas.
“Whether it’s a blockbuster fantasy, a laugh
riot comedy or a documentary, we feel very
strongly—and our experience in the business
confirms it—that movies allow people
to step outside of their experience and to
connect with other people, both through
the film and also through the social experience
of movie-going.”
The key word is “connection.” The company’s
mantra pinpoints four connections
they want to make for their guests so that, in
return, their guests make the ArcLight their
theater of choice: a connection to the place,
the staff, the film and each other.
“You’ll see a lot of things in this building
that you won’t see in normal theaters,” says
Dashwood, gesturing around Beach Cities’
calm blue-gray, rust and white interior, “and
each one was designed to really allow guests
before, after and during their journey of going
to the movies to feel a connection and a
discovery and an interest in what’s going on
around them.”
The first big changes the team made
were moving the box office indoors to the
center of the lobby and dividing the unused
interior space into a cafe and gift shop.
(“There was a very large lobby, but it was
basically dead space,” says General Manager
Michael Blazer.) When guests enter, they’re
welcomed by the Departure Board, a huge,
minimalist electric sign that hangs over
the box office and clearly lists the movies,
show times, ratings, auditorium numbers
and countdown warnings like, “Starts in 10
minutes.”
“It’s information that allows people to
relax and know when they need to be in the
auditorium—it serves as our central point,”
says Dashwood. “It was designed to herald
back to the old days of train stations where
people could be together in one community
and look up to explore, to discover, to antici-
50 BOXOFFICE DECEMBER 2010