BoxOffice® Pro - November 2010

MARQUEE AWARD
B&B Theatres Wildwood
10 with Marquee Suites
Wildwood, MO
BREAKING
GROUND
B&B’s changing face
by Cole Hornaday
B&B Theatres District Manager John
Cumins and Manager Paul Farnsworth
are like two giddy teenagers
with the keys to a sports car. They’ve just
returned from their daily walk-through of
the new Wildwood 10 with Marquee Suites
in Wildwood, Missouri and the thrill in
their voices is infectious.
Built from the ground up, the fresh B&B
facility stands on the site of a former downtown
Wildwood savings and loan. With its
grand opening on October 1, Wildwood 10
became the family-run chain’s fifth all-digital
theater and brought their digital screen
count up to 62.
Designed by J. Price Architecture of Kansas
City, the unique custom facade shows
off a new face for the company’s evolving
vision. “Wildwood represents what we hope
will become our standard front design,” says
B&B Director of Planning and Strategic Development
Dennis McIntire. “There is going
to be an Art Deco spire and some vertical
signage. We fell in love with the Wildwood
design and a portion of that design has become
something of a signature on all of our
buildings moving forward.”
Before the tower became a centerpiece of
the redesign, it was tested in the field. “We
have a theater in Oklahoma City on which
we did a remodeling and a retrofitting and
added the tower to the front,” says McIntire.
“It was kind of neat that we could see the
tower done before Wildwood broke ground
so we could make some adjustments as we
went along.”
The Wildwood interior also features a
mural of stylized classic Hollywood. Conceived
and painted by B&B Assistant Marketing
and Graphic Designer Jesse Baker,
the mural was still on the drawing board at
the time of this interview. No worries, McIntire
is confident in Baker’s skills and excited
to see the completed work. “A lot of times
we give him a general idea of what we want
and let him run with it,” says McIntire, “and
he always does phenomenal work.”
Another design twist new to B&B is the
introduction of booth-less auditoriums. “As
photo: Jillian Farnsworth
you know, the traditional booth is a hallway
above your main hallway,” says McIntire.
“What we have at Wildwood is projector
platforms. There is a control room downstairs
that feeds everything. Think of it like
a meeting space where a digital projector is
hung from the ceiling. We looked at a couple
of different ceiling hanging models and
we felt that we wanted to get the machine
out of the auditorium, so we created these
platforms.”
And to make sure they don’t miss out on
any big ticket dollars, Wildwood will come
complete with 3D capabilities.
With this new facility, B&B enters
the cinema-lounge market by debuting
Marquee Suites, two over-21 auditoriums
designed with separate lobby entrances. To
justify the Marquee Suites’ upcharge, Cumins
and Farnsworth have added extended
menu choices, plush leather reclining
seats and a full bar, not to mention Christie
digital projection, and Dolby 7.1 surround
sound.
Though all involved are pleased with
the progress of the new facility, Farnsworth
says he suffered low-grade stage fright until
those first customers pass through the Wildwood
lobby doors. “With any new opening,
especially on the operations side, there’s
always going to be some jitters, obviously,”
says Farnsworth. “The Marquee Suites is
obviously new for us. But we’ve done the
schooling and we know what’s going on and
we’ve done all the groundwork for it. We’re
confident. It’s just the jitters, that’s all.”
After an exhausting career fair where
250 people were interviewed for 35 positions,
Cumins and Farnsworth say they’ve
gotten a good sense of their new community.
“There is certainly a sense of expectation
and anticipation that is personally
exciting for me as a B&B employee,” says
Farnsworth. “There is a sense of pride here
as far as the town is concerned. Everything
is very well kept, very well groomed. It’s a
community that likes to be involved in how
things look, how things appear, and that’s
an important thing to implement into our
work—making sure we carry on the traditions
they’ve established in the community
and incorporate them into the B&B culture.”
“But overall I’m excited,” says Farnsworth
“It’s been a long time coming. We’ve
watched this from the ground up and it’s
nice to finally no longer be looking at pictures
or drawings or renderings—we’re actually
seeing these things come together.”
24 BOXOFFICE NOVEMBER 2010