Boxoffice-July.1999

CINEMA EXPO EXTRA: Indie Showcase
''BIO^GRAPHY
Roderick van der Meulen's Passion for the Movie
Industry Inspired Him to Build His Own Theatre
by Lisa Osborne
love it. I can't live without it," says
Dutch exhibitor Roderick van der
I Meulen, describing his affinity for
the movie industry. Having spent 26 years
in his chosen profession as a cameraman,
consultant, merchandiser, inventor and
theatre designer, owner and operator, van
der Meulen shows no sign of slowing
down.
His theatre, Bioscoop Atlantic, a triplex
set in a shopping strip in Harderwijk
(a town with a population of about
40,000 located 86 miles outside
Amsterdam), boasts attendance rates
that are growing by 20
percent per year.
Although admissions in
Holland are historically
low (the second lowest in
the world after Finland),
with the average person
going to the movies only
once a year, attendance
at the Bioscoop Atlantic
is at least three times the
national average, says
van der Meulen.
This intimate theatre
that accommodates just
306 people (the auditoriums
hold 96, 100 and
110 seats, respectively)
has incredible pulling
power—moviegoers regularly
make the threehour
round trip from the
capital to see a film. One
of the theatre's biggest attractions is its
smoker-friendly policy. Van der Meulen
allows smoking at the cinema six nights a
week. (It is banned on Tuesday evenings
and during the afternoon for the children's
matinee.) Being able to smoke at a
cinema in the Netherlands is relatively
unusual; van der Meulen estimates that
there are only 16 auditoriums in Holland
where it is allowed.
Customer comfort is high on van der
Meulen's priority list. He could easily, by
his own admission, have fit another 50
seats into each of the auditoriums, but
not without reducing legroom and
detracting from the cinema experience.
To enhance customer convenience, van
der Meulen also installed a telephone at
each seat so that patrons can order sandwiches
and alcoholic beverages from the
bar and have them delivered during the
presentation (similar to the system used
to call room service at a hotel). Whenever
a telephone is picked up, its location
lights up on the switchboard, allowing
servers to pinpoint their customers. Staff
members are trained to serve beverages
while kneeling in the aisles so that they do
HERI/S \\{li SCOOP: The Bioscoop Athuitic in Hnrdenuijl