Boxoffice-September.1989

I
and ),W. Williams of Knoxvilie, Tennessee.
Each won a consolation prize
Miami
AMC's Kendall Town and Country 10-plex
in Southwest Miami is one of the city's highest-grossing
venues, drawing one million patrons
during the last fiscal year, and Wometco
wants a piece of that action. On luly 7
Wometco opened its Kendall 9, a 2 100-seat
spread hardly a stone's throw from the AMC
"Lethal Weapon H" premiered in the Kendall
9's two largest chambers (350 and 450 seats)
In keeping with an agreement between the
two companies, no film will play in both complexes
at the same time.
Sarasota
The Sarasota French Film Festival, an event
to be held annually beginning November 14-
19, 1989, will be the first US. festival devoted
solely to French films. French officials have
long been seeking a permanent location lor a
festival to increase the visibility of French film
in America The French government has
offered considerable support in contributions
and in-kind services, while the Florida State
Legislature has appropriated $250,000 to assist
in funding the festival.
Ocala, FL
Wometco Theatres will replace its triplex in
Ocala with a six-screen complex. The new
16,550-square-foot theatre will be incorporated
into Phase II of the Ocala Shopping
Center, and should open in time for the 1990
summer movie season. The current Ocala Triple,
located in the older section of the shopping
center, will remain in operation until
then. The six-plex will feature Dolby sound in
every auditorium, Tivoli strip lighting, cupholder
seats, and a computerized boxoffice
with advance ticket sales. Wometco first
opened its Ocala Theatre in 1971.
WESTERN NEWS
Los Angeles
Cineplex Odeon has completed the second
round of renovations to the Beverly Center
Cinemas. The refurbishment took in the
lobby and 10 of 13 theatres The 1,866-seat
complex originally opened in luly of 1982 as
the first Cineplex Odeon theatre built in the
United States. A 1987 workover added 500-
and 350-seat auditoriums
Cineplex redecorated the complex in pastel
shades of mauve, green, grey and peach,
with matching pure wool carpeting and lobby
lighting. Dolby Stereo Sound Systems are
now in all auditoriums. With the installation of
100 new |BL speakers and new amps, an
additional 4,000 watts of sound power are
now available ...
As part of a plan for preservation of seven
of the 10 Metropolitan Theatre outlets in
downtown LA., the other three have been
marked for the wrecking ball The Arcade,
Cameo and Roxy will die, that the United Artists,
Los Angeles, Loews State, Palace, Million
Dollar, Olympic and Orpheum might live. The
Los Angeles Historic Theatre Foundation may
resist the tradeoff. They have applied to the
National Endowment for the Arts for a
$100,000 grant to fund a feasibility study
exploring the preservation of all
15 theatres in
the Broadway district. The area has already
been named to the National Register of Historic
Places.
Metropolitan has entered into an agreement
with a buyer to convert the contiguous
Roxy and Arcade theatres into an office building
with underground parking. Discussions
are also under way for sale of the Cameo,
which would be razed to make room for
another office building with an adjacent parking
lot. Metropolitan president Bruce Corwin,
whose family has been active in downtown
exhibition for 65 years, is meeting with some
of LA'S stage companies to encourage the
use of certain Broadway houses for legitimate
theatre...
Ground was broken March 31 for the Hollywood
Promenade Project, a four-story
complex on Hollywood Boulevard slated for
completion late in 1991, and destined to
house the long-in-the-works American Cinematheque.
Ex-FILMEX showman Gary Essert
envisions screening 2,800 films or so a year.
The Cinematheque will host film series the
way museums host exhibitions, with half the
programs to be created in-house, and half
touring from around the world.
A temporary Cinematheque saddled with
the nickname "Temp'theque", which unfortunately
makes it sound like a secretahal
school, launched its regular public programming
June 9 at the new Directors Guild building
with Amnesty International's "Close-Up
on Human Rights," featuring 27 fictional and
documentary films and videos surveying
ongoing human-rights abuses worldwide.
This program, the first of many to be shown
on the second weekend of every month
while the permanent site is under construction,
drew healthy crowds for both the films
and the heated discussions afterward. Future
attractions include tributes to Kirk Douglas
and Milos Forman; investigations of comedy
craft, motion picture design, politics in media,
and sex at the movies; and a retrospective of
the works of Gabriel Axel, director of "Babette's
Feast,"
Bonsall, CA
CinemaCal Enterprises, with a chain of
theatres throughout central and northern California,
has signed a $4 million, 20-year lease
for an 18,000-sq.-ft. six-plex at River Village
Site preparation is under way, with construction
scheduled to begin in August, and the
first phase slated for completion next summer.
River Village is a 25-acre shopping and
entertainment center developed by Centrumlnvest,
one of Northern Europe's leading
developers and managers of shopping centers,
hotels and restaurants The Bonsa complex
is the firm's first venture in the Uriited
States. The company was established iii 1969
and belongs |ointly to the Swedish National
Personnel Fund, company management, and
Folksam, Sweden's third largest insurance
company.
Orinda, CA
One of the last Art Deco movie palaces
built in California, the Orinda Theatre opened
its doors for the first time in a decade over
the Fourth of )uly weekend. Kaplan/
McLaughlin/Diaz (KMD), a leading architectural
firm specializing in
restoration and preservation,
engineered the refit Depicting
Earth, Wind, Fire and Water in vibrant colors,
the original murals of Anthony Heinsbergen
have been restored under the supervision of
independent mural conservator Ann Rosenthal
The stylized neon pylon of the 650-seat
movie house, built in 1941, still dominates the
main street of Orinda
Exterior renovation work involved repairing
the fabric of the pylon tower and repainting
it in its original red, yellow and green;
restoring the neon lights and marquee; installing
replicas of the original front doors; and
reconstructing the outdoor terrazzo paving,
incorporating a new panel patterned after the
original 1941 design motif While the existing
Art Moderne women's powder room has
been preserved, a toilet for the handicapped
has been added next to the foyer. KMD also
brought the building up to current code standards
for seismic and fire
requirements.
Like many old theatres, the Orinda fell
into
disrepair in the 1970s. In 1981 it became the
center of a controversy between developers
and preservationists which lasted seven
years. The outcome has involved the revamped
theatre as anchor to a new 90,000-
square-foot retail/restaurant/office complex
under development by Wallace Olson Associates
of Moraga. The reopened movie palace
will be operated by Allen Michaan, owner
of Renaissance Rialto Theatres, a sixtheatre
Bay Area chain.
Rancho Cucamonga, CA
The 10'\, admissions tax in this California
town has been thrown out by the State Court
of Appeal in San Bernardino County, reversing
a Superior Court decision which had
upheld the levy. As in the case of earlier successful
fights to void admission taxes in the
California towns of Montclair and Pleasant
Hill, the appellate court held the tax on
moviegoers to be an unconstitutional violation
of First Amendment rights guaranteeing
freedom of expression
Fargo, ND
The Fargo Theatre celebrated Chaplin's
birthday by staging one of their grandest
silent movie nights ever. Lance Johnson performed
an original score for "The Gold Rush"
at the console of the Fargo's Wurlitzer pipe
organ Douglas Hamilton of KTHI television
wore the emcee's tux, and Hildegarde Kraus
September, 1989 35