Boxoffice-March.2000

the perfect stadium seating for optimal
sightlines, you have to have little
variation in treads and riser
heights," he says. "Actually it's
safer. You get a gentler curve."
Smith says he plans to approach
building officials to lobby for such
changes. "I think it'll happen
gradually. It's like Buckminster
Fuller, who compared himself to
the rudder on an ocean liner: He
puts his foot out a bit and the liner
turns very slowly."
THE EVOLUTION
OF LOBBIES
Although a cinema's heart is the
darkened auditorium in which a
movie flickers, its face is its lobby
the feature that patrons notice first
and the one that defines a particular
cinema's public image. Montague,
the Lone Star-based interior designer,
sees a shift from the bright colors
and flashing lights that she's been
doing for the past 14 years.
"There are more baby boomers
out there," she says. "I know a lot
of my friends who are baby
boomers don't feel comfortable in
those brightly colored, flashy theatres....
Life is getting more hectic...
Everyone's trying to get more
comfortable and relax more. I
think they can do it in more understated
interiors."
Montague predicts a return to
natural finishes and metals, and
more curving lines and subdued colors.
"A good example would be
what Cinemark is doing with their
interiors," she says. "They're taking
elements of the old movie theatres
of the '30s and '40s, and making
them grander, more Art Deco,
more Art Nouveau."
Jim Baker, president of Dimensional
Innovations, and Trotter, his
design vice president, say theatres
will need impressive lobbies even
more in the upcoming decade in
order to distinguish themselves from
the competition. Offers Trotter,
"There's a need for theatre companies
to come up with other ways to
get people in there, other than just
showing movies."
Trotter points to themed interiors
and three-dimensional attractions
that make the entertainment experience
begin the minute the patron
steps through the door. "People go
to movies so they can escape," he
says. "Disneyworld and Disneyland
and Las Vegas are really good
examples of places that have created
environments that take you away
to another world."
Trotter and Baker suggest that
Disney is more than an entertainment
inspiration; it's an economic
one as well. Says Baker, "If you
look at Disneyworld, casinos and
other themed entertainment businesses..
.they seem completely recession-proof
and bulletproof as a
company. That says to me that the
public will still pay to go into a highly
themed, sensory-overloaded environment
to be entertained."
A BIT OFHEMINGWAY:
A CLEAN
WELL-LIGHTED PLACE
"Smaller and better" seems to
be the mantra for the first decade
of this big new millennium.
Cinema designers are preparing
for the new age by taking the best
of the past and blending it with the
latest technology.
Then again, according to a veteran
of the industry, cinema success in
2010 may come down to a simple
roll of toilet paper. "The function of
the motion picture industry is the
need to entertain the public and
need to do it in a first-class way,"
says Jacobsen of Glatz-Jacobsen.
"They don't have to spend outrageous
amounts of money to build a
fancy building, because people
aren't coming to see the building;
they're coming to see what's on
inside. They need to keep clean,
well-lighted restrooms that don't
smell," he says. "That's the kind of
stuff that hampers the success of
the theatre business.
"They need to do what they do
better, and they need to get over
this latest techno-whiz stuff," says
Jacobsen. "They never want to
spend enough money to have a
good toilet paper roll, but those
are the kind of things that fail and
the kind of things that make people
unhappy."
SBM
Images in this story (in order of
appearance) are from: Loeks-Star
(exterior, Southfield, Mich.);
Showcase (neon sign. Orange,
Conn.); Cinemark (hallway);
Loews (Hollywood sign, Sony
IMAX, New York); Muvico (grill,
Pompano Beach, Fla.); Century
(exterior. Orange, Calif).
Good booth service techs I
can generate a wide
range of emotions
among managers. Most
often, ours is
CONFIDENCE.
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Theater service from a new
perspective YOURS !
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service@ddts.com
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Response No. 530
Response No 1
March. 2000 29