Boxoffice Pro - December 2019

“Larry Miller always used to say, ‘I
don’t mind getting big. I just don’t want
to act big.’”
It’s that philosophy—explained
by the circuit’s president
Blake Andersen—that
has carried Utah-based
Megaplex Theatres to
its 20th anniversary,
which it celebrated in
November.
The late Miller, who
passed away in 2009,
didn’t go into the theatrical
exhibition business
already bitten by the
movie bug. The owner
of several sports teams in
the Utah area, as well as
dozens of car dealerships and
other assorted business ventures,
Miller was approached by the mayor
of Sandy, Utah, to do something with
a sizable plot of land in the city. “Jordan
High School stood for over a hundred
years on this site, and it went into a major
disrepair,” recalls film buyer Cal Gundersen,
one of Megaplex Theatres’ original
hires. “The school district couldn’t afford
to bring it up to code,” so for years
the property languished. Miller came
on-board, and in November 1999 the
property found new life as Jordan Commons,
a business and retail complex that
boasts offices, restaurants, and Megaplex
Theatres’ flagship location.
At the beginning, Gundersen says,
Miller didn’t really know how to run a theater—he
recalls Miller asking him, around
the time the building was completed,
“‘How do you get your movies?’” I said
FOOD (AND MOVIE) OPTIONS ABOUND AT JORDAN COMMONS
to him, ‘Well, you have to contact the
movie studios and sign an agreement with
them.’ And he said, ‘Gotcha! Guess we
better get on that, because we have this
building almost finished, and we don’t
have any movies!’
“He didn’t have a clue how to get
movies, but he was determined to build
something and give back to the community.
And here we are 20 years later, still
giving back.”
The road, at first, was rocky, since no
one knew what Megaplex Theatres was.
“It took us, oh, probably six months or
so until we had an opportunity to play
Toy Story 2,” says Gundersen. “It proved
to be a very successful run for us. It
actually put Megaplex Theatres on the
map with major studios. After that,
instead of us chasing people,
[they would] call us and say,
‘We have this film coming
up, and we’d like to play it
in your theater complex.’”
In the 20 years since
they proved themselves
with Toy Story 2,
Megaplex Theatres has
grown exponentially.
The chain currently has
182 screens in 17 locations
(16 in Utah, one in
Nevada), with expansion
planned in 2021 and 2022
to states in which the Miller
family owns car dealerships.
“Over the last 20 years, we’ve had
a great opportunity to rank in the
top five locations across the country for
most of the major tentpole films, like Pirates
of the Caribbean and Star Wars,” says
Gundersen. “Harry Potter was extremely
successful here. Hunger Games. All of
those we did major premieres for. We
have theaters that are ranked in the topfive-grossing
theaters for North America.”
Family movies do well for Megaplex, as
do musicals (“We played [The Greatest
Showman] until they made us take it
off!”) and movies based on books. “Utahans
are quite well read,” notes Gundersen.
“They read a lot of books, and so when
something’s made into a movie, they
support it wholeheartedly.”
Andersen attributes the success of
Megaplex Theatres in part to the chain’s
embrace of technology. “We always try to
“The Larry H. Miller Megaplex Theatre Group is indispensable to the independent Utah film community. Gail Miller has continued
the legacy of her late husband by ensuring that each of their companies endeavors to have a positive local and community
impact. The theater group, run by Blake Andersen and Cal Gundersen, is no exception. It is every filmmaker’s dream to see their
work displayed on a giant screen with a large audience. Traditionally, that privilege has been reserved for only the very few, elite
Hollywood productions. But Megaplex Theatres understands the power of local stories and art to transform communities and has
given us a rare platform to exhibit our films and make them accessible to audiences in the same manner as expensive studio films.
… Twenty years is a massive accomplishment, and I can’t imagine the Utah film community without their dedication and support.”
—Arthur VanWagenen, Director, Excel Entertainment Group
DECEMBER 2019
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