Theaters’ Next Hit May Be Stadium Seating

LAS VEGAS — The people who own America’s movie palaces know what they’re up against.

They know that with cable television, pay-per-view, DirecTVand the Internet available in many homes, they have to give movie fans a very good reason to get up off the couch, drive to a theater and buy a ticket. And they think they’ve found it: bigger, better seats.

Gathering here this week for their annual convention, the members of the National Assn. of Theater Owners were united in the belief that their future lies in architectural change--specifically, in stadium seating, a tiered theater design that offers more leg room, flip-up armrests for snuggling and an unobstructed view of the screen.

Going to the movies will never be the same.

Just a few years ago, the plush, high-backed seats (which cost about twice as much as the standard models and take up more space) were seen as a financially risky gimmick. But today, industry officials predict that stadium designs will replace traditional theater seating within a decade. Nearly 100% of new theater construction is now stadium-style, and the owners of many existing theaters are looking to upgrade.

A workshop held here this week on how to retrofit theaters with stadium amenities drew a standing-room-only crowd of about 350. Those in attendance said installing the new seating was, for them, a matter of survival.

“If you don’t progress, you regress,” said George Kelloff Sr., who has owned a three-screen theater in rural Colorado since 1965. Though not eager to shell out the $100,000 it will cost to upgrade just one of his screens, he said he has no choice. Even in his small town, he said, “the real avid moviegoer is going to demand it.”

High-tech seating is part of a larger push by theater owners to win the fight for consumers’ attention. There is talk here of “bundling” experiences--turning a trip to the theater into an evening out--by adding restaurants, coffee bars and boutique shopping. To achieve their goal, making theaters into compelling, full-service destinations, some owners seem willing to try almost anything.

Coming Attractions Previewed at Show

A quick tour of the convention’s 500-booth trade show revealed the future of American movie theaters, from fiber-optic illuminated drink holders (which continuously change color) to video wall advertising displays to interactive multimedia kiosks (designed, said one brochure, to satisfy young consumers’ “demand for pop culture” in the lobby, before they even enter the theater).

“The state-of-the-art facilities--with larger curved screens, stadium seats--is what I would call the main course. That’s what people come to dine on,” said Howard Lichtman, Cineplex Odeon’s executive vice president of marketing and communications. “The exterior lobby is your appetizer, and I think you’re going to see a lot more experimentation with the appetizer in the future.”

But judging by the crowds on the trade show floor, theater seats and their related accessories (from aisle lighting to headrests) are today’s hot items, as essential as top quality film projectors and sound systems. No fewer than 11 companies had booths selling sculpted, high-back seats (with names like the Kasandra Love Seat and the Cinelounger) for $150 to $880 apiece.

By contrast, a single vendor offered his services to reupholster worn-out traditional seats. No one seemed to be stopping at his booth.

“It’s really a keeping-up-with-the-Joneses situation,” said Joe Hoy, a field sales manager for the Irwin Seating Company. Nearby, Phil Singleton, the tough-talking president of AMC Entertainment Inc., was bouncing up and down on an Irwin Signature love seat, a look of serious contemplation on his face. “Not bad,” Singleton said.

Hoy, pleased, continued: “We’re finding people will drive 10 to 20 miles extra to go to a stadium theater, even in smaller markets. [Older] theaters are going to retrofit, or they’re going to die and become sloped-floor warehouses.”

Several new stadium-style theaters have opened in Southern California during the past two years, and several more are in the planning stages.

Pacific Theatres opened 16 screens in El Segundo in 1996. The same year, AMC opened the 16-screen Promenade in Woodland Hills and a 30-screen megaplex in Ontario (which prompted the Newport Beach-based Edwards Theatre chain to build a 22-screen complex across the street). Last year in Orange County, Krikorian Premiere Theatres opened four stadium screens in San Clemente. And just last month, Pacific unveiled the 5,900-seat Winnetka 20, the San Fernando Valley’s largest movie venue.

“We’re committed to the stadium concept,” said Jerome A. Forman, president of Pacific Theatres, a 350-screen circuit based in Los Angeles. “That’s all we’re building. It seems to be what the American public is calling for.”

Dale Davison, president of the 57-screen CinemaCal circuit, which has 17 screens in Southern California, agreed. He plans to retrofit 24 of his screens right away.

“We’re always trying to fine-tune and make something better,” he said.

Not everybody is happy about the new design. Some older moviegoers, for example, are intimidated by the steep stairs.

“They don’t even want to think about going up them,” said Robert Weaver, an architect with a Michigan retrofitting firm called Stadium Savers that has designed a half-stadium, half-traditional theater to calm such fears.

And indeed, because each row of seats is mounted 12 to 18 inches above the last one, said Don Rataj, a stadium architect from Missouri, careless designs can lead to dangerous “tripping hazards.”

“We visited one complex in California--I’m not naming names--that had four tripping lawsuits already,” he said. “They’d taken to posting ‘Caution: Stadium Seating’ signs above the entrance as a warning.”

But the real legal snafus--the ones the conventioneers were all talking about--could spring from the federal Americans With Disabilities Act of 1992. That act requires that movie theaters provide access and space for wheelchairs, in proximity to so-called buddy seats so disabled patrons can sit with their able-bodied friends.

According to Rataj, an advocacy group for wheelchair users recently filed suit against a theater in Texas alleging that the stadium design gave them inferior access, relegating them to the neck-craning front row. The suit sought to halt all stadium seating construction in the state until the case was resolved. A similar suit has been filed in Florida.

“There’s a huge lawsuit lurking,” said one theater official who asked not to be named. “A lawsuit of Herculean proportions.”

Unless and until that occurs, however, the transformation that one theater owner called “the 100% stadiumization of America” continues.

“People who live in smaller markets talk to people in larger markets. They shop in larger markets. They have no less expectation of quality,” said Philip Harris III, president of the 102-screen Signature Theatres circuit in Northern California, which is “re-screening” its older theaters to incorporate stadium designs.

The stadium seating concept for cinemas goes back to the 1930s, when elegant American movie palaces employed tiered designs. Many of those theaters were lost in the multiplexing boom of the 1960s and ‘70s, when the idea of several screens under one roof first took hold.

The modern stadium configuration appears to have been pioneered in Belgium, where moviegoers speak multiple languages (Dutch and French, among others) and thus need to see the entire screen in order to read subtitles.

“We had to guarantee our viewers a view of the bottom of the screen,” said Joost Bert, chief executive of Kinepolis Group, which started building stadium designs in Europe as early as 1968. Bert recalls several conversations with American theater owners over the years who dismissed the idea as too expensive.

“But now, it’s stadium seating and being in the business, or no stadium seating and”--he waved his hand and whistled.

In the United States, everyone agrees that the turning point came in May 1995, when the AMC Grand opened its 24 screens--then a world record--in Dallas. Its phenomenal success revolutionized the industry, proving that megaplexes (with 16 or more screens) could be profitable and recasting stadium seating as, in the words of one of AMC’s competitors, “the standard.”

Going Beyond the Seating

Stadium seating is catching on in other parts of the world as well. Robert Ward, managing director of Australia Country Cinemas, said all of his company’s more than 100 screens are stadium designs, each equipped with seats that cost about $350 apiece.

The Australians haven’t stopped there. Ward said they, like some theater owners in America and Canada, are experimenting with something called Gold Class Cinema, which offers the height of luxury. For a $25 ticket, patrons enjoy recliner seats and waitress service (dinner and wine is available for an extra charge) in a club-like atmosphere.

“People are treating it as a special treat--wedding anniversaries, birthdays,” said Ward, who compared the seats in this luxury-class theater to first-class airplane seats. He said the new seats cost $1,300 apiece.

At the retrofitting seminar--titled “Converting Your Theatre Into a Stadium: Yes, It Can Be Done!”--William E. Menke, director of facilities for the St. Louis-based Wehrenberg Theatre circuit, told the audience that renovation was worth the hassle and expense.

“We had AMC build a 16-plex four miles from one of our theaters,” he said. “But when ‘Lost World’ opened, we already had eight of our 14 screens converted. We managed to maintain our position--we out-grossed them!”

Menke was referring to box office grosses. A few minutes later, however, he out-grossed himself when he explained that for hygiene reasons, his theater chain had opted for a shorter model of stadium seat, which provided shoulder support but no headrest.

“We thought it would make cleaning the seats easier. We even had this discussion about head lice,” he said, causing a few in the audience to squirm. “I know that sounds bad, but these are things we think about.”

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Coming Attractions

Nearly 100% of new theater seating construction is stadium-style, which offers a better view of the screen.

Greater clearance of 12-18 inches over person in front

Seats are built on tiers, and steps can be steep

HOW THEATERS IN U.S. WILL CHANGE

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Year Movie theaters Average screens/theater 1998 5,000 to 6,000 5 to 6 2008 2,500 to 3,500 12 to 14

Year Screens with stadium seating 1998 About 20% 2008 50% to 100%

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Sources: National Assn. of Theater Owners, Birtcher Construction Services, industry analysts