Movie house showing competitive crunch

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Aug 27, 2000 | by Warren Epstein

With a new 17-screen megaplex moving in this fall, our city's older, smaller theaters are closing at a record pace.

United Artists' Academy Station 6 closed its doors on Aug. 18. Carmike's Citadel Terrace was scheduled to close Friday. AMC officials told me a couple of weeks ago that Tiffany Square would close today, but the closing was pushed back to early October.

It's hard to mourn too intensely about the loss of these theaters. None offered particularly unique movie-going experiences (though I commend Tiffany Square for offering captioned films for the hearing impaired). But they were neighborhood theaters and if you live near them, you're going to have to do a lot more driving to get to the movies.

Here's a look at the remaining theaters and their chances of survival:

Tinseltown USA - This 20-screen megaplex is owned by Cinemark, the only major theater chain to turn a profit in '99. It has the best survival chances of any theater operating in Colorado Springs. Customer service is pretty good and the picture and sound quality are excellent. It also is the most expensive theater in town - $7.50 a pop for adults (the city's average is about $6.75), and there are frequent traffic and parking problems.

Chapel Hills 15 - This theater rates poorly for cleanliness and customer service; sound and picture quality are fair. I'm hoping the coming megaplex will force Chapel Hills to improve or close. If it does nothing, I figure it has a 50/50 shot at survival.

Carmike 10 - Carmike had planned to expand this theater. Apparently the money ran out and instead the company retrofitted its existing auditoriums with stadium seating and installed digital sound, but didn't add new screens. It's generally well run and the sound and picture quality rivals the Tinseltown experience. It gets extra points for its $5 adult ticket price, although that's also the price for kids, so if you have a lot of children it's cheaper to go elsewhere. Because it's generally easy to get in and out and because of its movie quality and southeast location, it might survive.

Super Saver Cinemas - This discount theater may be closing soon. Its parent company, Silver Cinemas, filed bankruptcy and has closed 20 other discount theaters this summer. This one offers a cheap movie experience that feels cheap, but I'd hate to see the last "dollar" theater bite the dust.

The Broadmoor - This quaint one-screen theater inside The Broadmoor will close in November as the resort undergoes some renovation (the renovation won't make any changes to the theater, which was recently remodeled). It is scheduled to reopen in May 2001. The theater is open to the public, but it's mainly considered an amenity for hotel guests so it should be immune to competition pressures elsewhere in the city.

Kimball's Twin Peak - Kimball Bayles was going to close his two- screen downtown theater on Labor Day, but when he heard a bunch of his competitors were biting the dust, he figured he'd hang in there a little while. His dream is that some day soon the city's only movie theaters will be Tinseltown on the south, Cinemark on the east, and him in the middle. Could happen. But running small independent theaters like his will always be a struggle, whether they play art or mainstream films. Now that Bayles is recommitted to art films, at least he's in a position to offer movies no other theater is interested in. Bayles recently upgraded the sound, but it needs more work and the film image could be brighter. Parking is a problem, but there usually are plenty of spots a block east of Nevada Avenue on Pikes Peak Avenue.

The 17-screen Cinemark megaplex is scheduled to open at Powers Boulevard and Constitution Avenue in late October or early November. Cinemark officials say it'll be a little fancier than Tinseltown and it'll have an IMAX theater. I can't wait!

MOVIES IN TELLURIDE: If I could design my own film festival, it would have little or no hype and few cell-phone-wielding Hollywood dealmakers. It would be in a remote mountain town, so it wouldn't get too big, and movie lovers could talk with movie makers in relaxed environs.

To discourage the paparazzi, I'd wait until the week of the festival to announce the guests and the films, and I'd pick the most thoughtful, sad, funny, innovative, enlightening, endearing, enchanting films I could find from around the world.

Great idea, huh?

Unfortunately, the folks who put together the Telluride Film Festival, the most charming and prestigious one in Colorado, beat me to it.

The 27th annual festival runs Friday through Sept. 4, and although passes are sold out, individual tickets are available at each venue for $15. Free movies are shown every day at 8:30 p.m. in the Abel Gance Open Air Cinema in Elks Park. The film schedule will be announced later this week.