The Bridge Theatre, located in the Promenade Mall in Los Angeles, has two viewing rooms with extra-wide leather seats, a full bar and tasty in-theater dining options.
"One ticket for Benjamin Button, please, with the combination sushi and a dry martini."
Going to the movies is becoming a whole new experience. Theaters seeking to retain adult audiences and to raise profits are offering gourmet food and mixed drinks -- delivered to your recliner seat -- in luxurious surroundings that would make a Hollywood mogul envious.
The exhibition industry wants to make a night at the movies a special occasion once again. For many people the multiplex has become a pain -- long lines, teenagers playing video games, people texting during the show and $10 tubs of stale popcorn. On-demand video, better Web-based streaming and sophisticated home theater systems mean that more people are staying home to watch first-run films on their HD flat screen TVs.
Indeed, last year's movie ticket sales of $1.4 billion were down by 12.5 percent from the all-time high of 1.6 billion in 2002.
Movie exhibitors, an agile group when their livelihood is at stake, are once again responding to changing entertainment habits. When television first appeared on a mass scale in the 1950s, many predicted a serious slump in movie attendance. In the '70s, cable was feared. Of late, it's DVDs and the Internet. Contrary to predictions that cinemas would go the way of the telegraph, they've adapted and survived.
Gold Class cinemas in Redmond, Wash. (pictured) offers movie-goers intimate viewing rooms with reclining armchairs, fine wine and gourmet food.
It's estimated that 300 multiplexes in the U.S. now offer high-end amenities. The latest to enter the market is Village Roadshow, Ltd., an Australian-based entertainment company, which has opened two Gold Class cinemas in the U.S.
In South Barrington northwest of Chicago, and in Redmond, Wash., Gold Class offers moviegoers suede-covered reclining armchairs in theaters with no more than 40 seats, fine wine, gourmet food -- and, with the press of a button, an attendant who provides a blanket.
Village Roadshow will spend $200 million to build 50 theaters nationwide over the next five years, with theaters scheduled to open this fall in Bolingbrook, Ill. another Chicago suburb and in Pasadena, Calif.
