The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 246

oji ii if F22 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1996 LOS ANGELES TIMES Will Supply Outstrip Demand? Movies: As two giant theater complexes in Ontario prepare to go head to head for business, some analysts worry that it may be too much of a good thing. More Art Films Indicate Wealth Is Being Spread Though Edwards' Big One in Irvine isn't showing as many art films as the cognoscenti might like, the number of art movies at other Edwards theaters in Orange County has increased in the past year or so. The Rancho Niguel in Laguna Niguel (where "The English Patient" is playing this week) has devoted one of its eight screens to the films. The theater didn't start out that way, but the clientele proved supportive. James Edwards can't explain why the arty crowd goes there.

"I've only been in the business for 67 years," he quipped. "I'm still learning." He thinks it's easy, though, to explain the popularity of art and subtitled films at the Edwards University, near UC Irvinet Students flock there-particularly, he said, those learning foreign languages. Often in the past year, as many as three of the theater's six screens have been carrying art films. Meanwhile, the South. Coast Village theater in Santa Ana-which once was the only Edwards theater showing art films as a matter of coursecontinues to do so.

How has all this affected the Port in Corona del Mar and the Bay in Seal Beach, which have been showing art movies for years? Hasn't hurt business, the operators say. In fact, longtime Bay projectionist Dennis Addy says patrons often wait to see movies there that have opened earlier at the Edwards theaters. Edwards charges as much as $7. "We're $6.50," Addy said. The Port? $6.75.

max. the next 2VS years. "It's healthier for consumers because they get the better product. We're building newer theaters with "new amenities. But it has to be done rationally.

If we step on each other's toes too closely and too rashly, no one will be a winner." The 52 new screens due to open next month in Ontario will be equipped with the latest advance-' ments stadium-style audi to-' riums, love seats, curved screens', for better focus and the most' sophisticated digital sound sys- terns. i American Multi-Cinema Inc. will i open a 30-theater complex, which I will make it the largest In the; world, topping the 24-plex the; chain opened in Dallas in May 1995. i And just last week, AMC an-i nounced plans to open a 30-plex in Orange in 1998. Just across a service road, privately held Edwards Cinema will open a 22-screen complex.

A year ago the company unveiled' what was then the Southland's largest megaplex, a 21-screen facility in Irvine. "Fifty-two screens within walking distance there's never enough movies for that. You can't go into a place like Ontario and build two megaplexes across the Please see GIANTS, F29 era of (Mf orriiaNevada. The megaplex craze motivated by strides in theater technology and a slate of more than 400 films opening yearly is causing considerable unease among studio distribution officials who once felt they called the shots. "It's the exhibitors' time now, but it's a little scary when they're going so insane.

It's just gotten out of hand. They're going to end up playing 'Batman and Robin' on seven screens," said Paul Rosen-feld, senior vice president of distri-i i bution at Gramercy Pictures. "This whole building boom may be strictly a pattern that exists and may not have any reference to increasing audience," said a vet-, eran industry-watcher. "Is it an; ego-driven thing or a Wall Street-' driven thing or a real accommodation for the consumer?" Even those building the complexes express some trepidation. "All of the major players are embarking on this new building strategy," said Howard Lichtman, executive vice president of marketing and communications for Toronto-based Cineplex Odeon, which will add 500 screens over EDWARDS: With More on the Way Continued from Fl as originally planned.

Up to now, though, the Big One has had no competition in the area. That's going to change in the next year or two. The Mills developers from Washington, D.C., plan to turn The City mall in Orange into a restaurantboutiquekid-magnet mall similar to the one in Irvine with a 30-screen AMC megaplex. Century Theatres is planning a similar center at the defunct Stadium Drive-In, also in Orange, and Pacific Theatres plans one at the now closed Anaheim Drive-in off the Riverside Freeway. But Edwards isn't twiddling his thumbs.

He's building three more centers. One will be on unincorporated land near Aliso Viejo; another will be in Brea. Both are scheduled to open by Thanksgiving '97 with 22-screen megaplexes. Next summer, he plans to open a 20-screener in an entertainment center off the Golden State Freeway in Mission Viejo. His 12-screen Metro Point Stadium opened Wednesday in Costa Mesa, surrounded by shops and across the street from the South Coast Plaza mall.

One thing the Big One hasn't delivered, despite Edwards' promises, are two screens dedicated to art films. Some unconventional, independent movies such as "Big Night" have run on one screen, but most of them (such as "Feeling Minnesota" and "Moll have been borderline mainstream and, Edwards said, none plays for more than four weeks. Fly Away gross at the theater early this month for the Mel Gibson thriller "Ransom" was the second highest in the country, according to Exhibitor Relations researchers. Edwards said he doesn't plan to cut back on art films at the Big One, but "they have to also be commercial, make a profit." The profits Edwards already is making have prevented him from fulfilling another promise: live music and children's entertainment in the lobby. "The lobby is too full of people all the time," he said.

Contributing to this story was Time staff writer Greg Johnson. 0 if COLUMBIACVa PJCTURESLlj WEST HOUTWOOD ANUHIM BtooWvum 71478 10 ARCADIA Goftttol Clntntt Santo Anna 818448 9200 y'lUMAMiaLH AMC MmM ei4V63 8eoo 30 7:45 ft Sal La Show 12:30 AM CAMARH10 Pomo Camofita Clntmo MOtf MO VAllfV On no 4 90W4M-2M7 05383-2207 mmmnm0Qt PAppOlttM 818W3 02U Here's Gene Autry, Blues Singer of Note a career as a pop singer. While visiting New York on a railroad pass years later, he was urged by a friend to forget pop music and start singing in the blues style of Jimmie Rodgers, the celebrated "Singing Brakeman" who combined country, blues and folk into a unique "blue yodel" style that became the foundation for modern country music. Autry was so enthusiastic about Rodgers' approach and the com-, mercial possibilities of following in the singer's footsteps that he tried to imitate his style. The American Record Co.

(later Columbia Records) was appar AC A Di PUT. WPA. MA. POA. WM, MHO.

PU snJ Item. Comm. MEMOIRS; Vour Mrd will admit you aa fo any pcrtMimim) Hum TtwatrtM on dr. i IHH11WOOD QamratCkMfna Hollywood Gafaw 2I3W7-I4e Ftl-Sun. Mon, Will.

Din 1:00. 3 10 Iu 1-003 10PM AdvoncT(ckslBon9alt Dly.4houstfdaMd 00lnGolaxv ooiog Eissfon MIM12 90wbA 33W NORWMKUWl AMC NorNOh 20 310664-6670 OMKOIOSuy Ctnodomtlt 7I4W4-254J SODOM Edwonnmasndl aoa273-oioi MMfaOOKPUZA i f'm mi uum nun ewwotctntma MgS SoMohilu Owm eia5-200 IMIM12 9 90W6M33M By CLAUDIA PUIG TIMES STAFF WRITER ONTARIO-When movie industry executives require an example of the current boom in theater construction, they need look no further than the budding film exhibition mecca of Ontario. During the next four months, 1,000 new screens will be unveiled across the country a staggering 52 in two competing megaplexes just a football field's length apart at the mammoth new Ontario Mills mall about 40 miles east of Los Angeles. "We're sort of the popcorn capital of the world," boasted George Urch, an Ontario city spokesman. But increasingly, executives at movie studios, Wall Street investment houses and even at exhibition companies themselves are asking whether theaters are being built faster than Hollywood can put out movies appealing enough to keep them filled.

Single-screen movie theaters began to be replaced about two decades ago by multiplexes, the industry term for complexes of fewer than 12 screens. Now megaplexes facilities with 12 or more screens- are elbowing out their humbler cousins, with virtually all of the major theater exhibition chains en gaging in a breakneck building cam paiga "If the current trend of building continues, the possibility exists that in the future you will be able to walk out of one entertainment megaplex and into another," said Daniel Wheatcroft, president and CEO of the National Assn. of Theater Own- ently looking for a singer to compete with Rodgers, who recorded for RCA Victor, and signed Autry to a contract. Autry started off singing Rodgers songs, including "Blue Yodel No. 5," and he did a good job of capturing the spirit and style of his model.

He was also backed on these 23 blues-related tracks by some exceptional instrumentalists, including steel guitarist Roy Smeck. Autry was equally adept at applying the Rodgers style to his own originals (such as the playful "Dallas County Jail and material by other writers. In 1931, Autry stepped away from the blues briefly to record "Silver-Haired Daddy of Mine," which would eventually become his first Please see AUTRY, F26 1 F1LMSBAI.TIM0RE MCTURESn- uuuumisiix sipuMonin im0ioi9 iHoiKaaiicnml 818083 7298 6I6V322 3450 MlenilsgalCMnn MHTtWlS Wnall290e58J39l AMCPuMIMIO lANTAPt icanlomsylhioki 3IU946-BB49 ISNTAMOMCA Mn 3I0396-49M imvAunHMnk SvniVoMyPlaH 10 Onie0M2O-862l) TIMtCUU (tMM RoncnoCQMonSo 90994-4l30 VAliUCUMonolO 805256-3968 nnouomMy8 8056444668 819241-7875 wooouuNnii AMCProdMCOM 16 61VI183-2AMC 6187810-5568 nOMOMACN OKwatCWMno GcrtwlaotSouliBoy 3I0A42-436I 71422-8600 lAUAIIOWHIM) uwirettitfowwi MANHA1TAN ttACH (TmMMiMtMiw) MMropotDoni 71434 2653 N7 MU HKIOI ttQtJS I4540-444 aQ3aatOT IWHIMHiHUUl hi i CD REISSUES'- GENE AUTRY "Blues Singer 1929-1931" ColumbiaLegacy Here's an album guaranteed to elicit a double-take from anyone who knows Autry only as the most popular of all the movie singing cowboys, and one of the hottest singers in country music in the '40s, when he scored 25 straight Top 10 singles. Thanks to such hits as the nos mis tHE NEW YORK TIMES liimMulln "Passionate. Sweeping.

Entertaining. A robust, roaringly good performance by Liam Neeson." CBS-TV DirijaKdm "Compelling. Liam Neeson is sure to win an Oscar nomination. LOS ANGELES TIMES Kfftrth Tursa "Romance, passion and excitement Powerful and provocative." TIME nidwjsdnim "Entertaining! 1 Neil Jordan is a masterly craftsman. Visually impressive, LiamNeesonis near perfect 1 1 feis-.

PfmsBT um jAcmro ncmvHU OndmoSlw UsraDlss MwapoUan'i AMG IOAIPMiPKuii Mattot2TIam McntViitsylO 90M43 00M IW741 8400 nMMiaM Ptifts nix CkMmoSlofUllraDHi 90M43 00M 09407-0502 Audiences for art movies at the Big One just aren't big enough, said Edwards, who does show art films at some of his other theaters (see accompanying story "A big enterprise like the 21 has to have high-volume business because expenses are high, and the $27-million investment was high," he said. Jeremy Welman, the Big One's managing director, said that "any time we try to put art films into more of a mainstream theater, they don't do as well. At this theater, the action pictures do best The demographics are very broad." Indeed, the opening-weekend talgic "Silver-Haired Daddy of Mine" and the holiday novelty "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," Autry, the son of a Texas tenant farmer, also frequently broke into the national pop charts. But none of his movies or recordings gave a clue that Autry could or in fact ever did sing the blues. So where did "Blues Singer 1929-1931" come from? Born in 1907, Autry started singing pop standards as a youngster, accompanying himself on a mailorder guitar that his mother bought and taught him to play.

Even after he got a job as a railroad telegrapher in 1925, Autry continued to dream of a iia, BOSTON GLOBE frftr, "Grand, handsome and stirring, as rich and sweeping as 'Lawrence of Arabia' SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER WiUilMAfMlj "The one to beat for the 1996 Best Picture Oscar'. CHICAGO TRIBUNE Mkhsd Wilmington Neil Jordan's epic may well be the movie of the year. Stunning GOOD MORNING AMERICA "Terrific, powerful and stirring. Great filmmaking!" EBERT "Two thumbs up!" ALAN RJ' ULIA KMAN and BERTS none much 310493-5521 PUENTf HH.U AMCPuwMMollO 818810-5580 Ci I Mm) St RtVERSlDf SoCoTs Canyon CM Chana IINOUSANOOAM Mann US JmMMWoci9 805374-9658 VAUNCM Mann 10 805255-3968 WOOOUNDHIIU IMMAltUl WonwCsfflw SAjnaMOMU CMptauiMn BfoaftrayOfwrai 3ICB777 Ftil7 Sun, Mon-Run 1:004:00 7:00 PM SO 1:00 1 4:00 Mi HtVWf 909682-8900 SANTA ANA 818999-2130 EoVnai BUsM 7147540-7444 lUIFOMIT EtfMfdi SodtoMe 71458I-5M0 AQOoouisi "An incomparable cast, Hoffman and DeNiro are Oscar-worthy! 'Sleepers' reminds us what superb acting is all about." MA terrific movie! An incredible cast." -Joel Siege), QOOD MORNING AMERICA, ABC-TV "A swiftly-paced, suspenseful, compelling film with shivers of excitement." "Barry Levinson's skilled direction is the stuff of Oscars'." -Raj Bahadur, WRflVDOD ONE RADIO NETWORKS "A powerful drama about lifelong friendship." -UlBmu, TORONTO SUN "'Sleepers' works like gangbusters." -Rlchani Schickel, TIME KEVIN ROBERT DUSTIN JASON BRAD BACON DE NIRO HOFFMAN PATRIC PITT "s' "yiwgHWi ft ccHMo ima AMCCNra Tow Squan 10 9OWS90-24O0 OXNAta riMICUlA Edwwdt Etptonod Rancho CaNfornlo 806466-0201 00W084-4I30 tAN HRHAtOWO WOOOUMO HttU CorouMl4 slAMCPrornanadt 18 808381-4481 8I8B83-2AMCU8HI IAN JACMfTO 809487 8552 SAO fwtMf rw IMHB ysiHNnwuiiim AMCPuMlMoll 10 afOOHDOIUCH OWMSCMmo OoDwlo 01 Sooti lay 3IIV542 430I llttl VMur (dWonk WOODUHOWtU PoclSc'l (opongo 01678031300 nMfCUUPoWaoi Rondio CoWomlo 0W004-4IM kimberly Williams Emilio Estevez AMC PROMENADE 16 WOODLAND HILLS rm.c...oH (818)883-2AMC 64iJ DAILY: 1:43, 4:45, 8:00, 10:45 FRI-SUN EARLY SHOW: ewmmext www.movtes.com IMtntmtM. Mtl SOMT.

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