The Kansas City Star from Kansas City, Missouri • 6

A-6 The Kansas City Star Sunday November 7 1991 Theaters designed to immerse audiences in movie Ward Parkway 12 Theatres Audiences at the new Ward Parkway theaters will enter a 100-yard-long 20-foot-wlde concourse along the shopping center's east side that provides access to the 12 auditoriums Big screens other details improve quality comfort of audience By ROBERT BUTLER Arts nd entertainment Editor American Multi-Cinema officials say the Ward Parkway 12 Theatres is the culmination of all they have learned about theater design and customer comfort over three decades a quick tour of the complex: The entrance is at the northeast corner of the Ward Parkway main floor next to a balcony overlooking the food court Five ticket stations will be staffed inside the circular box-office area After purchasing tickets patrons will climb a wide gently curving terrace to the concession area (Hearing-impaired customers can first pick up free headphones) Employees at seven registers will dish up the usual movie fare plus bottled waters upscale candies and deli foods Also available will be food trays that fit into seat armrests similar to those already introduced at Oak Park Plaza complex window glass Also the portholes have been designed to tilt into the booth to ease cleaning Individual projectors can be preprogrammed to automatically change from the flat lenses used for previews of coming attractions to the lens used for feature films shot in a wide-screen process In addition the area above the concourse contains a conference room and classroom for trainees from throughout Midwest division who spend five weeks studying theater management Among the grand-opening events planned for the theater this week: Tuesday A black-tie fund-raising event for DeLaSalle Education Center The evening begins at 6 pm with cocktails and a buffet followed by a 7:30 pm screening of one of the new Christmas movies For information call 561-3312 Wednesday AMC is host for a VIP premiere party for the media and invited guests at 7 pm followed by a movie screening at 8 pm Thursday AMC is throwing a party at the theaters for the Kansas City area members of its Moviewatcher Club which began early last summer and now has a local membership of 16000 Staff writer Debra Skodack contributed some information for this article skinny auditoriums with a small screen at the far end the Ward Parkway auditoriums are often wider than they are deep The 12-plex is designed to immerse audiences in the movie with stereo sound" and big screens that stretch from wall to wall taking up the entire field of vision The four largest screens arc curved both horizontally and vertically A vacuum system behind the screens keeps them taut The remaining screens arc curved horizontally creating a brighter picture In addition the audio speakers at the front of the auditoriums are not behind the screens but are above and below them That eliminates the hidden holes that experts say can affect a quality A computer will monitor the temperatures in the 12 auditoriums and compensate in advance for popular films so that the body heat from a large audience raise the temperature to uncomfortable levels The showing of programs in all 12 auditoriums can be controlled by one individual staffing the long projection booth atop the concourse The projection booth portholes through which the image passes are made of optical glass eliminating the subtle color changes possible with regular 8600 Ward Parkway The Star A four-station concession stand is at the far end What should please moviegoers most is the configuration of the theaters themselves Whereas many of the early multiplex auditoriums were criticized for being long Turning south and crossing a balcony overlooking the food court audiences will enter a 20-foot-wide concourse as long as a football field that provides access to the 1 2 auditoriums broken the concourse up into five separate said Thomas Clark the general manager so long that it can be a little intimidating so employed different wall colors to give the feeling that moving through a series of rooms rather than walking down a long Theater offers latest in movie design Continued from A-1 BL the architects of ti VOyftfiEB and Plaza theaters offered unique architectural environments two theaters make moviegoing an Garber said Crown Cinema Corporation is completing a renovation of its Seville Square facility though Richard Durwood president and brother of Stan Durwood said was in the works even before we heard about the Ward Parkway theaters It was just something that needed to be done gutted Durwood said of work on the Seville four auditoriums put in new seats and new carpeting In January going to redo the lobby and the restrooms with a new box office and concession Durwood predicted the effect of the Ward Parkway theaters on Crown Red Bridge complex would be minimal laige-ly because residents of Kansas City south of 1-435 view the Red Bridge as their neighborhood movie house people who go to the Red Bridge love the fact that you can park right outside the theater They get out of a movie and only walk 100 feet to their cars I know if willing to fight the parking hassle at Ward Ward Parkway officials say they have 3500 parking spaces on the property but many of those are west of the mall on the Kansas side of State Line Road and south of the mall in a covered parking structure Movie patrons will have to walk around the mall after closing hours to reach the structure Demand and supply Theaters are not only competing for audience competing for the most popular films The opening of 12 screens at Ward Parkway will shake up distribution patterns Though few want to go on record as saying so officials of local movie chains think the theater that will suffer most from the Ward Parkway opening is the Ranch Mart one of two first-run theaters operated here by United Artists Theaters out of its Dallas office less than two miles away from Rash said an aged facility and going to find it harder to secure Frank Torchia who books films for the Dickinson chain points out that movie distributors place their films according to geographic generally booking a film in only one theater in each pocket The Ward Parkway Glenwood and Ranch Mart theaters all are in the same pocket Torchia noted and it seemed inevitable that the most promising films would go to the Glenwood and Ward Parkway The Ranch Mart would get what was left While admitting that the Ranch Mart is in a tight spot not everyone thinks it must change its programming or close down the industry continues to produce a lot of pictures then there should be enough product to supply all the said A1 Boos a former AMC official who now works as a consultant to movie concession vendors if the product dries up it could be A second issue is whether the Ward Parkway 12 Theatres will depose Glenwood as the most prestigious theater in the city lot of the movie distributors have made special trips into town to tour the Ward Parkway facility and reacquaint themselves with this Rash said excited about the new theaters and they want to play their films Garber however is unimpressed: Glenwood is the Glenwood is the Glenwood The Ward Parkway theater is new yes but it got that special Glenwood AMC officials however think that by early 1992 they will be able to show distributors attendance figures for the Ward Parkway theaters that will allow them to break the hold on exclusive bookings A multi-function watch displaying time in all world zones Self winding water resistant in all stainless steel a combination of stainless steel and 18 kL gold and in all 18 kt gold Five year international limited warranty Intelligently priced movies themselves and where they are showing Most customers choose the closest theater offering the film they want to see With 12 screens and a central location the Ward Parkway 12 Theatres are strong on both counts The new facility will serve one of the most affluent heavily populated areas in the city According to Rash 100000 people live within a three-mile radius of the Ward Parkway Center This area ranges from Mission Hills and Prairie Village in Kansas to the Country Club District to the north and neighborhoods stretching south to Interstate 435 People in those areas have had to drive considerable distances to go to a movie either north to theaters on the Plaza (the Plaza Theatre operated by the Dickinson chain and the Seville Square Cinema operated by Crown Cinema Corporation) southwest to the Ranch Mart Theatre (operated by United Artists Theaters) south to the Red Bridge (Crown Cinema) or east to United Bannister Mall Theatres and Bannister Square complex planning the new theaters we count on an overall increase in Kansas City movie Rash said figured draw attendance from other theaters including our Rash thinks the theaters most likely to experience a drop in attendance after the opening of the 12-plex are those on the Plaza the Bannister Mall area Red Bridge Ranch Mart and to a lesser extent the Glenwood the flagship of the Dickinson chain What little effect is felt at Oak Park theaters the busiest in the city will be offset by population growth in that area Rash said Officials of other chains dispute his reasoning moviegoers around the Ward Parkway area who used to go to Johnson County and the Plaza will start going said Jeff Garber marketing manager of Dickinson Theatres down the line after the newness of the Ward Parkway theaters wears off audiences will begin comparing the quality of theaters and our Garber said the two Dickinson theaters most likely to lose audiences to the Ward Parkway complex the Glenwood and the Plaza have a special advantage He said the Ward Parkway complex was and representative of AMC theaters elsewhere while the Glenwood TIVOL SINCE 1910 220 NICHOLS ROAD KANSAS CITY MISSOURI 64112 816-531-5800 800-829-1515 ences of curiosity seekers And most observers of the local movie scene think the new theaters may force at least one competing theater to change its programming to second-run movies for example or even close its doors The Ward Parkway 12 Theatres are noteworthy as well for bringing the history of modem movie exhibition full circle The first multiplex movie theater the brainchild of AMC Chairman Stanley Durwood was bom in the Ward Parkway Center in 1 963 The original Ward Parkway Twin Theatres closed in 1978 but their effect on movie exhibition continues As a result of experiment theater owners across the nation recognized that their future lay not with huge auditoriums showing one movie but with complexes containing several smaller theaters giving audiences a choice Today single-screen movie houses are a rarity in the United States and multiplex theaters have grown popular around the globe Crowd control Though operating division American Multi-Cinema has built 16-screen complexes in several markets the Ward Parkway 12 screens will make it the biggest in this area Individual auditoriums will seat from 175 to 350 people total capacity will be 2700 AMC predicts that as many as 60000 people a month will visit the theaters They are at the northeast comer of the shopping center and take up some of the same space occupied by the original Ward Parkway Twin Theatres AMC has not released a cost figure on the Ward Parkway complex though officials say projection and sound equipment alone cost more than 1 1 0000 for each of the 1 2 auditoriums The theaters will employ 85 people including five managers and Thomas Clark the general manager who said the biggest challenge of running a multiplex theater was scheduling Clark previously worked at Oak Park Plaza 6-plex in Overland Park and at a 10-plex in St Louis want 3000 people getting out of 12 auditoriums at the same Clark said Among the first films to be shown at the Ward Parkway 12 Theatres will be American Tail: Fievel Goes and the Addams and Man in the The most popular of these will be shown on two or even three screens but Clark said sometimes each theater would show a different film important because AMC officials believe that variety will be among the new biggest selling points Competition The two most important factors in movie attendance are the 'Stainless steel with IK kL gold bezel crown case sc rews Depression! 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