'Dark Knight': Hollywood's new art-house hit?

Gareth Wigan can’t remember the last time he went out to a movie on a Saturday night.

But, this past weekend, the veteran Sony Pictures executive not only broke with tradition, but he went to see, of all things, “The Dark Knight.” At 76, Wigan hardly fits the demo that rival studio Warner Bros. was targeting on opening weekend of its new blockbuster. And, where Wigan went to see the film was equally surprising: the Landmark Theatres—an upscale, state-of-the-art multiplex in West Los Angeles known for playing specialized films such as the current releases “The Visitor,” “The Wackness” and “Mongol.”

Wigan and his wife, longtime publicist Pat Newcomb, typically go to Sunday matinees. But Sunday afternoon they had another engagement, so Saturday night it was. Wigan said he was anxious to see the new Batman movie but wasn’t about to go to another of his favorite theaters, the AMC Century City 15, where he’d surely have to fight the herd of filmgoers. “I’m not that crazy about crowds,” says Wigan, a soft-spoken Brit whose career in Hollywood spans more than four decades.

At Landmark, unlike most theaters around the country, there were no lines of crazed fans dressed as Heath Ledger’s Joker character. That’s because Landmark, like Pacific Theatres’ ArcLight Cinemas, offers moviegoers reserved ticketing — particularly appealing to hassle-intolerant adults who can be assured of a specific seat even though they have to pay more. “I wouldn’t have gone to see the most popular movie of the year without being able to pre-buy and reserve tickets,” says Wigan.

So, how did it come to pass that a big studio movie like “Dark Knight” wound up playing on four out of 12 screens at what is essentially an art-house theater that doesn’t exactly cater to teens? Typically, more commercial movies play a few miles down the road in Westwood or Century City, though Landmark has played a smattering of bigger films since its $20-million, 2,000-seat luxury theater was built last June. Landmark’s chief executive, Ted Mundorff, said while the theater’s core business continues to be “smart, independent movies” for sophisticated audiences, he likes also playing the more popular films when he can get his hands on them.

“By and large commercial films have been hard to book,” said Mundorff, who not only called Warner Bros. to see if he could book “Dark Knight” but actually had the chutzpah to ask for an exclusive run without it playing in Century City’s AMC complex. Nice try. The studio wasn’t about to bypass one of the city’s most heavily trafficked movie venues.

Mundorff said the film is performing extremely well and that most of the shows sold out over the weekend.

“Hopefully, the success of ‘Dark Knight’ will give me more access to studio product.”
But, don’t look for Landmark to cede its place anytime soon as the Westside’s go-to-upscale multiplex for offbeat fare.

Photo of the Landmark by Spencer Weiner/Los Angeles Times; Christian Bale in "Dark Knight" from Warner Bros.