Burbank, Now Without a Walk-In Theater, Could Soon Have 29

The motion picture business, for years anchored in the city of Burbank, suddenly seems to have discovered that there are profits to be made in its own backyard.

Pacific Theatres announced Tuesday that it plans to build a 10-screen motion-picture theater in west Burbank, making it the third film company in less than six months to express an interest in the city. If all three projects go ahead, Burbank will get its first walk-in movie auditorium in five years--and 28 more.

Burbank has been without a walk-in theater since its last one was torn down for a condominium project in the late 1970s, a predicament that city officials have described as both “embarrassing” and a “disgrace.” The city has long proclaimed itself the hub of the motion picture production industry.

Burbank is home to a number of studios and media companies, including the Burbank Studios, Walt Disney Productions, Warner Brothers, Columbia Picture Industries and the National Broadcasting Co.

The city does have one drive-in theater, but Pacific Theatres plans to use that site for the proposed 10-screen center. The 800-car Pickwick Drive-In Theatre on Alameda Avenue would be converted into a 4,000-seat walk-in theater complex and parking lot by the summer of 1986, according to theater chain spokesman Dan Chernow.

Pacific Theatres already owns the site, but the company has not yet completed architectural plans for the center or acquired necessary city permits, he said.

Chernow said at least two of the auditoriums will be equipped with 70-mm presentation equipment and six-track stereophonic sound systems. He described the project as the firm’s “flagship” operation and said it would be the largest complex owned by Pacific Theatres. The firm now has nine screens at four sites in the San Fernando Valley, he said.

“We think it is in a good area and accessible to people throughout the San Fernando Valley,” Chernow said. “There are a million-plus people in the Valley. And they have proven to be good theater-going people.”

Last fall, Burbank City Council members, frustrated by the city’s inability to attract even one movie theater, pushed the redevelopment staff to strike a deal with local developer Victor Georgino to bring a 10-screen theater to downtown Burbank by next winter.

Mayor E. Daniel Remy said this week that an agreement between the city and Georgino was nearly complete. The Georgino theater, to be managed by American Multi-Cinema of Kansas City, would be built on land sold to Georgino by the Burbank Redevelopment Agency.

A third project, which city officials said is much less likely to materialize, has been proposed by United Artists for the corner of Glenoaks Boulevard and Orange Grove Avenue. Remy said that plans for the proposed nine-screen development have been delayed because of an impasse in negotiations to purchase the land from Southern Pacific Transportation Co.

Chernow said Pacific Theatres is confident that Burbank and the East San Fernando Valley can support 10, 20 or even 29 more theater auditoriums.