Discount Theaters Reel as Audiences Fall, Costs Rise : Cinema: Only a handful of independent film houses have survived.

The 4 o’clock show time was coming up fast at the Eagle Theater, and a long line of kids, couples and seniors was already shuffling into the humble, peach-colored movie house. Inside, excited children ricocheted from one video game to another, distracted for a moment from the day’s double feature and its 75-cent admission price.

General Manager Mike Frydrych of the Eagle Rock theater watched all this with a cool pride, standing on the lobby’s red carpet. Here it was, a good six months since “Driving Miss Daisy” was released in Los Angeles, and it could still attract a sizable audience. The winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture was even attracting some new faces to the regular Thursday afternoon crowd.

“But it’s real tough,” he said.

Frydrych, 31, dressed in white shirt, black tie and big tinted glasses, looked worried. “That’s why when you look in your newspaper under independent theaters, you’ll see every six months or so the list gets smaller and smaller. It’s real hard to compete.”

The Eagle Theater is one of a handful of surviving independent discount houses in or near the San Fernando Valley. It’s a sort of mom-and-pop operation that still values the epic presentation offered by its 40-foot-wide screen, while charging only a fraction of the ever-increasing ticket prices of first-run theaters.

But recent years have been hard on discount theaters with the threat of rising film costs, movie availability, dropping audience interest, competition from the major chains and expiring land leases. Independent houses such as the Holiday Theater in Canoga Park or the Valley Circle Twin in Woodland Hills have either gone out of business or, in the case of the former Theee Movies of Tarzana, been bought out by the major chains.

Fewer than a dozen first-run independents remain in the Valley, with only three second-run theaters offering regular discount prices.

“The independent market here in Southern California has pretty much bottomed out,” said Will Viner, vice president of Cinema Services, which books films for independent theaters. “You had a lot of theaters that were built in the ‘60s, the old single-screen theaters, that had 20-year leases. The leases are now up and the landlord found that it was more profitable to split them into retail stores.

“There never really were a whole lot of independents in the Valley. And the ones that were have gone by the wayside one way or the other.”

Frydrych took over the decaying, 60-year-old Eagle Theater in 1988, after his boyhood memories of big-screen double features won out over his more skeptical advisers. He deflected all suggestions of splitting the 700-seat house into two or more screens, while updating the sound system, carpeting, candy counter and air conditioning.

Even with his regular prices of $2 Fridays through Wednesdays and the 75-cent “bargain” admission on Thursdays, Frydrych said the theater improvements were crucial to keeping an audience.

“A lot of people won’t go to an independent or discount house because they’re afraid when they walk in that the place is going to be thrashed, or the screen’s going to be thrashed, or the films are going to be scratched or the sound’s going to be bad,” Frydrych said. “First-time customers will call up and ask how bad the theater is.”

In Northridge, the Peppertree 5 Cinemas recently completed about $500,000 in renovations. The theater earlier was often the target of graffiti and miscellaneous destruction by vandals who treated the run-down discount venue as if it were fair game, said Marty Valengavich, the theater manager.

“People just didn’t care,” said Valengavich, who managed a theater in the giant UA chain before taking over the Peppertree nearly three years ago. “The place was already pretty much a dump. They just finished it off.”

Owned by the small San Carlos Cinemas independent chain, the Peppertree remodeled with new restrooms, seats, snack bar and additional screens, aiming for a look comparable to a first-run venue. The purchase of a $2 membership card at the theater entitles filmgoers to a $2 admission price Fridays through Sundays and $1 Mondays through Thursdays.

“The public is becoming much more choosy about where they see a movie, regardless of what they pay,” said Viner, whose career as a film buyer was proceeded by work as a theater usher during high school and later as owner of his own independent in Phoenix. “But I guarantee there are many first-run theaters charging top dollar at the box office that are in worse condition as far as cleanliness, presentation on the screen, restrooms, the whole thing, than most of the independent theaters.

“Nowadays, a lot of the independent theaters are mom-and-pop operations where the owner is actually running them. They are there every day, and most of my clients take a lot of pride in their operation.”

A threat to the prices offered by discount houses were new requirements begun by Paramount Pictures last summer with “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” and “Star Trek V.” Under the new guidelines, a minimum per-capita fee was charged to the theater for each viewer of a Paramount film. Consequently, the discount houses were unable to offer the same low ticket prices until six months after the film’s initial release.

In response, independents, including the Peppertree, asked their customers to sign a petition from the National Assn. of Discount Theaters protesting the requirements. The issue was resolved earlier this year with new, specific guidelines that are more workable for the independents. At Paramount, for instance, the per-capita requirement is now pulled four months after the film’s initial release.

But second-run theaters still face problems. For instance, Buena Vista, which distributes Disney and Touchstone films, still has a 28-day window after a film leaves a particular geographic zone’s first-run screens before discount houses can afford the movie. And Warner Bros. offers all sub-run theaters a national availability, which means films can take several months before arriving on a given area’s discount screens.

“Now with the restrictions put on by a lot of the film companies, they’re getting the film closer and closer to when they come out on videotape,” Viner said.

In the past year, for instance, Warner’s “Batman” became available to second-run theaters just one week before it was released on videotape, Viner said. And Disney’s recent animated hit “The Little Mermaid” was released on video less than six months after its initial release.

At the Eagle, Frydrych said he could easily avoid these frustrations by changing to a first-run house, offering the newest movies as they are released. Recently, he was offered comic Andrew Dice Clay’s upcoming big-screen vehicle, “Ford Fairlane,” but turned it down to keep his prices low and maintain his regular customers.

“If I raise it even 25 cents on my bargain day, people will walk away from the box,” Frydrych said. “That’s because they have five kids or whatever, and they come in and they know what it’s going to cost them. They know that for 10 bucks or whatever, their whole family is going to watch the movie and eat.”

On the occasions that he’s had to raise his regular prices for some special attraction, Frydrych said he’s had to wait several weeks for some of his regular customers to return.

Still, ticket prices remain only a secondary factor to the largest segment of the movie-going audience.

“If people don’t want to see a film, they don’t want to pay even 75 cents,” said Tim Warner, president of the California branch of the National Assn. of Theater Owners. “The No. 1 element that all theaters are up against in attracting an audience is whether people want to devote the two or four hours to see these films. If people want to see it, they’ll go see it, and devote the time and money to it.”

But few standing in line outside the Eagle Theater could argue with a double-feature of “Driving Miss Daisy” and “Men Don’t Leave” when combined with prices as low as 75 cents.

John Flynn, who last attended a movie at the Eagle as a teen-ager about 50 years ago, was among those waiting to get inside. He finally returned to the theater, after years of living in Denver, at the opportunity to see the critically acclaimed Oscar winner. It wasn’t until he arrived Thursday with his wife that he learned the uncommonly low admission price.

“Fantastic,” said Flynn, 68. “Hey, 75 cents, I’ll go for it. In fact, I’ll take you. Want to go?”