20-Screen Theater Complex Planned for Calabasas

Call it “Honey, I Enlarged the Multiplex.”

In a move that would make Calabasas home to one of the nation’s largest cinemas, plans were announced Wednesday for a 20-screen theater complex in the young city by the end of next year.

“It’s a movie junkie’s dream,” said Robert E. Zuckerman, president of Continental Communities, the West Hills development firm that wants to build the project.

The 20-plex, which would best the Universal City Cineplex Odeon by two theaters, would be as large as a complex in Michigan, which has more screens than any other venue in the United States.

The complex would be part of a 270,000-square-foot shopping center planned near Las Virgenes Road off the Ventura Freeway, Zuckerman said. In addition to the 60,000-square-foot AMC Theatres multiplex, the center will include a supermarket, drugstore and other retail outlets, he said.

The multiplex could seat 4,000 people, he said, predicting that the movie house would attract 1.5 million patrons annually. The complex will allow moviegoers to order advance tickets by phone, charging them to credit cards.