People Still Want to Go Out to the Movies

Coming soon: a movie theater in your own back yard.

In the span of 10 years, Ventura County has gone from a paucity of theaters to a multiplicity of multiplexes. Even more are on the way as developers fight for our movie bucks.

How will this affect the average moviegoer? Before, you had to get in your car and drive for miles to see a lousy movie. Pretty soon, you’ll be able to walk to a lousy movie.

It’s possible that an increase in theaters will spark a decrease in prices for tickets and popcorn, but don’t expect a better and more diverse choice of movies, just more of the same as Hollywood cranks up production to feed the new screens.

But theaters themselves will change as chains turn them into multidimensional entertainment environments, says staff writer Pancho Doll, who wrote this week’s Centerpiece on multiplex mania.

“Industry insiders were telling me about some really fascinating stuff on the horizon,” Doll said. “By the end of the decade, the simple movie house that most people are accustomed to will be an anachronism.

“They’re going to look more like miniature amusement parks with 3-D rides, an IMAX screen, joy sticks on the armrests so viewers can participate in the movie as if it were a video game. All this stuff is happening now in leading markets, and it’s just going to be a matter of time until it penetrates to Ventura.”

It may be surprising to hear that movie chains are furiously building in the county, especially in the era of corporate downsizing and competition from other forms of entertainment. Doll himself was amazed.

“When I first crunched the numbers on theater growth, I was flabbergasted,” Doll said. “For more than a decade, we’ve been hearing all about home theater, video on demand, the 500-channel spectrum and all that. It just didn’t make sense that the traditional medium could survive, much less grow at a feverish rate.”

Doll’s research confirmed a nationwide trend and made him question the conventional wisdom.

“I’m a huge techno-dweeb who can’t wait to get a high-speed pipeline direct to the Internet,” he said. “But all the talk about how the information superhighway will negatively impact movie exhibition is a crock. I believe the opposite it true.

“If more people start telecommuting, as seems inevitable, they’re not going to want to stay home with their face stuck in a tube after the workday is done. They’re going to want to go out.”