San Fernando Valley : BOWING OUT

Meanwhile, Pacific Theatres Corp. has quietly scrapped plans to build a 20-screen theater near Topanga Plaza in Woodland Hills, which would have been the largest in the San Fernando Valley.

The site of the planned theater, just south of Victory Boulevard, will be surrounded by other nearby theaters with 32 screens before the end of the year, but the company gave no specific reasons for its decision.

Pacific Theatres General Manager Jay Swerdlow issued a statement saying only that the company was unable to make a satisfactory financial deal. But Amy Wood, the company’s advertising director, said competition from other theaters had “absolutely nothing to do with the decision.”

She said the company will continue to operate the Pacific Topanga, a three-screen theater across Victory Boulevard from Topanga Plaza that seats 925.

Pacific received preliminary approval from the Los Angeles Planning Department in July, 1994, to build a 20-screen, 4,500-seat theater. That proposal was scaled back to an 18-theater plan--advertised by signs along Topanga Canyon and Victory boulevards.

Then AMC announced that it had bought space two blocks south and was going to build a 16-screen complex of its own.

Art Murphy, box office analyst for the Hollywood Reporter, said it is common for theater companies to scout out the same areas for expansion--neighborhoods that are overpopulated and underserved. “There may be more theaters on the drawing board than ever get opened.”