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AMC Drops Curtain on Theater Plan : Growth: The operator fears a glut of cinemas in the area. Ventura officials step up their effort to bring a movie house downtown.

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

Leery of entering a potentially saturated cinema market, the AMC theater chain has backed out of a deal to run a multiscreen movie theater in downtown Ventura and has left city officials scrambling to find another operator.

Opening a downtown movie theater has been a major goal of city leaders, who have already invested millions of dollars in redevelopment money to lure visitors downtown.

AMC’s retreat could thwart plans for a proposed 70,000-square-foot movie theater and retail complex, which city officials want to build at the corner of Main and Palm streets.

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“Right now we are in discussions with a few other operators,” project Manager Patrick Richardson said. “Obviously if we don’t find someone, it’s going to have an effect.”

City leaders say they are confident another operator can be found and stand by the city’s commitment to bring a multiscreen movie house to the downtown area.

“I think we will find another operator, and I think AMC will regret the day they pulled out of downtown Ventura,” Councilman Greg Carson said.

AMC officials notified the city last week that they were backing out of the deal because of a potential glut of movie screens in the area, city officials said.

The announcement came just two weeks after Century Theatres submitted an application to add eight more movie screens to its Century 8 theater complex on Johnson Drive in east Ventura.

In addition to Century 8, Ventura has the Mann Buenaventura Theatres and the 101 Drive-In Theatres, both in the east end of the city. Century’s request to expand came just a month before a binding contract was to be signed between the city and a Burbank-based developer to build the downtown theater. City officials said the timing was no mistake.

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“The movie theater business is a very competitive, cutthroat business,” said Everett Millais, the city’s community development director. “The two chains are fierce competitors in the Bay Area.”

Not surprisingly, Century is now one of half a dozen operators the city is courting to run the proposed downtown theater. City officials hope to persuade the theater chain to move downtown instead of expanding.

“We have talked a little bit, and we will talk some more to the Century Theatres folks to try to bring them downtown,” Millais said.

City officials still expect to negotiate an agreement with developer Victor K. Georgino in coming weeks, although Millais said another theater chain may decide to develop the theater independently, pushing Georgino out of the project.

For his part, Georgino said Tuesday that he is working quickly to locate an operator who will work with him. “I think I will have one committed within the time I need,” he said. “It is just a small setback.”

The theater proposal, which would bring a 16- to 20-screen cinema downtown, also includes plans for a parking garage and 25,000 square feet of retail commercial space.

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A movie theater would establish a solid anchor to the newly renovated Main Street corridor, officials say, spurring business and injecting night life into the area.

“We are committed to providing that as an attraction to downtown,” Carson said.

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