Edwards Will Add 144 Theater Screens in ’96 : Entertainment: Among the projects are new multiplexes in Laguna Niguel and Mission Viejo.

James Edwards Sr., who celebrated his 89th birthday with the Nov. 22 opening of a 21-screen movie complex in the Irvine Entertainment Center, said Thursday that his cinema chain would add 144 screens during 1996.

The biggest project is a 21-screen, 4,500-seat theater complex that will be built at a 165,000-square-foot entertainment center under construction in north Fresno. The cineplex will be alongside a 500,000-square-foot shopping center.

In Orange County, Edwards will add 16-screen theaters at the Birtcher Entertainment Center planned for Laguna Niguel and at Kaleidoscope, an entertainment center being built in Mission Viejo.

Other planned local theaters include: a 12-screen theater at Metro Pointe, a shopping center being built in Costa Mesa; a six-screen theater at Santa Margarita Town Center in Rancho Santa Margarita; and a 12-plex at the Birch Street Promenade in Brea.

Edwards said that the complexes would include state-of-the-art sound systems and that the largest would include stair-stepped aisles, which feature increased legroom, as well as a small number of love seats.

The theater locations announced on Thursday are in addition to 17 screens previously made public. The Newport Beach-based chain will have 564 screens at the end of 1996, Edwards said.

“We are continuing to seek additional site opportunities throughout California,” Edwards said. “As we go forward, we will also continue to refine and improve our [existing] complexes.”