It’s Show Time : Complex Opening Today Brings Art Films, High-Tech Venue to Valley Moviegoers

When the new AMC Promenade 16 Theatres complex officially opens its doors today, West Valley moviegoers may be getting more than just 16 auditoriums of state-of-the-art film technology.

They may finally be getting the chance to view movies--at least some of them--that they used to have to travel over the hill to see.

The new complex at the Promenade Mall on Topanga Canyon Boulevard has airliner-style chairs with more leg room, stadium-style seating with unobstructed views, digital sound systems delivering 90 decibels of dynamic range in eight discrete channels, wall-to-wall curved screens to prevent visual distortion, three concession stands with 26 stations, and customer services such as a phone-ahead reservation system and eight ticket booths.

But AMC officials also are promising that Valley movie aficionados will see more limited-release films. And in a more timely manner.

At a recent news conference, AMC Senior Vice President Dick Walsh acknowledged that in the past the Valley had been underserved in that regard.

For years films shown locally have tended to be major studio releases. Limited release, art and foreign films have had a harder time finding their way to the Valley, and when they have, it has generally been weeks after they appeared in other communities.

“Many members of my community are yearning for [these types of films],” said Los Angeles City Councilwoman Laura Chick, who represents the West Valley. “We are a very diverse, sophisticated group of people.”

The number of local screens available to West Valley moviegoers will nearly double with the Promenade 16 opening. AMC Vice President Nora Dashwood said the new Woodland Hills theater is sure to be attractive to film distributors.

“We certainly have the screens, and the right demographics to rival West Los Angeles and Orange County for the limited-release films,” Dashwood said.

Richard Fay, president of AMC Film Marketing and in charge of film buying for the AMC chain, said the dearth of limited-release films is not because the Valley lacks culture, but because of the lack of screens.

“The art films have an audience that has to be cultivated,” Fay said. “In the Valley, it was an under-screened zone.” So, he said, movie complexes have tended to go with the sure-thing commercial films.

Fay said with 16 screens, AMC in Woodland Hills will be able to cultivate, over time, a “mainstream crossover audience”--one that might be willing to see a limited-release picture that has general-interest appeal, such as “Howards End.”

“We’re going to be there 52 weeks a year,” Fay said. “We aren’t going to give up after six months or eight months. Our commitment is to keep something for that audience.”

Films scheduled for showing this weekend at the Woodland Hills complex are “Sgt. Bilko,” “Oliver & Company,” “Diabolique,” “A Family Thing,” “Flirting with Disaster” and “Carried Away.”

Fay said “Flirting with Disaster” is the type of crossover film that would appeal to a lot of Valley moviegoers.

“I’m not saying that it would not have seen the light of day in the Valley before, but with 16 screens, it will be on for at least a month or six weeks,” Fay said.

Larry Gleason, president of MGM Worldwide Theatrical Distribution, whose recent films include “Richard III” and “Leaving Las Vegas,” said extra time is important for the limited-release film.

“Most six- or eight-screen complexes don’t have enough screens to hold a film very long, to book a film in a theater for six weeks and let it develop its audience,” Gleason said. “There’s tremendous pressure to have enough screens to play the commercial product.”

Jack Foley, president of Miramax, the maverick film distributor with hits including “The Crying Game” and “The Piano,” agrees that the new theater will have a major impact on the scope of Valley movie selection.

“The Valley is an untapped territory with potential,” Foley said. “There are a lot of sophisticated moviegoers out there. Sixteen screens give us a chance to access that market.”

Foley also predicted the state-of-the-art theater at the Promenade will be a big draw.

“It’s going to pull [moviegoers] out of Thousand Oaks and Agoura,” Foley said.

But Robert Laemmle, owner of the Laemmle Theater chain, does not believe the new theater will change things appreciably. The Laemmle chain operates the Town Center 5 complex in Encino, the only Valley theater that now screens foreign and art movies. Laemmle differentiated between what he called the important or larger art films and the smaller art films.

“We already play quite a few of those [larger] art films,” Laemmle said of his Encino venue. “I can’t imagine AMC will be screening some of the smaller art films.”

Laemmle said the smaller films just don’t have an audience in the Valley, where venues traditionally do a smaller percentage of business with art films than Westside theaters.

Gleason agreed that the smaller art films, such as “Antonia’s Line,” probably will not be shown at the AMC Promenade 16. But the Woodland Hills theater could open limited-release films such as “Leaving Las Vegas” and “Dead Man Walking.”

Fay, however, said the Promenade 16 lineup might serve as encouragement for Town Center 5 to screen different films as counter-programming.

Whether they do or not, Fay said the increased competition is good for everybody.

“We [AMC] have learned in Dallas and other places, we expand the audience,” Fay said. “We’re turning people on to movies, and it’s good for the movie industry in general.”