Show Time in the Valley

The northwest San Fernando Valley is being transformed into a movie lover’s heaven. If all goes as planned, there will be 37 to 41 screens to choose from within a mile of each other by the summer of 1998. All this at a time when more movie tickets are being sold than at any time since the late ‘50s.

Pacific Theatres has torn down the Winnetka Drive-In’s six screens to make way for a state-of-the-art 25 screen megaplex, expected to open late this summer. Meanwhile, the owners of Northridge Fashion Center are planning to replace the Robinsons-May Home Store with a movie theater with 12 to 16 screens. The shopping center never reopened its six-screen theater after it was damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

This all means the choices for northwest Valley moviegoers will be greatly expanded from the six walk-in theaters and six drive-in screens of the early ‘90s to more than three dozen by next year.

Whether this part of the Valley can accommodate that number of screens remains to be seen.

A representative of the North Hollywood-based National Theater Owners Assn. said the tremendous growth in theaters has helped fuel ticket buying--with 5.9 billion movie tickets sold in 1996, the most since 1959.

Jim Kozak, communications director for the organization, says movie fans may have had their fill of video and pay cable and are ready to return to the theater for the total experience.

“At the theater, you have the audience, you get to see it first and on a big screen,” he said.

“The area will be saturated once these 25 screens are built. I don’t think there will be a need for the theaters in Northridge.” Neil S. B. Haltrecht, Pacific Theatre’s vice president of real estate, referring to the planned Chatsworth megaplex.

“Our preference would be to not have them so close, but we believe they can coexist.” Donn Fuller, Senior vice president of MEPC America Properties, which owns the Northridge Fashion Center.

NORTHRIDGE SITE PLAN

* Operator: Undetermined; negotiations are underway with four operators.

* Projected opening: May or June 1998; construction to start late this summer.

* Number of screens: 12-16; reduced from previous plans for 20-24 screens.

* Total seats: About 2,800 maximum.

* Theater: Largest is about 300 seats; smallest about 150 seats; total square footage: 55,000-60,000 square feed; special aspects: stadium seating equipped with retractable armrests; digital sound in all auditoriums.

* Types of films to be shown: First-run.

* Concessions: Undetermined.

* Other nearby restaurants: Three new sit-down eateries, including a Claim Jumper restaurant, will be built near the theater, where there is an existing Coco’s.

* Parking capacity: 8,000 for entire mall, including 1,563 stalls in adjacent parking structure.

CHATSWORTH SITE PLAN

* Operator: Pacific Theaters.

* Projected opening: Mid-August; construction underway.

* Number of screens: 25.

* Theater: Largest is about 400 seats; smallest about 165 seats; total square footage: 100,000 square feet; special aspects: stadium seating with lush, high back seats equipped with retractable armrests; wall-to-wall screens, and digital sound in all auditoriums.

* Types of films to be shown: First-run and possibly art and foreign films.

* Concessions: Food court area in the front of the theater, plus three concession stands.

* Other nearby restaurants: Three sit-down, mid-priced restaurants will be built at the opposite end of the property. No leases have been signed yet; negotiations are underway. Restaurants will open at the same time as the theaters or shortly after.

In the future: The 9.7 acres between the theater and the railroad tracks to the south will someday become Phase II of the center. Details have not been released, but officials at Pacific Theatres say it will be a “complementary use.” The land which needs to be rezoned, will remain vacant for now.

Sources: Pacific Theatres; MEPC American Properties, National Theater Owners Assn. Researched by STEPHANI STASSEL / Los Angeles Times