Family Business Faces Growth Challenge

As the name Edwards Theatres Circuit Inc. suggests, this is a family business.

And, while the chain lost its visionary leader with the death Saturday of 90-year-old James Edwards Sr., four Edwards family members are still handling day-to-day operations and plotting strategic direction.

James Edwards III, Edwards’ son, is president and chief operating officer. A daughter, Joan Edwards Randolph, is senior vice president and chief financial officer. Another daughter, Carole Ann Ruoff, is assistant treasurer. A grandson, Don Barton, serves as vice president and the manager of marketing and sales.

During the past decade, Edwards gradually had been turning over duties to family members and spending more time at vacation spots on Catalina Island and Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho.

And on Saturday, James Edwards III said that the company that now controls six of every 10 motion picture screens in Orange County “would continue to grow and expand. . . . We want to continue to carry on with his vision, his dreams for the business.”

In recent weeks, the company that operates more than 500 screens in California opened massive cineplexes in Ontario and Bakersfield and broke ground in Fresno and the first out-of-state location in Boise, Idaho.

But as the children and grandchildren move the family business into its next chapter, they’ll be playing in an increasingly competitive industry where miscues can be costly.

The financial stakes are being ratcheted up as independent, regional chains like Edwards race against deep-pocketed national chains like United Artists and AMC Entertainment to build costly cineplexes with thousands of seats, 20 or more screens and huge snack bars.

The battle is evident in Orange, where Century Theatres has proposed a 24-plex and AMC has proposed a 30-screen theater. In Brea, Anaheim and Fullerton, chains are planning to add 100 screens.

When asked recently if the county was at the point of saturation, James Edwards Sr. answered with a flip remark: “The only way to know when there are too many theaters is when the last one is built.”

National chains continue to squeeze smaller independents out of the market. But observers say that there’s still room for good-sized regional companies like Edwards in Southern California, Wehrenberg Theatres Inc. in St. Louis and Harkins Theatres in Arizona.

But as regional chains saturate their core markets, they face tough decisions on where to grow. That’s the case with Edwards, which dominates its Orange County core market.

“As we continue to grow, we need to go outside of Southern California,” James Edwards III said Saturday. “That’s why we’re going to Fresno and Boise.”

It’s unlikely that moviegoers in Orange County will notice any changes in how the chain operates.

It was business as usual Saturday night at the Edwards Cinema at Fashion Island, where the Edwards family maintains its business office.

Karla Zacher, a 30-year Huntington Beach resident, voiced a common observation about the Edwards chain: “There are so many Edwards Cinemas, that chances are that a movie you want to see is playing that night at one.”

Newport Beach resident Yuri Lagno, 22, recalled his first exposure to American movie theaters two years ago, when as a fresh immigrant he’d attend about three times a week.

“I’m from Russia, and we’ve never had cinemas like this,” he said. “All the [marquee] lights and the rocking seats . . . amazing.”

Also contributing to this report was Times staff writer Peter Noah.