Popcorn Primer
Now more than ever, Americans’ love affair with the movies is a seasonal relationship. Nearly 40% of last year’s record $1.4 billion ticket sales were generated during what Hollywood (if not your child’s academic calendar) considers summer: mid-May through Labor Day.
The reason for this seasonal surge can be summed up in one word: “more,” as in:
* More kids: School’s out, and teenagers are the most frequent moviegoers, says Jim Kozak of the National Assn. of Theater Owners, and their numbers have been on the rise since 1991.
* More theaters: 31,865 movie screens dotted the domestic landscape at the end of 1997, a 21% increase over just five years earlier. People have really taken to the multiplex concept, Kozak says. “They like the variety of films at one theater and the staggered show times, where the same movie can start every half-hour.”
* More big movies: Hollywood usually pulls out its big box-office guns--Mel Gibson, Harrison Ford, Jim Carrey, Sandra Bullock, etc.--during the summer months.
But more isn’t always better, especially if all 24 screens showing “Godzilla” at your neighborhood 50-plex are sold out, and you have to settle for a bad $8 seat behind someone with big hair at a late showing of a movie you wouldn’t otherwise watch on cable in a few months.
The best way to elevate your summer moviegoing experience is to have a plan. You might want to seek out stadium seating, where it’s impossible for towering hairdos to ruin the view. Or avoid waiting in line for a blockbuster by pre-ordering tickets through MovieFone, practically a prerequisite to nab a seat for a movie’s big opening night. (About 9,500 Los Angeles moviegoers called the service during one peak hour in early May, according to MovieFone statistics.)
On a budget? A theater in the Antelope Valley shows current films once a week for 50 cents a person, the average price of a ticket around 1950. It’s almost worth the drive just to say you got the family in the door for two bucks.
You’re more likely to pay at least $6.50 for the privilege of moviegoing in prime time, and that’s without a trip to the snack bar, which will set the average patron back another $2-plus a head, based on figures kept by the Edwards Cinemas.
The evolution of snack bars into cinema cafes, where the hot dog stand cozies up to the espresso bar, has helped sales increase “dramatically” in recent years, says Skip Stefansen, the Los Angeles-based president-elect of the National Assn. of Concessionaires.
Assuming you plan to line up with the rest of ‘em, we offer 20 film facts, tidbits and nuggets to help you thrive, instead of just survive, this summer at the movies:
1: Dial “M” for movie: Less than 10% of the 110 million calls a year that come into MovieFone are from people trying to order tickets, says Andrew Jarecki, chief executive officer of the decade-old movie information service. The vast majority who dial 777-FILM are calling to pick a flick or figure out where they want to see it. MovieFone figures L.A. consumers saved 690,000 cumulative hours of time last year by calling the service instead of individual theaters.
Coming early this summer, the debut of a seat reservation system, available in New York since November, that allows callers to pick a specific seat, much as they do when they go to the theater. Expect to find the service linked at first with the Cineplex Odeon and United Artists chains, Jarecki says.
2: Least-crowded showing: “The 9 p.m. screening of ‘Barney,’ ” jokes an executive with one national chain. Many exhibitors say it’s the midmorning first show of the day.
3: And most crowded: Geography rules to a certain extent when trying to figure out which show will have lines around the block. “In Century City, you’re going to get an audience predisposed to the 8 p.m. show,” says one local exhibitor. At some theaters in the San Fernando Valley, it’s likely to be the 10 p.m. screening populated by “young adults,” he adds.
In the summer, it’s a tossup between the 8 p.m. show and the last matinee at 5 p.m., according to the Orange County-based Edwards chain.
4: New heights: Stadium seating, the tiered theater design that offers unobstructed views of the big screen, is coming soon to a newly constructed theater near you. It’s already at Pacific Theatres in El Segundo; AMC’s Promenade in Woodland Hills and 30-screen megaplex in Ontario; and the Winnetka 20, the San Fernando Valley’s largest movie venue, with 5,900 seats.
5: Number of previews you’ll sit through: It used to be three to four previews--or trailers--but now it’s five to six, according to exhibitors.
“Everybody is kind of going to five, because the demand and the policing of movie previews by studios is getting as rapid and competitive as booking the movie itself,” according to one local exhibitor. Between commercials--including, yes, the ubiquitous L.A. Times ad--trailers, info about the sound system and requests from the theater not to talk during the movie, you’ll watch 10 to 15 minutes of filler before the feature starts.
6: The trailer police: If the person sitting next to you is taking notes during the previews, he could be a “trailer checker” sent out by the studio to make sure the theater is showing the trailers it agreed to. You’ll probably see two trailers by the studio that made the feature attraction, part of the unwritten protocol between exhibitors and studios.
7: Battle of the big screens: At 86 feet wide and 37 feet high, the Pacific Cinerama Dome still lays claim to being “the biggest commercial first-run screen in the city of Los Angeles.” Runner-up: the Big Newport, the 30-by-80-foot screen at the Edwards Newport Cinema.
8: Kid pix: Parents, circle these dates for the summer’s big child-friendly fare: “Mulan,” June 19; “Dr. Dolittle,” June 26; “Small Soldiers” and “Madeline” July 10; “The Parent Trap,” July 29.
9: For crying out loud: Have really little ones but still want to catch a flick? Take your infant or toddler to the movies at the Edwards’ Rancho Niguel 8 Laguna Niguel, which has two “crying rooms,” soundproof booths where you and your active little ones can take in a movie without worrying about the wrath of other moviegoers.
10: Date with a real dinosaur: Four drive-ins remain in Los Angeles County, down from more than 40 in 1965. The quartet are the Vineland in the City of Industry, the Fiesta in Pico Rivera, the Vermont in Torrance and the Azusa in the San Gabriel Valley. None of the remaining 97 drive-in theaters in California can be found in the San Fernando Valley or Orange County.
11: The audience is plugging its ears: Loudest movie of the summer? Make that “sound enhanced. ‘Loud’ is a bad word,” says Andrea Galvin, a Columbia spokeswoman. “But it’s ‘Godzilla,’ no question. You have Godzilla literally tearing through Manhattan. He’s crushing buildings, stepping on cats.” Other candidates for cotton: “Armageddon” and “Lethal Weapon IV.”
12: Hot summer matchups: June 19: “Mulan” vs. “The X-Files”; July 10: “Lethal Weapon IV” vs. “Small Soldiers” vs. “Madeline”; July 24: “Saving Private Ryan” vs. “Dead Man on Campus.”
13: A kernel of news: The trend toward low-fat popcorn that swept through Southern California theaters four years ago after reports about the artery-clogging effects of oil-popped popcorn is largely MIA. It’s part of a national move back to popcorn prepared in coconut oil, which gives it the taste and aroma of movie popcorn, concessionaire Stefansen says.
“Basically, when people are eating at home, they are thinking healthy,” he says. “When they go out, they are going out for a good time. They tend to be a little more liberal with what their diet will be.”
14: A Starbucks is born: If you’ve gotta have your Starbucks, you’ll find it exclusively at the eight GCC theaters in the Los Angeles area. The less brand-specific coffee mavens can find an abundance of gourmet java at other theater chains. “It feels like a lot of cappuccino bars are going in,” Kozak says.
15: Water world: One item you probably wouldn’t have found at the snack bar five years ago: water for at least $2 a bottle. It’s part of the trend toward increased selection and availability of healthier items at the concession stand, Stefansen says.
16: Shortest wait for ladies’ room: In its newer theaters, AMC is putting in 50% more women’s stalls than the code requires. “You rarely see a line at a new AMC theater,” says Tony Adamson, an AMC spokesman. “We have fresh flowers in the ladies’ restroom and hand lotions.” And for the men? “They’re normal. Nothing fancy.”
17: What you’ll pay: The average price of an adult movie ticket in Southern California is at least $2 higher than the national average admission price, which the Motion Picture Assn. of America says was $4.58 last year, but that’s based on an average of all admissions, including matinees. On the Westside, an AMC movie can set you back $7.75 per person; in outlying areas, it falls to $6.75.
“New York has a $9 ticket price,” reminds one national exhibitor. “What L.A. moviegoers get that New York doesn’t have at all is bargain matinees, which are usually around $4.50.”
18: The cheap seats: Fifty cents gets you in to Cinemark Movies West in Lancaster all day Tuesday. The rest of the week, admission skyrockets to $1 before 6 p.m. and $1.50 after. Other discount houses: The double bill at the Vine Theater in Los Angeles is $5; the Eagle in Eagle Rock charges $1.50 on Thursdays, $3 all other times; and the Edwards Harbor Twin in Costa Mesa is always $3.
19: Big-footed openings: You can’t use inconvenient show times as a reason to miss “Godzilla,” which is playing on 7,200 screens around the country. In its opening week, the movie was shown 32 times on five screens at the Edwards Irvine Spectrum, where for much of the day you never have to wait more than 15 minutes to catch the monster act. Universal City’s Cineplex Odeon ran a close second, getting the box-office beast on seven screens 30 times a day.
20: Waiting for the video: If you miss a blockbuster while it’s in the theaters, you’ll be able to catch it on video as soon as four months after it premieres. The trend toward compressing the once standard six-month window began with “Twister” in 1996 and continued with last year’s “Men in Black,” says Edward Luiag, director of research for the Encino-based Video Software Dealers Assn.
So, for a big summer movie those videos should hit the stores just in time for the . . . holiday movie season.
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Valerie J. Nelson is a freelance writer and frequent contributor to Calendar.
