Pink’s Branching Out as a Box-Office Draw

Ever since the Winnetka 20 movie theater opened last year in Chatsworth, Lila Carone has come here almost weekly, usually in the afternoons.

But it’s not the bargain matinees that draw her. It’s the food--specifically, the Pink’s chili cheese hot dogs. A Los Angeles culinary institution, Pink’s hot dogs were available only at the original Pink’s stand on La Brea Avenue near Melrose Avenue until the Winnetka 20 started selling them last year.

“I come with a friend just to buy the hot dogs for lunch. We don’t even stay for a movie,” said Carone, who lives in Chatsworth. “I’m the biggest Pink’s fan there is.”

But she’s far from the only one. During the theater complex’s first year in business, it sold 175,000 hot dogs--about a third the number sold annually at the La Brea stand, and at a higher price.

Based on that enthusiastic response, the Pacific Theatres chain and Pink’s owners are slowly bringing the legendary dogs to movie patrons at other locations.

Pacific now sells Pink’s dogs at its Northridge Fashion Center multiplex, which opened last November, and is considering adding them to the snack-bar menu at its Beach Cities complex in Manhattan Beach.

The chain is also looking to bring the dogs to one of its multiplex cinemas in Hawaii.

The idea of visiting a theater for a hot dog may sound a bit far-fetched, but Pink’s has inspired considerable devotion in its 60-year history.

With a reputation as the hot-dog haunt of the stars, Hollywood folklore has Pink’s as the place where Bruce Willis proposed to Demi Moore. Director David Lynch has included Pink’s in an upcoming TV series based in Los Angeles. Rosie O’Donnell, while in town filming her talk show, had 1,300 Pink’s chili dogs delivered to her studio audience.

It was that cachet that the Pacific Theatres chain hoped to tap into when it signed an exclusive distribution agreement with the family-owned Pink’s. But adding the dogs to the menu lineup isn’t all that simple.

Each theater complex must be big enough to accommodate the special steamers and staff to prepare the hot dogs according to Pink’s standards. Another consideration is whether the venue has close enough ties to Los Angeles to play off the devotion and nostalgia the Pink’s name inspires.

Meanwhile, the Pink family is looking into selling its hot dogs at a few other locations. Richard Pink, the son of Pink’s founder Paul Pink, said likely candidates include an airport terminal or college campus.

According to Jody Darrow, Pacific Theatres’ director of concessions, hot dogs account for about 20% of all snack-bar sales at Pacific theaters where conventional hot dogs are sold. But the percentages are higher at the Winnetka 20 and Northridge Fashion Center theaters that sell Pink’s.

And in keeping with a tradition familiar to moviegoers who suffer sticker shock when buying popcorn and soda, the Pink’s dogs carry a hefty markup. A 10-inch stretch chili dog that sells for $2.60 at the Pink’s on La Brea costs $3.50 at the Winnetka 20.