Edwards to Add 250 Screens Over 3 Years

Edwards Theatres Circuit Inc., embarking on its most ambitious expansion effort, is planning to boost its total movie screens by 25% over the next three years while experimenting to see if moviegoers want food service beyond hot dogs and popcorn.

The Newport Beach-based movie chain said Monday that it has lined up $250 million in financing for the projects, which include a major overhaul of its three-screen theater on Bristol Street across from the South Coast Plaza shopping mall.

That aging movie house will be transformed into an upscale “Edwards Palace Theatre” that will serve light meals and alcoholic drinks. It will also boast “very luxurious seating,” the company said, and a screen that will be at least 65 feet wide, rivaling the largest regular movie screen in Orange County.

Light meal service will also be offered at the Irvine Spectrum Center, which will be expanded to include five to nine additional screens. Currently, that megaplex has 21 screens, including an Imax screen.

With the financing, arranged by a Bank of America Corp. unit, Edwards plans to add 211 screens in California and 39 in Idaho, bringing its total screen count to about 1,000 and making it the nation’s 10th-largest cinema chain.

The chain plans to build movie houses as well as expand or renovate existing theaters, most of them in Southern California. Edwards already operates more movie screens in Orange County than any other chain.

The expansion “fortifies our resolve to protect our core markets,” said President James Edwards III, adding that the financing “brings a reality level to everything.”

The chain has about 730 screens in California and 21 in Idaho. Executives declined to discuss expansion plans outside those states.