Edwards Theatres Planning Major Coming Attractions
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 it has lined up $250 million in financing for the projects, including a major overhaul of the three-screen theater on Bristol Street across from South Coast Plaza.
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 also will be offered at the Irvine Spectrum Center theater, which will be expanded to include five to nine more screens. Currently, that megaplex has 21 screens, including the huge Imax.
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 new 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.
In Orange County, part of the credit line will be used to build a previously announced 22- to 24-screen theater at the Huntington Beach Mall, which is targeted for a major renovation next year.
The most innovative aspect of the expansion is the addition of light meal service at the two movie houses. The chain has not determined what type of food or alcohol will be offered at the cinemas, or how it will be served, Edwards said.
“We’re exploring all different ways of making it work,” he said, including the possibility of serving food in the theater itself. He declined to describe exactly how that would work or to discuss the various scenarios being considered or whether the beverages will include cocktails or just beer and wine.
Other theater companies have experimented with food service at cinemas on the East Coast with “varying degrees of success,” he said.
“I don’t think anybody’s found the right niche yet, but we want to give it a try and see what kind of response we get in Southern California,” he said. “We want to create something unique to both those venues and something very upscale. And I think certainly in Orange County it could do very well.”
The success of such ventures often depends on what types of businesses are located around the theater, industry consultant Gregory Stoffel said.
“If the theater is somewhat free-standing, like a two-screen, it helps it become more competitive,” he said. “If it’s located in an environment or center that has pretty decent selection of food service, like the Block at Orange or Irvine Spectrum” it becomes more competitive and “a little more difficult to pencil.”
Theaters now experimenting with expanded food service offer a variety of options, from pizza and pasta to steak dinners, Stoffel said. At one Toronto theater, moviegoers can dine at a table, just as in a restaurant, while watching a movie.
Competition between theater operators has intensified in recent years, with companies building larger and fancier cinemas for increasingly fussy moviegoers. And despite Edward’s dominance in Orange County, other theater companies have ventured in, sometimes with impressive results.
Edwards’ Spectrum Center theater is the busiest in Orange County, but the next busiest are the 30-screen AMC cinema at the Block at Orange shopping and entertainment center and the 25-screen Century Theaters at the Century Promenade center in Orange, Stoffel said. Regal Cinemas, the nation’s largest theater company, has also been encroaching into Orange County.
“Edwards has been very protective of its ground in Southern California,” Stoffel said. “A lot of the theater chains have gone head-to-head and continue to go head-to-head in the markets across the United States.”
Customers have shown a distinct preference for the upgraded movie houses, which have amenities such as tiered seating, high-back chairs and cup holders. These new theaters have put pressure on the older theaters to upgrade or, in some cases, close down, said Stoffel, of Gregory Stoffel & Associates in Irvine.
“People are tending to shift their patronage from the older cinemas to the newer state-of-the-art cinemas with better sound, better seating, better screens, better everything,” he said.
Consequently, cinema companies are searching for prime locations to build modern movie houses and are closing down smaller, outdated theaters, he said.
Securing the loan in this competitive climate “may signal that Edwards wants to get more aggressive,” Stoffel said.
But Edwards insisted Monday that the expansion is not tied to the influx of other theater chains.
“I don’t think our core market is threatened,” he said.
The expansion is essentially the second phase of a growth spurt that began in 1997 when Edwards decided to erect 200 new screens in California and Idaho.
The chain has completed the first phase.
