New Theater to Nearly Triple Art Film Venues in the Valley

The San Fernando Valley may be home to major studios and filmmakers but it has been short on art house theaters.

That should change Friday at the Fallbrook Mall in West Hills when Laemmle Theaters opens seven screens dedicated to independent releases. The 2,000-seat theater and the Armer Theater, which opened this year at Cal State Northridge, will nearly triple the availability of art house films in the Valley.

“I used to sound condescending too, when talking about Valleyites,” said Bob Laemmle, who owns the Southern California theater chain. “We thought the Valley was a difficult place to play the more esoteric product. But I think it’s time now to show more to those 2-plus-million people who are just as sophisticated and deserving as anyone else.”

Laemmle said his company and others have given the Valley short shrift because of the prevailing notion the area is less sophisticated and more conservative than Beverly Hills, Santa Monica or Pasadena.

Those areas have chichi boutiques and candlelight cafes that invite the indie film crowd. Even Laemmle’s Town Center 5 in Encino--now the only theater in the Valley dedicated to independents--shares a block with one of the busiest hangouts on Ventura Boulevard.

By contrast, the Fallbrook Mall is, like, so Valley. The anchor stores are Kmart and Target, and the shopping center borders strip malls on three sides and tract housing on the other.

The new theater was born from the implosion of the movie theater business last summer and the encroachment of art house theaters in the suburbs.

After filing for bankruptcy in August, General Cinemas shuttered its Fallbrook theater and put its building and equipment up for sale. Laemmle jumped at the chance to put a new theater--his largest to date--in the Valley without having to build from the ground.

Laemmle will convert the box office and auditorium to a more artsy decor, he said.

As general-audience theaters from Buffalo to Irvine have died, art house theaters have moved in. Recent commercial successes of films such as “Shakespeare in Love” proved they could compete at the box office with more basic fare.

Like graffiti and traffic congestion, art house theaters were bound to creep into the suburbs, said Bob Berney, senior vice president of IFC Films, a distributor of indie projects and a division of the company that owns the Independent Film Channel.

“The audience seems to be ready for a challenging, different group of films,” Berney said. “There were too many megaplexes but not enough theaters willing to play art house or specialty films. I see the trend changing at IFC as we’re broadening the amount of prints that go out into suburban theaters.”

Robert Gustafson, director of the Entertainment Industry Institute at Cal State Northridge, said the opening of more indie film screens in the Valley will improve the quality of movies elsewhere.

“It’s good for the creative community to have more outlets for their work,” Gustafson said. “And it’s inspirational for the filmmakers who live here to have people see their work.”

The Northridge theater occasionally screens commercial films, but the venue is primarily reserved for student projects.