Catering to a Movie Nation With Luxury

The Bridge in Los Angeles is the latest in a series of experiments designed to test filmgoers’ appetites for something more extravagant. The Bridge offers a lounge with full bar, plush chairs and reserved seating in its three best theaters--for a price.

Shari Redstone, Boston-based president of National Amusements and Chairman-CEO of CineBridge Ventures, which runs the Bridge, says she saw “a need to personalize the experience, to extend it beyond just buying a ticket, watching a movie and leaving.”

The Bridge’s three Director’s Halls “sell out before any other auditorium in the theater,” she says. As for the higher-than-average ticket price, she adds, “Most people really feel as though they’re getting value for that money, that it’s nice to walk into an auditorium [and] have a reserved seat, to have an usher show you to your seat, to be part of an elite group. People feel special, they feel different. I know that’s one thing I wish I could pay for.”

Redstone says that her father, Viacom Inc. CEO Sumner Redstone, was skeptical about the concept, dismissing it as “just a movie theater,” until he actually went one night. He called her to say that he “got it,” and expressed his support.

Redstone says she hopes to open a second Bridge in Philadelphia next summer in conjunction with the University of Pennsylvania, albeit with “five or six” screens instead of the 17 in Los Angeles. Ideally, she says, the company would like to have “four or five Bridges in the United States, see how it works and then maybe consider the international market.”

The Bridge isn’t the only L.A.-area cinema to cater to more expensive tastes. One of the auditoriums in the new Mann Chinese 6 in Hollywood has a separate, reserved-seat section of 24 “plush” seats, says Rana Matthes, vice president of film and marketing for Mann. The $20 price gives the ticket-holder access to a VIP lounge, where concessions can be ordered and delivered to you at your assigned seat.

Although the concessions are the traditional popcorn, soda and candy available at most theaters, Matthes adds, the lounge is also expected to add games such as backgammon and chess to its specialized offerings.

John Fithian, president of the National Assn. of Theatre Owners, calls luxury cinema an “innovation that can serve important niche markets. They have a lot of promise and potential.” He adds, however, that they work “in particular markets and with particular populations within those markets.”

Chicago, for example, has a theater with a bistro, a bar and an auditorium featuring oversized leather rocking seats. Similar beyond-the-norm treatment is accorded adult moviegoers in Boca Raton, Fla.; Columbus, Ohio; Boston; and Washington, D.C., where alcoholic beverages, more comfortable chairs and even full restaurant menus are available.

Despite higher ticket prices, Fithian thinks the lavish touches aren’t just for the affluent. “Obviously where there is a higher concentration of higher incomes, there’s a higher likelihood that luxury cinema is going to succeed. But it’s not just for higher incomes,” he says. “I think true film buffs in any part of the economy are interested as well.”

But one formula won’t work everywhere, Fithian contends, because of the many variables. “Do you have table food service, or do you have a food line where people can order food items and carry them in themselves? Do you serve alcohol or not? Do you have an entirely separate auditorium for the luxury cinema, or do you make it a part of the auditorium where you have two different sections, one luxury and one regular admittance?

“All these are questions that we are addressing with different experiments in different ways.”

Paul Heth, president of CineBridge Ventures and Redstone’s partner in the business, says that the Director’s Halls at the Bridge “aren’t about income. We’re really geared toward a date business. We’ve found that college students prefer it, affluent yuppies prefer it, all ethnic groups like it. On the opening night of ‘Training Day,’ the 8 o’clock shows in those halls sold out by 5 o’clock. Now we have a whole following of people that want to sit in the same seats.”

Jon Burlingame