New for your movie-going experience

It wasn’t “The Matrix Reloaded” or “Finding Nemo” but the San Jose Earthquakes and Los Angeles Galaxy that were playing in Theater 1 of Regal Cinemas’ Lincolnshire Stadium 20 on a recent rainy Wednesday night. A sparse crowd of about 20 was huddled for a soccer match being broadcast live and in high-definition television.

Elsewhere in the megaplex, patrons on hand for a motion picture may have been wondering, “Where’s the remote?” Plasma-screen TVs in the lobby were showing advertising, and 20 minutes of ads and infotainment preceded the previews and feature films in the auditoriums.

Closed-circuit TV sporting events and boob tube-type advertising long have been fallbacks of theater chains mining for extra revenue. But Centennial, Colo.-based Regal Entertainment Group, the nation’s largest theater chain, is taking the TV model to a new level.

Regal announced in December plans to build a $70-million network of more than 400 theaters, representing some 4,900 screens, that can receive by satellite, store and digitally project so-called alternative content -- ads, sports events, concerts and business or educational programming, but not movies -- some of which is being produced for Regal. With the alternative programming already in some theaters, the upgrade is well underway. Scheduled for completion in March, it will include 208 screens offering the wide-screen format and enhanced sound and clarity of high-definition TV.

“We are creating a network of 400 affiliates called theaters,” said Ray Nutt, executive vice president for business development of Regal CineMedia, employing a broadcasting analogy.

Regal CineMedia is producing what parent Regal Entertainment calls a Digital Content Network. It claims to be far ahead of competitors in terms of its investment in digital projection, use of high-speed transmission of data and deals with advertisers and programmers.

“Regal is certainly taking an aggressive posture on digital content in cinemas,” said John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theatre Owners, based in North Hollywood.

Some also may see Regal as leading the exhibition industry in a long-anticipated transition to digital cinema, the projection of full-length movies that are in bits and bytes, not on celluloid. But Regal does not seek that crown.

“When digital cinema gets here and who will subsidize it remains to be seen,” said Nutt, citing the far-higher costs involved and adding, “Somebody else would have to subsidize it, that’s for sure.”

Presumably that would be the movie studios and not Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz, the oil, real estate, railroad and telecommunications tycoon who is Regal Entertainment’s controlling shareholder.

Anschutz interests gained control at bargain prices of the Regal, United Artists and Edwards theater chains as they emerged in the last few years from U.S. Bankruptcy Court protection -- part of a wave of Chapter 11 filings in an overextended exhibition industry. The chains were able to shed bad leases and underperforming properties as part of their financial reorganization, and Anschutz combined them in Regal Entertainment, which went public in May 2002.

Regal now operates 6,159 screens in 567 theaters in 39 states -- including more than 600 screens in Southern California, all of which are being upgraded.

Regal CineMedia recently agreed to show four Wednesday night HDTV broadcasts of Major League Soccer matches in four theaters nationwide: Lincolnshire, Denver, New York and the Spectrum in Irvine. Anschutz has helped prop up the league; he operates the Chicago Fire as well as the Los Angeles Galaxy and four other teams featured in the HDTV broadcasts -- three of which originate from his new Home Depot Center soccer stadium in Carson.

Anschutz entertainment arms have promoted rock concerts that have been distributed to select Regal theaters over the Digital Content Network, such as a recent HDTV broadcast of a concert by Beyonce Knowles.

Regal CineMedia’s Nutt said the company maintains an arm’s-length relationship with other Anschutz interests and isn’t limiting its programming sources to them.

He said the company seeks to supplement revenue by filling seats during slow hours, and HDTV helps the draw for concerts on Tuesday nights and sports on Wednesday nights.