World's largest 20-Plex Theater to be built in Moore

[TheImmortal]

I know there is a post for Moore but I found this big enought o have its' own discussion.

Warren Theatres, out of Wichita, Kan., announced today it will be building a 150,000-square-foot, 20-plex movie theater in Moore off Interstate 35.

The estimated cost for the theater is $30 million and it is scheduled to break ground within five months and be completed next December.

The theater will be situated off 19th Street in south Moore on a 25-acre site west of I-35 and off Telephone Road. The 20-plex will sit behind a Wal-Mart Superstore and be the north anchor of the growing commercial development off 19th Street, including the Riverwalk retail area.

Warren Theatres Founder and President Bill Warren said his theaters are distinct in that they are reminiscent of the grand cinemas of yester-year, including art deco architectural elements, luxury terrazo marble and granite flooring and detailing and plaster sculpted ceilings. However, he said his theaters have the modern touches, as well, and include custom-designed, high-back recliner seats.

As well, the theater will be the metropolitan area's first theater to include balcony seating (for an extra $15 fee), custom designed love seats, at-your-seat dining and cocktail services, a lounge, and an intimate sitting area featuring a fireplace. The theater also will house a "Forties-style" soda fountain, game room and crying room for families.


In an Oklahoma City press conference today, Warren said the theater will be the largest 20-plex in the world, complete with 80 foot wide wall-to-wall screens and waterfall draperies which will rise when the movie is about to start. And, unlike other cineplexes, the Warren Theatre will not feature advertising on its screens prior to movie showings.

However, Warren said, his theater's tickets prices will be comparable to other theaters in Oklahoma.

Currently, Warren Theatres is comprised of a handful of theaters in the Wichita, Kan., and Springfield, Mo., areas. As to why Warren chose Moore to build his company's largest theater he said: "We really looked around and because of Moore's growth and the highway access and certainly because of the warm reception from the mayor and all of the people, it was a really good choice."

Warren, who used to own some years ago a theater in Tulsa and the former Shepherd Twin Theater at Shepherd Mall, added: "I love Oklahoma City, always have. We've been looking to come to the Oklahoma City area for 24 months.

When the Warren Theatre in Moore is completed next year, it will employ about 200 people dressed in "uniforms reminiscent of Radio City Music Hall," be safety patrolled, be equipped with automatic ticket machines and conduct ticket sales via the phone and Internet, as well.

Spangenberg Phillips Architecture, out of Wichita, KS is heading the design of the complex, Warren said, and the bidding for a general contractor soon will commence.- OKCBusiness.com

[TheImmortal]

Why couldn't these guys have come along before Harkins? This would have been a perfect type establishment for Bricktown...something visitors would truly remember...and something residents can't experiance anywhere else in the metro. sigh.

[HOT ROD]

ya. it would hav e been nice to have this real tourist attraction downtown.

But at least it is in the OKC metro area. Although I want downtown to get much of the investment and activity, it is great to see the rest of the metropolitan area grow and prosper as well.

Good for Moore and Great for the Oklahoma City Metropolitan Area!

[HOT ROD]

but yeah,

It would have been nice to have the Warren Movie House in Bricktown, while the Harkin's Cinemaplex could have been located elsewhere downtown or in the suburbs (since it is quite suburban).

[Pete]

They are planning a location at the SWC of Memorial and McArthur as well.

[Patrick]

They are planning a location at the SWC of Memorial and McArthur as well.

They're dreaming if they think their theater will be able to compete with the AMC Theater at Quail Springs.

I'm surprised these theater companies are still building in the metro area. All current marketing studies show that the metro area is saturated when it comes to movie houses.

By the way, don't put too much hope in Bill Warren. He originally proposed a theater in Bricktown to replace the Edwards Theater Hogan had chosen. Needless to say, Hogan found working with Warren to be somewhat of a joke, and he went with Harkins instead. Warren may very well build a theater in Moore, but in the past he's been more talk than action.

http://www.bizjournals.com/wichita/s...y1.html?page=2

[Karried]

Patrick, I agree wholeheartedly with you. For some reason, when I drive through that section of Moore, it is such a different experience ( somewhat negative) - especially compared to Quail Springs - that place is hopping - night and day - the theatres are always packed. And isn't Quail still supposed to get big Omniplex Screen next year?

I do wish them well, it can only help our economy but still?...

[Patrick]

Oh, I was actually referring to the comment that they were going to build a multi-screen Warren's Cinema at MacArthur and Memorial. That's just a few blocks from AMC. Way too close to ever be able to compete. They'd be better off just sticking to Moore.

[BDP]

Patrick, thaks for the link. I thought I remebered something with Warren and Bricktown. I found this interesting though...

"Mr. Hogan is doing a sizable development of retail and specialty shops, so we're studying how the theater could fit in."

Ummmm, what happened to that? Maybe it's not Warren that's the joke when it comes to lower bricktown.

[cinedude]

Does anyone happen to know the name of the architect and/or architectural firm designing this theater?

[Patrick]

Is it even still a go? I haven't heard anything new about this in months. I'll be surprised if Warren actually follows through.

We have plenty of theaters on the metro area. In fact, the market is just about saturated. I don't see the point in opening another multi-plex cinema at this point.

I guess the one in Moore would make more since than another one on Memorial though.

The south side only has two large theaters, one at Crossroads, and one in Norman.

[BricktownGuy]

I think the southside does need another large theater. Hollywood in Norman... is always really busy and some of their seats are really uncomfortable.

I think this site is another Ron Wilhite development, if I am not mistaken.

[writerranger]

$30 million theater project to start today
Oklahoman, The (Oklahoma City, OK)
March 30, 2006
Author: Staff Reports

Warren Theatres will break ground on its $30 million project in Moore today.

The Wichita, Kan.-based company plans to build a 20-screen theater, which will be off Interstate 35 and SW 19 Street in the development area known as Riverwalk North.

(from Oklahoman Archives) via library's Newsbank

[OklaCity_75]

I found some pictures of the one in Wichita. The theater will most likely look something like these photos.

[OklaCity_75]

Photos Continued

[writerranger]

No question his theaters are showplaces. I like that he wants to bring back the old cinema palaces of old. When the multi-screen theaters came in - all thought to decor went out; he's making a name for changing that.

[Bobby H]

They're dreaming if they think their theater will be able to compete with the AMC Theater at Quail Springs.

LOL! You're joking right? Have you ever been to one of the Warren locations in Wichita?

There's simply no comparison. A Warren theater soundly stomps the tar out of any AMC location, period. We're talking a monumental difference in presentation quality.

I'm sorry, but most AMC locations stink by virtue of the really odd choices in their auditorium designs. Many have non-perforated, vacuum sucked Torus screens. You cannot put speakers behind them. Instead they are mounted above and below. Echo is an awful problem. On top of that, many AMC auditoriums have the surround speakers stupidly stuffed up into the ceiling. So you get really hollow sound quality of one effectively out of focus audio channel in front of you and another on top of your head. That's just plain awful. AMC does this for the marginal benefit the Torus screen can provide to picture quality. But the difference isn't all that noticeable compared to another theater with traditional screens that simply handles and projects film correctly.

Warren Theaters typically builds all of their auditoriums using best of breed equipment. All of their 1st run theaters are THX-certified. They regularly tune their auditoriums and check projection. So when you see a show there you're going to see an appropriately sharp picture and have surround sound that sounds great and isn't wimpy.

On top of that, Warren is putting more into the decoration and showmanship atmosphere than I have ever seen at any of AMC's locations. Putting it simply, I'll drive a significant distance to watch a movie at a Warren location. I won't drive out of my way to watch a movie at an AMC location.

The only thing I don't like about the design of the Warren 20 in Moore is their largest theaters are going to have screens that are too big.

Warren is boasting the theater will have screens 80' wide. I'm sorry, but no 35mm projector made can fully light such a screen to SMPTE specs (12 foot lamberts at the edge and 16 foot lamberts in the center). No digital projector alive can do it either. Christie's newest 3-chip 2K DLP model doesn't take a lamp any larger than 6000 watts. You need 10,000 to 15,000 watts of lamp power to illuminate such a screen properly. A 5-perf 70mm lamphouse is the smallest gate that will manage it without burning the film. Frankly an 80' screen is getting into IMAX territory (15-perf horizontally drawn 70mm).

Given that 70mm is pretty much dead in traditional movie theaters (not counting special venue), Warren would have done better to keep the screens at no more than 55' or 60' in width. Before anyone brings up the Cine Capris in Bricktown -that 70' screen is also too big for 35mm to handle. They have a high quality Kinoton projector in that booth complete with a liquid cooled gate, custom reflector and 7,000 watt lamp. But for all that effort the pictures still look dim. 5/70mm prints would look a LOT better.

[John]

I believe they (Warren) still have the Gaillardia location on the backburner.

That might be the death of the Quail AMC.

[cinedude]

I did some digging and was able to find that the Moore Warren is being designed by Wichita-based Spangenberg, Phillips Architecture, the firm that designed the three Warren Theatres in Wichita. It will be similar in design to the east side and west side 20 screen Wichita houses, but maybe a bit more orderly, since it will be built all at once and the Wichita theatres started with fewer screens and were later expanded.

The pictures posted by OklaCity 75 are interesting. The decoration of the dining area of the theatre looks a bit more successful than that in the auditorium, where it looks as though the elements are just glued to the walls rather than integrated into the structure. The outside is gigantic- I find it a bit intimidating, even in a photograph. Still, it's better than the bland, monstrous boxes that most theatre chains were building a few years ago.

[Patrick]

I don't question that Warren Theaters are nicer than AMC, Harkins, or whatever. I just question them locating down the street from an already existing 24 screen theater complex. One of the theaters will lose out, and I'd hate to see another empty box in either location. The mall location would be the most difficult to fill.

Quail Springs is already having problems getting national retailers to locate in their mall. Penn Square is stealing them all. I have a feeling, the loss of AMC at Quail would be devastating for that mall, especially if a mall is also built in Edmond.

Developments like Spring Creek Plaza have already hurt Quail. Stores like Ann Taylor loft, Talbots, etc. are choosing to locate there instead of the mall.

Seems like the two locations for upscale stores right now are Spring Creek or Penn Square. I have a feeling those two will remain dominant in that area.

[Bobby H]

I'm not familiar with Warren's effort to build a movie theater along Memorial Road on the north side of Oklahoma City, and in somewhat close proximity to Quail Springs Mall and the AMC 24-plex operating inside.

I thought a comparison was being drawn between the AMC site and the new Warren theater being built south of OKC, in Moore. It seemed a little like an "AMC is the best in town" sort of claim. Currently Harkins' Bricktown complex is Oklahoma City's best movie theater. But probably not for long. And the area's movie fans will benefit.

As to the health of Quail Springs Mall, I agree a new, lush and luxurious, all-THX Warren site just down the street from there has potential to be devastating to AMC's business and the mall in general.

However, I think the AMC theater there will still get a lot of traffic for a couple of reasons.

First, if both theaters are within a couple of miles of each other they won't be able to show the same movies. They'll be stuck in an allocation agreement system where film companies will have to divide their releases between both locations.

Some movie fans like myself are very discriminating on what we expect in show quality from a theater. Others don't seem to care.

In my neighborhood in the Lawton area, the Carmike 8 is by far the best place to see a movie. But more people go to the Central Mall theater with its tiny screens and lackluster presentation quality. Carmike is even going to convert all 8 screens to digital projection using Christie's new 3-chip 2K DLP CP2000 model. But lots of people will probably still drive to the mall because it's the closest theater.

More long term, Quail Springs Mall and most traditional shopping malls as we know them will eventually disappear.

Many merchants are preferring to build bigger stores either in standalone configuration or in large strip shopping centers with a limited number of big tenants.

Shopping malls have very limited space and tend to command very high rent prices. They're extremely limiting when it comes to movie theaters. The space is far too cramped and the ceilings are way too low. AMC was only able to build the Quail Springs 24 by adding a new structure and covering up the diagonal glass atrium that used to serve as the front of the mall.

[OklaCity_75]

Memorial and Macarthur was supposed to be the site of the new theater.

Plans may have been scrubbed for it because all the people living behind the site were complaining about the possiblilty of traffic problems.

I hate to tell those people that a shopping center has been planned for Memorial and Macarthur for some time now. Possibly long before the houses were built behind the site.

[Patrick]

More long term, Quail Springs Mall and most traditional shopping malls as we know them will eventually disappear.

I think that depends. Malls that make an aggressive effort to lure upscale tenants will continue to do well. The Gallerias, Mills Malls, etc. have a unique offering of stores that sets them apart from strip centers and open air centers.

At the present time, I'd have to say Penn Square is the only mall in the city headed in the right direction. Crossroads has already fallen, and Quail Springs will if they don't aggressively seek unique tenants.

I don't think you'll see too many new malls built in years to come, and you'll see many under producing malls converted to other uses, but the strong malls in their respective markets will continue to thrive.

[Patrick]

by adding a new structure and covering up the diagonal glass atrium that used to serve as the front of the mall.

And I still think that was a mistake. I miss the feel of the old Quail Springs.

[SoonerDave]

More long term, Quail Springs Mall and most traditional shopping malls as we know them will eventually disappear.

Yeah, that idea has been around for two decades, and yet the malls persist. Granted, many of them are bereft of quality tenants, but they remain, nonetheless.

When I was in college, the prediction was the same, malls were dead, and plans were unfolded to "demall" North Park Mall, and those plans never went anywhere.

As far as theaters go, if I were Regal at Crossroads, I'd be worried, although the distance between them isn't exactly as "next-door" as you might initially think. Regal hasn't done much with that theater since it opened, and they shut down a nice little snack/coffee bar maybe a month after it opened. The place is clean, seats are so-so, and I don't consider it a "destination" theater as I do AMC at Quail. Hollywood in Norman is an absolute pit. Went there one time - to see Titanic, in fact - YUCK. Not again. Regal is a night for the latest animated kid-flick; AMC is a date night. And even that is mitigated (sometimes significantly) by Harkins downtown.

Warren will probably negatively impact the likelihood of my going to AMC on the northside. AMC needs to get its act together and build the IMAX at Quail they hyped up over a year ago, but never did. Whazzup with that? Anyone know?

Its kinda ridiculous that all these new theaters have popped up all over town, and there's not an IMAX in the bunch.

-SoonerDave