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

[writerranger]

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

That is a very good point.

[Bobby H]

Honestly, I would worry if AMC was in charge of building an IMAX theater. They would install one of those silly Torus screens and have all the speakers stuffed up over your head in the ceiling. Absolute garbage.

Neither Warren Theaters or Harkins have any IMAX screens in their theater circuits. Regal has a couple of IMAX locations in high profile markets, but Cinemark is the biggest player in theatrical IMAX out of any movie theater company doing business in OKC.

Basically I think Harkins goofed in not putting an IMAX-3D theater in Bricktown. That is EXACTLY where such a theater needs to be located within metro OKC.

The commercial movie theater industry is currently is an odd state of flux. Many deals are taking place to remove 35mm film projectors in favor of video projectors that show imagery at levels slightly sharper than HDTV. I refuse to call this stuff "digital projection" and it is definitely NOT better than film projection done right. Yet lots of lies are being spun around from various biased parties and that really stupid "digital" buzzword is being thrown around quite liberally.

Over the next few years most commercial theaters are going to be transformed into two classes: one class being theaters that show a glorified version of television and another that shows IMAX 15-perf 70mm film presentations. That's two pretty big extremes.

The sad thing is most theaters are going to be doomed by their adoption of video projection since the same fanboys of all things "digital" will be among the first to betray those "D-Cinema" theaters for their new home HDTV systems with just as many native digital pixels playing from Blu-Ray or HD-DVD discs.

The even worse thing that may happen is all the sales droid idiots in Hollywood completely removing release windows between theatrical and home video release. If a movie appears in theaters and on DVD at the same time, 99% of viewers are just going to save a ton of money staying at home to watch the movie on DVD. Very simple math.

On top of that, the average quality of product from Hollywood has been very deplorable for the past few years. That certainly doesn't bode well for the launch of those Blu-Ray and HD-DVD formats.

The next few years look extremely troubling for the movie theater industry.

[OklaCity_75]

I think I would go see a movie at Harkins before I would go to AMC.

AMC would be good for a weekday matinee or something like that.

AMC's and Quail Springs has become a dumping ground for teenagers. Parents turn thier kids loose and leave. Luckily mall security and county deputies have been combating that.

One night on my way to eat at Garfields I saw a county deputy standing at the door turning parents with car loads of kids away. He told each parent "Unless your going in to supervise them take them home. This is not a playground and the employees of the mall have better things to do than babysit." That same deputy was kicking crowds of kids out of the mall when we left.

I have only been once but Harkins seem to have a more mature crowd.

AMC draws all the idiots that want do everything but watch the movie.

[{la_resistance}]

Yes! I live in Moore. But that theatre looks too fancy...

[Bobby H]

There's no such thing as a theater that looks too fancy. The more ornate the better. Warren puts some real effort into their theaters.

I'm just tired of all the bland 'plex box buildings with some slight attempts at cartoonish versions of art deco decoration.

[Patrick]

AMC's and Quail Springs has become a dumping ground for teenagers. Parents turn thier kids loose and leave. Luckily mall security and county deputies have been combating that.

Exactly why Penn Square has said no go on any theater expansion. They'd rather focus on upscale retail, not juvenile problems.

[Patrick]

Yes! I live in Moore. But that theatre looks too fancy...

What's wrong with a fancy theater? For once, it's actually something classy for the OKC metro area, instead of the typical, run of the mill multi-screen cinema.

[{la_resistance}]

I do not like fancy. Example: Versailles-WAY TOO ORNATE!!! I prefer modern, technological pronunciations of the human intellect. Or to put it simply- I like computers and technological looks. (if that makes any sense.

[OklaCity_75]

Well I think we need a little bit of style and class when it comes to buildings.

Otherwise, everything gets that cookie cutter look Wal-Mart and Walgreens are probably the most famous for that.

[Patrick]

I do not like fancy. Example: Versailles-WAY TOO ORNATE!!! I prefer modern, technological pronunciations of the human intellect. Or to put it simply- I like computers and technological looks. (if that makes any sense.

Okay, let's tear down most of OKC and replace it with concrete block square buildings. We'll be known for being the most boring city in the world. Hey, at least that will put us on the map.

[Bobby H]

Commercial movie theaters are simply NOT the place to demonstrate techno-oriented contemporary design (or minimalist, Bauhaus and any other disclipes some deride as "dead-tech"). One might be able to get away with an exception here and there -perhaps for an all art-house movies theater or something.

Nostalgia is a big factor in commercial movie theater marketing. Many sophisticated movie fans look back fondly to the days of 2000 seat single-screen movie palaces. Today's cookie-cutter stadium seated "megaplex" often does not evoke any of those feelings at all.

There's also lots of ways to incorporate lots of state of the art lighting and decorative fixtures in a nostaligic type of design. Fundamentally the goal is to arrive at something that looks really great without just looking old.

Now, about the Penn Square thing...

...that theater? Expand? Hehe. The only way Dickinson Theaters is going to be able to expand that location is by closing down the theater inside the mall and building a completely new one at a location nearby.

Shopping malls simply have far too many limitations against any modern movie theater design. You can't have any real stadium seating in such a location. You only get tiny auditoriums with something more like high school gym bleacher seating.

I did like the Penn Square Mall 10 theater at one time...when General Cinemas was running it. At that time they had a good THX-certified screen in there capable of running 70mm prints. I don't know if the 70mm projector is still there (strongly doubt it), but since Hollywood doesn't bother with 70mm anymore there's little point anyway.

[jbrown84]

No offense Bobby H, but you movie projector industry talk is giving me a headache. Too much detail for me.

The Warren Theatre will be a very nice addition and I think if any theatre suffers it will surely be the Regal at Crossroads because the mall itself is dying and the Warren will be so much nicer.

[okiemom]

I woud love to see a theater located just off I-44 between SW 134 and the Tri-City exit. It would pull in people from SW OKC, Tuttle, Newcastle, probably Chickasha, and possibly Blanchard.

[windowphobe]

The Reno 8 on El Reno's south side is pretty plain, but it gets the job done, and it saves a long trip into the city.

[okiemom]

El Reno is a long drive and out of the way for the area I'm thinking of. A theater along 44 would also pull in a lot of folks from the west part of Moore.

[SoonerDave]

Before Regal was built at Crossroads, talk was they were planning to build that theater at the corner of SW 59th @ I-44. Plans, obviously, changed.

Does anyone here remember the Shepherd Twin theater at Shepherd Mall? Or the Park Terrace just north of 59th on Western?

Part of all this theater talk reminds me that when I was a kid, going to the movies was A Big Deal. It was An Event. Movies were larger than life, somehow. These days, its nothing special at all, except the ticket prices are ludicrous....(to say nothing of the fact that most of the movies are, well, not very compelling -- the current slasher-flick glut completely turns me off).

That perception change has happened in just the last, oh, 25 years or so. I remember it was a pretty big deal when my whole family went to see "9 to 5," or even the wonderful old Pink Panther movies. Great times...

-SoonerDave

[metro]

Real Estate Moore’s $30M megaplex likely to open around April 1, official says
The Journal Record
January 8, 2008

MOORE – Moore is a few months away from adding another major attraction on the west side of Interstate 35 between S. Fourth and S. 19th streets. And it happens to be the anchor, and one of the top reasons for so much growth in the immediate area.

Warren Theatres of Wichita, which paid $1.7 million for the 25-acre site, began construction nearly two years ago and is looking at a spring opening, said Deidre Ebrey, director of the Moore Economic Development Authority. The facility will have 20 screens and several state-of-the-art amenities.“Warren Theatres hasn’t selected a firm date, but we are anticipating that it will open at the very beginning of April,” Ebrey said. “The end of March is a possibility. It will probably open during the opening of a particular movie, which we don’t know right now.”

Ebrey said the $30 million facility will be the main attraction in the area that’s shown substantial growth in the last few years.“We knew the theater would change the area,” Ebrey said. “There is a Lowe’s and restaurants on the frontage roads, and now Harley-Davidson is between Lowe’s and the theater. The area is bordered by Fourth Street on the north and 19th Street on the south. Wal-Mart has been the southern anchor for 10 years and businesses down there have been built around it.”

Ebrey said Warren Theatres owns pad sites on the property that could be used for more growth once the facility is settled in.“Warren will probably not offer any pads until they know what the parking situation will be, and then they will possibility develop it,” she said.The I-35 access road will be widened, she said.

The new businesses have been a boost to the city’s coffers in sales tax alone by as much as $500,000 per year for the first three or four years, but the big money will be spent by visitors to the area.


The $30 million megaplex under construction in Moore will sport a similar design to this Warren Theatre in Wichita, Kan. The 20-screen cinema will likely open around April 1, said Deidre Ebrey, director of the Moore Economic Development Authority. (Courtesy photo)

[Oh GAWD the Smell!]

Then maybe they should start widening the access road NOW.

[venture]

Pro-active road work in the metro? Now that's funny.