THIRD STREET PROMENADE When Dennis Lopez of Hawthorne wants to see a movie, he doesn’t head to The Grove in Los Angeles or The Bridge in Culver City where there is stadium seating, dozens of screens and state-of-the-art sound systems.
Instead, Lopez travels to the Third Street Promenade, where ticket prices are more affordable due to fewer amenities. “[They’re] not as nice as some of the bigger, newer theaters, but it’s cheaper than those nice theaters,” Lopez said as he walked along the promenade Monday with his girlfriend. “I come here from Hawthorne because there’s more to do around here, so why not stay and watch a movie. It’s cheaper anyway.”
Movie-goers like Lopez are helping Santa Monica theaters stay afloat, but there is a growing concern amongst business owners in downtown that if the movie houses here don’t evolve, they may become extinct as customers look for the next best thing.
It has been a hot topic for years as Santa Monicans have watched other cities benefit from the increases in tax revenue generated by movie-goers flocking to new or renovated theaters, spending money buying concessions or on drinks and dinner following matinees or late night screenings.
There have been calls for theater chains such as Mann and AMC to make significant investments in their theaters downtown, but the lack of available land to expand has been a barrier.
That is until now. With City Hall on a spending spree — purchasing large parcels of land in downtown to be used for future parking — there seems to be an opening for theater operators to move into the 21st Century.
One chain, Mann, which operates the Criterion 6 next to the promenade food court, has already approached City Hall about the possibility of demolishing Parking Structure No. 3 on Fourth Street and turning it into a new theater complex that could accommodate stadium seating as well as ground floor retail space that could help enliven the block.
Under the proposal, Mann would maintain the historic marquee on the promenade.
Roughly 500 additional seats would be added, giving the theater the capacity to host premier events or better handle the demand for big blockbusters such as the latest “Harry Potter” film, said Andy Agle, economic development director for City Hall, who presented the proposal to downtown business leaders Tuesday.
“The issue of cinema improvements has been discussed for a long time,”Agle said.“It was an issue that was identified by the Promenade Uses Task Force and is seen as a top priority for the [City Council] because the theaters are so integral to the activity downtown.”
Representatives from Mann did not return phone calls for comment. A spokesperson for AMC, which operates two theaters on the promenade, the Santa Monica 7 and the Loews Broadway Cinemas, said the chain has no plans to expand or make upgrades at this time, but “we’re always looking at ways to enhance the movie going experience.”
Rob York, a consultant for the Bayside District Corp., a public-private management company the helps run downtown, said any chain would be willing to move into downtown if there was space available to add stadium seating and other amenities.
“There is not a question that if you build a state-of-the-art facility, the operators will come,”York said.“I’d bet a lot of money that if you could trade a state-of-the-art facility in exchange for a few hundred seats, they’d take it in a second.”
Agle said Santa Monica has roughly 5,000 theater seats. City Hall is currently considering all its options, which could include going forward with the Mann proposal or issue a request for other ideas to see who can be the most creative and fit in well with the area.
One thing’s for sure, people like the look of the theaters’ facades and hope that some effort can be made to keep them so that movie-goers will still have prime access to the promenade.
“It’s nice to see something with character and history,” said Marcia Bendall, a tourist from Australia who was admiring the Art Deco style of the Broadway Theater. “You don’t see so much of that today.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 12, 2007. Read the original PDF.