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You shouldn't make the larger aditoriums super deluxe and then make the smaller auditoriums "cheaper." That will just piss off the customers that find out that the film they wanted to see was in an inferior house. If you make the smaller aditoriums very nice as well then people will really like the whole plex. The trick isn't designing a great large auditorium, the trick is to make a small auditoium great.

Late 1980s theater (8 plex)
2 screens THX with Dolby
6 screens mono!

Late 1990s theater (12 plex)
4 screens THX with SRD/DTS/SDDS (because films sound best when played simultaneously in all digital formats, right?)
4 screens with DTS (based purely on cost)
4 screens with Ultra Stereo analog (not even with SR emulator cards)

Who dreams up these kind of layouts??? The money has already been spent! This 12 plex could've been built with SRD in every auditorium and more THX certified auditoriums to boot for the same amount of money.

I used to argue with Bobby Pinkston about that all the time. But his hands were tied as well. The Greenwood was a mistake. Somebody goofed and they put Dolby CP65s in every auditorium with subwoofers in every auditorium, but with center/surround in the small houses. The extra speakers were still on the truck! The new theatre manager took over and pulled half the SR cards to send back for a credit! When he left, they were still under his desk. So Joe and I grabbed them and put them all back in. We moved the subwoofers all to the big houses when we got digital. After the digital blew half the surrounds, we got full stereo in the small and JBL 8340s in the big houses. It was just goofy.

Later, Bobby Pinkston went to work for Dolby and one of his first triumphs was to get Edwards to sign a contract that stated that 100% of their auditoriums would feature Dolby Digital.

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When you put your budgets together and you start lining up the cost for booth and stage set which includes screen, screen frames, masking, masking motors, curtains, Valance, speakers, speakers platforms, THX Wall and/or Baffles, speaker isolation pads, Location of HVAC units, Location of pipes in walls,THX Monitors, Certification cost per auditorium, and re-certification each and every year be ready to up your budget from a non THX auditorium.

You can still do most of what THX asks you to do but you do not need a THX Monitor at the price they charge. You can still purchase THX approved speakers, and THX approved amplifiers and I don't think anyone is going to go in the auditoriums without test equipment and tell the difference.

If Joe Schmidt is going to go to the trouble of putting in a separate entrance with a higher class concession area or restaurant with real food, then I think he can not only charge more but I believe the patrons will expect more. This does not mean that you don't build the smaller theatres to perfection, when you are charging the for first run they deserve the very best for the money they are spending.

Sorry fellows but the budgets for THX auditoriums and a non THX auditorium will not be close to each other.

-- 2-projector 70/35 plus a platter
-- 70/35 mag playback capability custom-built by me
-- 3-projector Cinerama with separate mag playback system for this, also custom-built. 3-proj. should be easy to do with platters. This adds 2 more 35mm proj. + 2 platters to the booth. I have this peculiar revival idea of playing "How the west was won" in the summer to try and catch people on the way to Yellowstone Park; tie-in; probably just a matinee daily.
-- Dolby Digital & surrounds
-- Custom audio switching system to set up whatever sound format needed
-- Custom-built, by me, Interlocked mag film recorder for scoring silent movies using the 5/100 theatre pipe organ
-- Full stage for occasional dramatic arts use, special business convention presentations, etc.

So, this Screen #1 is not designed to be a full-time movie house exclusively anyway and I'd want it to stay nice; that's why no popcorns & etc. As an Archival house run by a non-profit corporation it does not necessarily have to make money -- however, there rarely is such a thing as a "no-profit" corporation.

Furthermore, if all the sound is designed by me, I can absolutely guarantee to everyone here there will no such thing as a bad house soundwise in the 10-plex. Then, in Billings MT if all the competition I have is carmike, I won't even have to work very hard to surpass this by 1000%!

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Center for the Performing Arts

I think maybe I will join Ian for a bite of pie. Make mine Chocolate Cream, Please.

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