Luxury cinema upgrades coming to the Sonoma County box office
Like an aging film star, the Rialto Cinemas in Sebastopol has recently undergone a notable facelift to keep up with demands of a fickle audience.
The nips and tucks are evident from the new entrance area with subtle Art Deco undertones to the old movie reels used as sculptures. There are two new bar areas with craft beer and wine and a menu that features items such as bruschetta with Genoa salami, stone-ground mustard aioli and fresh chive.
“We are trying to do more than burgers and fries,” said Ky Boyd, the proprietor of the nine-screen theater since May 2012. “We had a lot of people say, ‘I have never had wine or Prosecco with popcorn and it’s really good.’”
With the 11-month makeover complete, Boyd said he wants to increase attendance by 15 to 20 percent, even after a banner 2015 driven by hits such as “Jurassic World,” “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” and the highest grossing movie ever in U.S. cinemas, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”
In a local industry with 10 commercial complexes in the county, business can be as competitive as a Hollywood casting call. If you don’t keep up with the latest amenities, you could find yourself as the latest box-office bomb. Other theaters will undergo renovations this year, some that could total as high as $3 million.
“Amenities make the desire for coming back again,” said Milt Moritz, president and chief executive officer of the National Association of Theater Owners of California/Nevada. “Once you have a taste of something you like and enjoy, you will buy it again.”
No matter the upgrades, theater owners interviewed stressed the main driver in their business is content: Good films translate to good revenue. And 2015 was a very good year.
Ticket sales in the United States and Canada totaled a record $11.1 billion in 2015, a 7.5-percent increase from the previous year, according to comScore, a national research group that tracks box office data.
“The summer was awesome,” said Ryan Hecht, owner of the four-screen Clover Theater in Cloverdale. “Then finishing up with ‘Star Wars’ was pretty great.”
Boyd agreed and noted that his theater had about 150,000 patrons for the year, up from 138,000 in 2013.
That marked a turnaround from a mostly thumbs-down 2014, when the combined U.S. and Canada box office totaled $10.4 billion, down 5 percent from 2013, according to the Motion Picture Association of America. Admissions (1.27 billion) and the average number of tickets sold per customer (3.7) both dropped 6 percent in 2014 from the previous year.
Movie theaters typically have a sliding-scale arrangement with the film studios on revenue splitting. During the first week of release, the studio will keep a much higher percentage of revenue, usually 70 percent, according to one estimate, and it gradually drops over time. Incentives can also be placed into contracts for some releases - big-budget movies known as “tent poles.” For example, The Walt Disney Co. had such leverage when it released the “Star Wars” film this winter.
Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst for comScore, estimated a movie theater may keep about 50 percent of its overall ticket sales for a year.
That places the onus on movie theaters to find additional revenue streams, which in turn has created an arms race in adding the latest amenities for customers. In a notable example, the Cinépolis chain offers waiter service, luxury reclining seats, gourmet appetizers and entrées and a full bar. Their major presence is in southern California. Tickets, however, can go as high as $21 for a movie. The average ticket price in 2015 was $8.43, according to the National Association of Theater Owners.
“That makes a huge difference now for many people,” Dergarabedian said of such ritzy offerings. “Once an audience got a taste of that movie-going experience, then you can’t put that experience back in the bottle again.”
Theater owners like Daniel Tocchini, president and chief executive officer of his family’s Santa Rosa Entertainment Group, has seen the results firsthand. His company runs five complexes in the county: the Airport Stadium 12, Roxy Stadium 14, Third Street Cinema 6, Summerfield Cinemas, and the Raven Film Center in Healdsburg. The Raven was a trend setter in selling wine and beer in 2008, though it first had to reach a compromise with city officials and set aside two of its four theaters for those age 21 and over. It now offers alcohol in all four theaters.
The company recently remodeled its Camarillo complex in southern California with fully motorized leather recliners and movable snack trays. The seats can be reserved in advance. It also expanded its food menu, offering gourmet sausages and quesadillas.
UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy: