Movie theaters turn to live event screenings to fill seats

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/apr/20/news/la-ct-theater20-20100420

Theaters open new revenue streams by beaming in live events such as ultimate fighting and opera.

April 20, 2010|By Richard Verrier, Los Angeles Times

It's 7 p.m. on a recent Saturday and every seat in the 294-seat theater inside the AMC 16 Burbank is filled. The crowd isn't there to watch "How to Train Your Dragon" or "Alice in Wonderland," but a not-so-family-friendly kind of entertainment: mixed martial arts.

Tonight's feature is a highly anticipated Ultimate Fighting Championship face-off between Brazilian jiujitsu black belt Georges St. Pierre from Montreal and cocky English fighter Dan "The Outlaw" Hardy. When the action starts and St. Pierre scores his first "takedown," fans leap from their seats, pump their fists in the air and whoop wildly.

The event, beamed live to the Burbank theater and other venues around the country from the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., is the latest example of how theater owners are harnessing the latest digital technology to program alternative entertainment such as broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera and live concerts from the likes of the Black Eyed Peas, whose March 30 show at Staples Center was transmitted live to 500 movie theaters.

"Traditionally, the exhibition business was one-flavor-fits-all, and that flavor was movies," said Gerry Lopez, chief executive of AMC, the nation's second-largest theater company. "Well, we've learned over the last couple of years that guests will indeed get off the couch and come see us for other kinds of entertainment. That's opened up our eyes to the possibilities."

Although not yet a big money maker for the major chains, theater operators are betting that it will be one day, and are booking more such events on slow weekday nights in hopes of coaxing consumers to leave their homes and pay $20 for a premium ticket.

Alan Stock, chief executive of Cinemark Holdings, the third-largest circuit, said he had been encouraged by the turnout for such events, especially the opera. More than 100,000 people showed up at Cinemark and other theaters in January to watch a live broadcast of the New York Metropolitan Opera's production of "Carmen."

"Movies will always be our bread and butter, but this brings in a different clientele and broadens the base of people we can bring into our theater," Stock said.