"We're fixing that."
That's the refrain from Gerardo "Gerry" Lopez, who was installed last month as chief executive at AMC Entertainment Inc., about how the second-biggest movie theater chain in the country must adapt to keep pace with shifts in consumer habits.
Lopez has a few opinions -- not all of them kind -- about the movie theater business, which hasn't radically changed the way it does business in decades. He's an outsider: Lopez has spent his career in the food and beverage industry, most recently as a top executive at coffee giant Starbucks Corp.
Lopez was interviewed at ShoWest, the industry's annual trade event, in Las Vegas this week. No popcorn was served.
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Are you shocked you can't buy an espresso in most theaters?
Blown away. But we're fixing that.
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Would you agree that concession stands haven't kept pace with consumer tastes?
We're going to change that. It's not going to happen in all 302 theaters overnight. Drive down any main street in America today and look at how many options there are for food. The way the American palate has evolved over the last 15 years has been far quicker and much more diverse than the way the concession stand has evolved. Concession to me speaks of popcorn and Coke. You will see us accelerate our efforts in what we call "enhanced food and beverage." There's so much more you can offer.
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Are we talking sushi?
Anything from a complete meal all the way down to a concession stand serving hot foods. Starbucks has done a great job selling snacks that go well beyond coffee. We can try to sell a new variety of foods that moviegoers have never experienced before. At the other end, you can take a 300,000-square-foot megaplex and convert a couple of theaters that may not be giving you the capacity you want, and redesign your house so that you provide a complete restaurant experience. That way, the guest, instead of having to go to two locations for dinner and a movie, can go to just one location.
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What grade would you give theaters for how well they've marketed the movies they show?
B or B-minus. Theaters have focused, perhaps correctly, much more on operations than on marketing.
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So what can theaters begin doing to better market their own movies?
The industry has to start thinking about using Facebook and Twitter.
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