Movie Theaters

When Tammy Hoffs arrived in Westwood Village as a young bride half a century ago, she was wowed not only by the palm trees and sunshine but also by the movie business. For that, she credits hours spent sitting in the dark with strangers at the Crest Theater. "It played a great role in my enjoyment of films and my appreciation for the aesthetics," said Hoffs, 73, an artist who became a film writer, director and producer. "It has always been one of those extraordinary places . . . a single-screen, beautiful movie palace."

The price first-time homeowner Justin Bieber paid for his new digs in Calabasas has wended its way into the public record: $6.5 million. Set on 1.3 acres in a gated community, the 10,000-square-foot main house is described as "transitional French" in style. Features include a high-ceiling foyer, library, a movie theater with stadium seating, a wet bar and a wine cellar. Just what every 18-year-old pop singer needs. Including a guesthouse, there are seven bedrooms and eight bathrooms.

As they relaxed in the dimly lighted lounge, awaiting the sold-out screening of "Invictus," Stephen Galloway and his wife, Tina, were perusing the menu between sips of champagne. A waiter had just brought a chilled $49 bottle of Schramsberg sparkling wine and was ready for their order. Tina was contemplating the $14 plate of fried calamari with ginger and lemon, while Stephen had a hankering for the $19 New York strip steak sandwich. The Galloways are hardly high rollers -- he's a property manager and she's a social worker.

AMC Entertainment Inc., the nation's second-largest movie exhibitor, has once again scrapped plans for a stock offering, two people familiar with the matter said. The Kansas City, Mo., theater chain had said in a regulatory filing last spring that it planned to raise as much as $450 million in an initial public offering of stock, using the proceeds to pay down debt. Top shareholders in AMC include JPMorgan Chase & Co., Apollo Investment Fund and Bain Capital Investors. But at the prompting of AMC's owners, the circuit has opted to shelve the IPO out of concern that market conditions aren't ripe for a stock offering, said two sources familiar with the plans who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.

A 21-year-old man who was an accomplice in the shooting death of an Orange movie theater security guard was sentenced Friday to 25 years to life in prison. Jesse Pena became the third and last person to be sentenced in the Feb. 19, 1994, slaying of Dagoberto R. Carrero. Carrero, 23, was working his last shift as a security guard at the Century City Centre Theater when he was shot twice in the face and back.

Driving through the desert night, Mohammed Khalif skids left and pulls up at an apartment with walls the color of pink grapefruit. Young men sit on a couch, reveling in the intricacy of Stanley Kubrick and chiding the sentimentality of Steven Spielberg. A debate ensues over genius. The usual suspects are trotted out: Italian neo-realism, the French New Wave. A Spielberg defender blurts: "You wouldn't even be here if it weren't for Spielberg. Look what he's done." A brief pause.

I was somewhat amused by the article, "Theaters' Next Hit May be Stadium Seating," March 14. Until theater managers find a way to police the boors who attend movies today (who hang their feet over the back of seats, who chat incessantly, who do not supervise their children or who use the theater as a baby-sitting service), I don't believe plusher seats is the answer to declining business. I will be content to stay at home and watch the movies on my big-screen TV with surround-sound and subwoofer, undisturbed.

A California theater chain is trying to tap into the growing movie market in China — not just by building theaters equipped with the latest digital technology, but also by teaching young people how to run them. The privately held UltraStar Cinemas chain, headquartered in Vista, Calif., has joined forces with the Xiamen Culture and Art Center and Xiamen University of Technology to establish the XMUT UltraStar Academy of Digital Cinema Management. Classes will be held on the public technology university's campus and begin next year.

As a professional film maker and an apparently above-average-in-frequency moviegoer, I found the article about the proposed theaters at Sunset and Laurel Canyon (Times, Sept. 20) interesting and inspiring of two points for possible consideration by the developers. First, the claim by (AMC Vice President Gregory S.) Rutkowski that the location is a "very attractive theater site" ignores the fact that in the last 20 years an attempt to open a first-run theater, the Granada, on the far end of the strip proved to be a failure, primarily because of traffic and parking problems, while the two theaters which did make it for a while on Sunset specialized in either second-run or classic films, drawing their audiences largely from the neighborhood.

Long before the tiny, talking heads of "Mystery Science Theater 3000" yammered their brainy commentary over well-worn sci-fi films, there was the benshi. During the heyday of silent films, Japanese audiences flocked to see the latest imports from the West, but it was the translators, or benshi, who stole the show. The benshi were beloved cultural conduits.

LAS VEGAS — After a year of box-office doldrums and a period of ugly clashes with studio executives over when movies should be released into the home, theater industry leaders sounded considerably more optimistic about the outlook for their industry. John Fithian, president of the National Assn. of Theatre Owners, told hundreds of exhibitors gathered Tuesday at the industry's annual trade show in Las Vegas that there were many reasons to celebrate, including a turnaround at the turnstiles.

Nearly 400 people crammed into an auditorium at the Chinese 6 Theatres in the Hollywood & Highland shopping center to watch "One Day on Earth," a documentary made by thousands of volunteer filmmakers around the world to promote awareness about climate change and other global issues. The sold-out screening Sunday afternoon was organized not by the theater or a major studio, but by filmmakers who promoted the movie to their fans through a new service called Tugg Inc. The Austin, Texas, start-up has launched a grass-roots movie distribution business that enables consumers to select the movies they want to see at local theaters.

"The Hunger Games" is big enough of a draw this weekend that movie theaters don't have to do much to sell tickets — in the opening hours, hundreds of thousands of fans dropped nearly $20 million for admission. But those who showed up at the Megaplex Theatre in Sandy, Utah, for the first screenings were able to participate in their own (nonlethal) version of the cinematic teen death match, donning sumo wrestling suits, picking up laser guns and jousting with inflatable swords. Before battling strangers and friends, patrons could visit Cinna's Salon and have their eyes decorated with glitter — just like the film's heroine, Katniss, gets dolled up by a stylist named Cinna before she's thrown into the arena.

Box-office receipts are about to shoot into the stratosphere this weekend thanks to"The Hunger Games,"putting a phenomenal finish on what has been a surprisingly strong first quarter of moviegoing. The adaptation of Suzanne Collins' bestselling young-adult book is expected to have a blockbuster opening of $125 million to $150 million, according to pre-release audience surveys. That would not only make it the highest-ever debut for a non-sequel (not accounting for ticket price inflation)

Preaching the gospel in a movie theater is nothing new in the Schuller family. Robert H. Schuller opened what would become the Crystal Cathedral ministry in a drive-in. On Sunday, some 57 years later, his daughter opened her new church in an Orange multiplex. "Today is a birth day," Sheila Schuller Coleman told about 200 congregants who filled about half of Theater 15 at the AMC at the Outlets of Orange shopping center. "We're birthing something new, and it brings up so many memories....

Actor-director-producer Vincent Gallo has listed his penthouse in downtown L.A. for sale at $2.599 million. Once leased to actor Nicolas Cage, the four-level loft has an open floor plan, exposed brick walls, floating-style staircases, inch-thick maple floors and an in-unit elevator. There are two bedrooms and 21/2 bathrooms in the 4,300-square-foot space. Three outdoor and rooftop living areas, including a movie theater, have city views and add 3,100 square feet of space.

Last month, the two-screen Melody Theater in Thousand Oaks closed after 31 years, unable to survive new competition. Now, an 18-year-old Westlake Village two-screen theater, facing similar competition, is considering slashing prices and specialization.

In a highly unorthodox move, a film that aired recently on NBC as a miniseries is migrating to the big screen. Director Jon Avnet's "Uprising," which had its network premiere Nov. 4, is scheduled to be released theatrically on Friday for a limited run at the Laemmle Fairfax in Los Angeles and a theater in New York.

U.S. theater owners aren't in a festive mood. They were counting on a slew of high-profile holiday films to end an erratic moviegoing year on a high note. After a strong rally at the box office this summer - when ticket sales soared to record levels - the U.S. exhibition industry looked as if it had reversed a slump earlier in the year. But those hopes have been dampened by unexpectedly weak ticket sales in recent weeks from sequels "Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked" and "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows," as well as new films like the Aardman Animations holiday-themed "Arthur Christmas" and Martin Scorsese's critically acclaimed "Hugo.

The holiday lights on the Champs-Elysees are in full splendor, but right off the avenue, the landmark art house movie palace, the Balzac, has remained dark for days. Jean-Jacques Schpoliansky, owner of the independent film theater, has shut the doors from Dec. 21 to 28 to protest what he says is an existential threat to his long-standing business by major theater chains, which have increasingly snatched the rights to screen the sort of artistic but popular films that have provided him his baguette et beurre until now. A sign of explanation outside his gated cinema includes a quote from philosopher Albert Camus: "Everything which degrades culture shortens the path to servitude.