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AMC acquires Mann Criterion 6
posted by
CSWalczak
on
June 29, 2010 at 7:50 am
SANTA MONICA, CA — The Mann Criterion 6 will now be under AMC management, giving the company control of all three theaters on the Third Street Promenade. AMC has been working to close the AMC Loew’s Broadway 4 on the Promenade to comply with city-imposed conditions relating to its desire to build a new theater; AMC says this acquisition gives them additional options.
AMC’s acquisition, though, could have implications for the company’s plan to develop a state-of-the-art 12-screen theater on Fourth Street at the present site of Parking Structure No. 3.
AMC and its partner, Metropolitan Pacific Capital, are in the early stages of getting their project entitled and hope to open in 2013. A Planning Commission hearing on the proposed theater concept is scheduled for July 7.
City Hall officials have said AMC will be required to reduce the number of seats at its older theaters so that the opening of the new multi-plex will result in only a “modest” net increase of about 570 theater seats Downtown.
There is more in the Santa Monica Daily Press.
Comments (7)
Why does the city want to reduce the number of theatre seats?
Because getting around the Third Street Promenade area, especially on weekends and holidays, is a nightmare as it is. But make sure you read the whole paragraph… the city wants to see the number of seats in older theatres reduced so that there is a modest overall gain if and when the new complex opens.
Does anyone actually believe that SM wasn’t getting “the best” movies being released? Or that closing the Broadway will somehow help the selection of movies available to the public?
The only movies SM wasn’t already getting were the small indie releases that played at the Landmark or Sunset 5 and didn’t do enough to warrant opening in more theatres around the area.
Laemmle Monica used to get many art house first run films day/date. Now it appears they open at Landmark 12 instead. The indies were more prominent before Landmark opened and SM had the Monica and NuWilshire as the premiere Art house theatres.
There are tons of indie and foreign films that don’t get played anywhere in L.A. If you look at a sampling of AMC plexes, they generally don’t include either in their programming. So this proposed plex is unlikely to help in that regard.
If the city wanted to control the number of seats in downtown and increase the variety of films offered, they should have kept the NuWilshire open.
If the city wanted a “premiere” showcase, they should have paid attention to the fact that Hollywood favors single screen movie palaces for those events — but oops! — they destroyed all their palaces.
There’s a huge disconnect between what people officially say they want for the city, and what they’re going to get.
How many theaters does Mann have left now? Six or seven?