I
t’s movie night. You’ve chosen a movie and settled
into the lounge chair with your beverage—beer or
wine maybe—and your food. The lights go down,
the movie covers the entire wall, and the surround
sound fills the room. No, this isn’t the latest high-tech
home theater system; it’s the modern movie theater, and
it’s coming to Gilroy. The family-owned and operated
Cinelux Theaters recently purchased the Platinum theaters
in Gilroy, making it their eighth movie complex.
Paul Gunsky, the theater’s president and second-
generation owner, said, “I grew up in this industry, and
I love it. We want to become an important fixture in the
Gilroy community, and we’re doing that by making the
movie-going experience as top notch as possible. It will
be stunning for sure.”
According to a 2014 CBS News poll, of people who
watch movies, 84% watch at home, 4% watch at the
theater, and 10% watch equally between home
and theater.
“There are two things that drive people to the cinema,
one is the content. The movies have to be good. And the
other is the experience of the cinema. One of the most
surprising features that has worked to drive attendance
dramatically is simply to remove all the seats and to put
in really big comfortable chairs,” noted John Fithian,
President and CEO of the National Association of
Movie Theaters.
And that’s what you’ll get. “The two larger auditoriums
will have Premium Large Format wall-to-wall screens and
VIP seating—half the number of seats and lounge chairs.
The five smaller auditoriums, will have half the seating
and recliners. And all of the auditoriums will have much
bigger sound. People have a limited amount of time in
their lives, and they’re more discriminating,” Gunsky
said. “The bar has been raised for movie theaters, so
we need to step up our game.”
“After we got into the building, we realized we needed
to expand our thinking,” Gunsky added, standing in the
high-ceilinged lobby strewn with construction debris,
GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN
walls stripped to the studs, and stacks of unopened
boxes of equipment.
Dressed in a button-down shirt and blue blazer, he
swung his arm from corner to corner saying, “Over
there we’ll have the lounge with tables and chairs
where people can hang out before and after the movie.
“There’ll be more space in the lobby, a row of check-in
kiosks over here. We’ll have upscale food like Angus beef
sliders, plus beer and wine. You can order your food
here or online, get a pager, find your reserved seat, pick
up your food when paged, and take the tray to your seat:
the tray becomes your table.”
The first movies were made in the 1890s; within
eleven years, movies were a full-fledged entertainment
industry. At first, theaters were small storefronts. In
1905, the Nickelodeon movie houses spread across
the country, showing continuous movies for a nickel.
Through the 1910s movies improved in length and
quality, and were screened in small theaters; and in
1913, the movie palace was born. The movie palaces
flourished into the 40s; they were elegantly styled to
create a transcendent atmosphere, offering upscale
amenities like larger seats and air conditioning.
After WW II, the movie palaces closed due to TV
and migration from cities to the suburbs and were
replaced by multi-screen complexes.
Going out to the movies is about the whole
experience: the food, the big screen, big sound, and
the shared audience experience. “There will always be a
place for the movie theater,” Gunsky said. “My favorite
Big Screen movie was Avatar, but my favorite movie of
all time is What About Bob? If you’re asking me, every
movie needs to be experienced on the big screen.”
With the option of streaming channels, YouTube, and
DVDs, it’s gotten harder to lure people out to the theater.
Although the elegant movie palaces of old will not be
returning, the upscale amenities are back, bigger and
better than ever before, and, very soon, they’ll be
coming to a theater near you.
august/september 2019
gmhtoday.com
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