Word: muvico
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...demanding tastes of moviegoers have inspired a few upstart cinema chains, however, to try a different script. By building extravagant theaters, adding family events and offering plush amenities, those exhibitors are enticing viewers back--even at higher prices. In a down market, the boutique theater chain Muvico, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., company with 12 theaters in three states, has managed to boost attendance 2% this year. National Amusements, run by Viacom heir apparent Shari Redstone, is expanding its upscale Cinema de Lux brand of theaters, which sells 35% more tickets per theater than its sibling brands. At Pacific Theatre...
...working for Hamid Hashemi, CEO of Muvico. The Iranian immigrant began accumulating Florida cinemas in the 1980s. "I thought, What an easy business," he says. "The movies are made by someone else. You sell popcorn. Easy!" But when a major chain opened a rival screen down the street and put his first theater out of business, Hashemi realized he had to offer what the big guys didn't. "At the end of the day, you all get the same 35-mm tape," he says. "What sets you apart is how you package...
Hashemi says that privately held Muvico posted revenues of $130 million last year. And with plans to add three or four theaters a year, he predicts revenue growth of 30% to 40% annually. Concessions, which typically make up 25% of exhibitors' sales, add up to 33% of sales at Muvico; the Palace restaurant alone grosses $4 million a year. Of course, costs are higher too for the exhibitor and moviegoers, who are charged up to double the average ticket price for the experience...
...great theater convey the experience in ways a home theater can't. "When this beat hits, I want it to feel like when Indiana Jones is punching somebody," he says. Brewer, a Memphis, Tenn., resident who set and shot his film there, held the premiere in his hometown Muvico--a risk he says he probably wouldn't have taken with a lesser theater...
That's the kind of stardust developers are betting on. Among the six projects on Muvico's drawing board is a theater in Xanadu, an enormous New Jersey mall complex. Designed as the largest movie-theater complex in the U.S., it will feature 26 screens and a helipad to fly in celebrities from nearby New York City for premieres. "We're a starstruck nation," says Larry Siegel, CEO of developer Mills Corp. For most of us, these posh new cinemas may be the closest we'll get to being treated like one. --With reporting by Desa Philadelphia/Los Angeles