Coming attraction

[Times photo: Jack Rowland] Roland Palot, managing director of the new AMC Woodlands 20 theater in Oldsmar, talks Tuesday about the sound system and screen size.

The county's biggest movie theater opens this week in Oldsmar with plush stadium seating, digital sound and high-tech projectors.

By ED QUIOCO

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 12, 2000

OLDSMAR -- A splash of eye candy and a dose of razzle-dazzle along with buttered popcorn and the newest flicks are coming soon to the city at the top of Old Tampa Bay.

American Multi Cinema Inc. will have the grand opening of its flagship Pinellas theater Friday at the Woodlands Square Shopping Center on Tampa Road in Oldsmar.

AMC Woodlands 20, the county's newest and biggest theater, will provide stadium seating and all the bells and whistles of a state-of-the-art megaplex.

"We want you to walk in and say, "Gee, it's fun to come to the theater,' " said Jim Lee, AMC marketing coordinator. "It's going to be a fun theater, a great theater."

AMC officials gave the Times a sneak peek at the $13-million theater last week. The 67,000-square-foot building, which can seat 3,275 moviegoers, has a theme park feel with a swirl of art deco. Interior colors are bright yellows, reds, greens and purples.

"It's pretty amazing," said Nick Staszko, Oldsmar's community development director. "If you go inside, it's got a lot of rounded features. It's pretty impressive."

AMC officials hope the mix of modern theater innovations and a focus on customer service will draw more than 1-million movie buffs a year from Pasco, Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, said Roland Palot, the theater's managing director.

"The theater should easily draw people in a 15-mile radius," Palot said. "We are projecting it to be a very popular theater."

The theater boasts extra-wide rows and plush, high-backed seats with retractable armrests so you can have snuggle time with your movie partner. Each row of seats is on a riser 18 inches higher than the one behind it so even children get an unobstructed view of the screen.

"There is no way your head will be in the way of the person behind you," Lee said.

And if comfort isn't enough, there also will be lots of up-to-the-minute technology.

The theater features high-tech projectors and digital sound systems featuring Sony Dynamic Digital Sound. There are machines that look like ATMs that will allow people to purchase tickets with credit cards without standing in line at the ticket booths.

"We put a lot of thought into the design of the facility and installing the highest technology as far as providing good sight and sound," Palot said. "People who come to a state-of-the-art theater kind of get spoiled. Once they are here, if we do our job right, then in a lot of cases they will choose to be more active moviegoers."

The two largest auditoriums at the Woodlands 20 can seat 490 people each and have screens that are 60 feet wide and 33 feet high. The two smallest auditoriums can seat 67 people each and have screens that are 25 feet wide and 14.5 feet high.

The concession stand will sell hot dogs, nachos, popcorn, candy and sodas. Tickets at the Woodlands 20 will cost $7 for adults, $4 for children and $5 for students, Palot said. Among the movies to be featured during the grand opening are Mission to Mars, Erin Brockovich and Beyond the Mat.

The theater's approximately 120 employees -- mostly students at nearby high schools -- have been training since mid-February. Red vans have shuttled new hires from the shopping center in Oldsmar to the AMC Veterans 24 in Tampa to log thousands of training hours.

"We are putting a lot of emphasis on the customer service aspect of the movie-going experience," Palot said.

Woodlands Square merchants hope the theater's business will spill over to other stores in the shopping plaza, which has had trouble keeping tenants for years.

The theater has yet to show its first movies and already there is a flurry of activity in the shopping center.

Major renovations in color, landscaping and new awnings are planned for the plaza to help it match the sparkling new theater, said Todd Pressman, a zoning consultant who represents the shopping center's owners.

Pressman said Woodlands Square has full occupancy for the first time since it was built. Two restaurants, a Beef O'Brady's sports pub and a San's Pizzeria, and a third unnamed restaurant are on the way, thanks to the theater.

"This will be the best thing for the plaza," said Ruth Jallo, president of Ruth Fashion Inc., located near the theater. "It was a sad plaza before and now it's a very cials gave the league 2,000 tickets to sell.

Little League president Bill Schneider said Thursday there were about 800 tickets left. They can be purchased at the concession stand at Oldsmar's Canal Park on Tampa Road. Depending on availability, tickets will be sold from 6 to 9 p.m. on weeknights, said Larry Liebling, Little League vice president.

The AMC theater is the first of three large projects under way in Oldsmar, a town of 10,000 seeing a boom in residential and commercial development. The county's first Wal-Mart Supercenter is scheduled to be built on Tampa Road and a claims processing center for a national health-care company is under way and will employ about 700 people.

City Council member Ed Manny said he can still recall when he first moved to Oldsmar 36 years ago. Catching a movie and grocery shopping meant a trek to west Hillsborough.

"When I drove to work in the morning, I could drive from Oldsmar to west Hillsborough before I saw another car," Manny said. "This is the long-awaited awakening of Oldsmar, isn't it?"

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