Seminole theater flips to new chain

An Atlanta group is poised to take over AMC's Seminole Mall movie complex as other sites ponder their options for endangered AMC theaters.

By MARK ALBRIGHT

© St. Petersburg Times,
published June 21, 2001

AMC Entertainment Inc. is pulling out of Seminole Mall after its lease expires July 1, and the landlords at other local shopping centers are brainstorming what to do if their older AMC multiplex theaters are the next to go.

But the result may not be empty shells of abandoned movie complexes, thanks in part to the interest of a new player in the Tampa Bay area.

Seminole Mall's owners have signed a deal with Restaurant Entertainment Group, an Atlanta theater operator, to take over the 13-year-old AMC Seminole 8 and keep it a first-run movie house.

Old Hyde Park Village in Tampa, which has two years to run on the lease for its seven-screen AMC, is reviewing a similar proposal from the same company.

And the owners of Tyrone Square Mall in St. Petersburg have been talking about alternative uses for their AMC 6 theater.

"Our lease doesn't expire until 2008, but we have been talking about what would be best for AMC and our mall," said Scott Rolston, manager of the St. Petersburg regional mall owned by Simon Property Group. Simon, the nation's biggest mall owner, replaced AMC theaters in two other Florida malls with sprawling Designer Shoe Warehouse stores. And Simon recently bulldozed a vacated United Artists Theater in Orlando's Florida Mall.

It's all part of the continuing fallout in the nation's overbuilt movie theater industry.

The popularity of huge megaplexes with stadium seating and other new frills has made older and smaller six- to eight-screen multiplex theaters obsolete. There has been such a rush to build the new megaplexes that the market is glutted.

Eight of the 10 largest theater operators are in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, closing hundreds of dated theaters and restructuring their onerous debt. AMC hopes to avoid the bankruptcy route, but it has been closing older multiplex theaters and refinancing its debt, too.

The company reported a loss of $105-million, or $4.51 a share, in the fiscal year that ended March 29, up from a loss of $55.2-million, or $2.35 a share, in the previous year.

AMC, which invented the megaplex in 1995, plans to close up to 300 screens over the next three years. Company officials said most of those closings will come as leases expire.

AMC spokesman Rick King declined to reveal which theaters it plans to close for fear it would hurt business. He declined to discuss AMC's departure from Seminole Mall, which was confirmed by Larry Lang, asset manager of the mall's owner, Lamar Cos., and by the new operator of the theaters.

After opening four megaplexes in Tampa, Brandon, Oldsmar and Tampa's WestShore Plaza, AMC's screen count is 115 in the Tampa Bay area. Of those, 31 screens are in five older theaters in Largo, St. Petersburg, Seminole and Tampa. AMC ended the 2001 fiscal year with 2,903 screens, a decrease of 135 from fiscal 2000.

All the turmoil among the established theater owners has produced a buyer's market for companies such as Restaurant Entertainment Group at locations such as Seminole Mall.

"We've reopened 10 theaters, secured deals for eight others and have proposals in for 30 more theaters," said John Duffy, the company's vice president of franchise marketing and development.

The company operates 27 Cinema Grills, a chain of movie theaters with movies and table-service food that was founded in Orlando.

In Seminole, the new operators will make cosmetic changes and replace the carpet before reopening the theater as a Filmed Entertainment Works Theater. By fall, they may convert the theater into a Cinema Grill Cafe, a new prototype the company is testing in Washington, D.C., and Dallas.

The cafes have an expanded lobby concession buffet that offers beer, wine, pizza-by-the-slice and sandwiches. Tiny tabletops are installed between the theater seats. So far, the company found the average customer spends $10 at the concession stand versus the national average of $2.50.

- Mark Albright can be reached at albright@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8252.

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