An Edwards theater, part of the Regal chain, recently closed in a regional center in the Southern California community of Rancho Santa Margarita. The loss of this theater will, in my humble opinion, significantly affect the other retailers in the regional shopping center of which it was a part of as well as the other retailers in the immediate vicinity of the theater. The picture to the left is from an iPic Theater in Pasadena.
The theater was a little older than the more recent 21 screen multiplexes that we have seen popping up over the last 10 - 15 years and my family and I have favored a larger theater in the community of Potolla Hills, a few miles, further away. I think this theater only had 6 screens.
Notwithstanding the fact that we only occassionally patroned this theater, my family and I reacted with dissappointment and sorrow, almost as if we witnessed the passing of a dear friend.
This got me thinking about what the owner of the property could replace the theater with, not that I would naturally think about how to replace a dear friend as soon as they passed. What a morbid thought! But I digress.
I began to seek ideas for a replacement without much satisfaction. I oringally thought of some of those new, high end theaters that serve wine and more of a private theater experience and despite some other creative but not very satisfactory solutions, I kept coming back to my original high end theater experience. I think it is a really good idea. There is only one such high end theater in the relative vicinity, a Regency Theater in San Juan Capistrano. Too far away to attract movie goers that a similar venue would attract in Rancho Santa Margarita and I think a 6 screen theater is just about the right size. The concept is to reduce the amount of seats, signifcantly improve the watching experience with a cafe bar, food services to the seats including meals other than nachos with yellow gooey sauce and you increase the price accordingly.
I haven't yet visited the Regency in San Juan, but I am going to go out of my way to experience it and determine if the additional cost is worth the experience.
I also noticed an iPic Theater is in Pasadena, (way to far for me to visit) that follows the same high end concept. The pictures in this post is courtesy of the iPic website.
I think people will pay for it.
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