At the Muvico Egyptian 24 Theaters at Arundel Mills mall, one of the busiest theaters in the nation, moviegoers can order popcorn shrimp and quesadillas, even take their children to an on-site day care center while watching the latest movie on one of its two dozen screens.
That might be good, but apparently not good enough.
Muvico Theaters Inc., the Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based owner of the Egyptian-style theaters and 11 other cinemas, has plans to build a movie house near Miami it is calling Muvico Empire, including a bowling alley, pool hall, bar, video games, old-fashioned soda fountain, 300-seat restaurant and 20 screens with 4,500 seats.
Muvico has signed a letter-of-intent with the Rouse Co. of Columbia to develop the project, which is scheduled to open in 2005.
"It's really an extension of what we've been doing so far," said Hamid Hashemi, Muvico president and chief executive officer. "We want you to be able to have a meal, see a movie and take your kids to day care so you can enjoy your spouse."
Similar to the special effects on the screens, theater pyrotechnics keep getting bigger and bigger, even as overbuilding has glutted the industry and left a wake of bankruptcies and consolidations in recent years.
Hashemi's company has prospered with its concept of "breathtaking" theaters.
Its 20-screen complex in Boca Raton, Fla., includes a bar and a restaurant, though smaller than one planned for West Kendall.
The nearly 3-year-old Arundel Mills complex is among the country's most well-attended, averaging 3 million visitors a year, more than twice as many as other megaplexes.
"This is the only chance a theater has at getting money," said Dali Wiederhoft, a partner with ABBAS Public Relations in Minneapolis, which follows the industry. "The margins are lean for a free-standing theater on its own. A bad movie will kill them."
Hashemi learned that lesson the hard way. His first theater, in the early 1980s, bombed when a competitor opened a more extravagant theater nearby.
"I thought it would be easy. My thought was that all you do is sell tickets and sell popcorn, and that's all," said Hashemi, who left the business, restudied it and returned. "I came back with the conclusion that with all the theaters that are out there, it's all how we package it that makes people drive past one for the other."
The 150,000-square-foot Muvico Empire is to feature a stone column facade and a giant Trojan horse and Poseidon. It's part of a retail and residential complex being built by Rouse.
"We had been looking for another anchor that would draw people to the site, but would be compatible to a retail, shopping, people-watching, open-air Miami environment," said Chris Carlaw, a Rouse vice president in charge of the project.
Muvico isn't the first to mix movies with other entertainment. The concept is popular in Las Vegas and in Europe, where some theaters include swimming pools and saunas, although mostly in major markets with large enough populations to sustain the high costs of construction and operation.
"Any sign of ingenuity can give you a leg up," said Deborah Wilker, Miami bureau chief of The Hollywood Reporter, an entertainment trade publication. "Imaginative people are succeeding."
