Dan Voepel has an interesting scoop from the Vegas (where my sister is now and I will be Friday).
He (and Krista) and there for the International Council of Shopping Centers annual conference and reports that Galaxy Theaters is telling him "the stars have aligned now to make downtown Tacoma viable for a multiscreen theater."
Wow! Big news.
Of course, there's a big question, which is, "What does that mean for the Grand, the only urban movie theater right now?" I think it's only going to mean good things.
If people will go downtown to see Pirates of the Caribbean, then seeing an art film downtown a few weeks later isn't as scary anymore.
And it's not like the current Galaxy plays many "Grand Cinema" movies. While I was at the Grand, there was a narrow field of overlap where the Galaxy and the Grand were in competition for the same film--Pride and Prejudice (Galaxy got it), Thank You For Smoking (Grand got it), House of Flying Daggers (Galaxy), Brokeback Mountain (Grand).
But usually the markets are totally different.
The big winner is downtown. The Grand has averaged about 100,000 tickets sold a year since it got popular in 2001. But a multiplex, even a 6-screener like the current Galaxy, is going to do substantially higher numbers than that. It will be a boon to restaurants in the area and will be yet another incentive for the neighboring stores to keep their doors open late (as the Two Vaults does next to the Grand).
But still, big news!
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
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4 comments:
That would be such a good thing for downtown. I admit to having not visited downtown on date nights on more than one occasion, because the whole "dinner and movie" set up just wouldn't work with the timing of the Grand's shows and our babysitter. More choices is always a good thing!
I'm personally hoping for one in the dome district. I think it could mean big things for the link, and Freighthouse. (Especially if both stayed open later.) There's a public market somewhat similar to Freighthouse next to a movie theater in Emeryville, CA, that has worked out beautifully for that city.
I think if Galaxy were to open a new theatre downtown, they would follow where the money is flowing right: the St. Helens neighborhood. That would put it only a few blocks away from the Grand, but with the blossoming of the neighborhood into a mixed-use center in next few years, it's a logical choice. While I would like to see more activity in the Dome District as well, I don't see Galaxy going there right away. The Link only runs until about 8 on Saturday--about the same time people are entering the movie theatre. In New York City, no one would mind walking 20 blocks back home at night. But this is Tacoma. People are afraid to walk half a block during the day.
Much better than the Wal-Mart rumor Voelpel started!
That would RULE!
That'd be one less place you'd need to use your car to get to.
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