Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Now playing: Comfy chairs and fancy food
AMC and Cinemark adding recliners, restaurants and bars
These days, theater companies aren’t just competing with streaming services like Netflix. They’re also going up against high-end cinemas that have popped up throughout South Florida with enhanced seating and dining options.
In the race to attract moviegoers, companies like AMC and Cinemark have embarked on full renovations that include adding restaurants and fullservice bars and ripping out the traditional stadium-style seats and replacing them with leather recliner chairs.
AMC Theatres has made these changes at six of the company’s 10 South Florida locations, according to spokesman Ryan Noonan.
The company installed full bars at all 10 locations, and offers a menu for seat delivery service at select locations.
AMC has spent more than $1 billion since 2012 on renovations, Noonan said.
“In 2010, we had fewer than 10 locations that served alcohol. In the next couple months, the 300th location will be opened,” Noonan said. “When we do these renovations, we do a full theater renovation, not just recliners. It feels like a brandnew theater and customers are loving it.”
Cinemark Theatres spent $559.7 million on renovations in
2016 and 2017 alone, marketing manager Hope Bruens said.
Replacing seats costs about $250,000 for each auditorium renovation, a company spokeswoman added. Cinemark would not disclose its total spending.
Cinemark has 533 theaters worldwide, with three in South Florida: Davie, Boca Raton and Boynton Beach. The Boca Raton and Davie locations just completed recliner, restaurant and bar installations this summer.
Boynton Beach is Cinemark’s only recliner-less theater in South Florida, but it is unknown whether the theater will undergo any renovations, Bruens said.
About 50 percent of Cinemark’s theaters have been renovated since the company began installing recliners in 2015, she said. The company hopes to increase that to 55 percent by year’s end.
Previously, the industry priority was to attract as many people as possible, piling moviegoers into theaters like sardines. Now, the focus has shifted to experience and comfort, Noonan said.
Noonan said AMC made comfort a priority after guest feedback showed a desire for it. The changes coincide with the emergence of luxury cinemas like iPic, which opened in 2010 and provides a pillow, blanket and popcorn for customers to enjoy while seated in leather chairs.
This shift also comes at a time when 54 percent of U.S. households use Netflix, according to a 2017 Variety story. Many movie-lovers are waiting until films leave the theaters to watch them from the comfort of their homes and avoid paying rising ticket prices.
Installing recliner seats cuts theater occupancy in half, but revenue and overall attendance goes up, according to both companies.
“Year after year, there is a 30 to 50 percent increase in attendance after renovations,” Noonan said.
Noonan said these two factors influence the price increase after renovations. “Historically, AMC does not raise ticket prices in conjunction with the renovations,” he said. “In most cases, because of the significant increase in attendance and decrease in seating capacity, supply and demand dictate a slight adjustment to ticket prices, usually a dollar or two more expensive.”
Bruens said that Cinemark’s ticket prices do not rise after renovations. So, is the strategy working? In 2017, movie ticket purchases slumped to the lowest they had been since 1992, according to Box Office Mojo, an online database. While Bruens said this could be because renovations cut the number of theater seats in half, people could also feel less inclined to leave the comforts of their home, said Kimberly Taylor, associate professor of marketing and logistics at Florida International University.
“Now consumers have so many ways to watch movies — Netflix, Amazon Prime, on demand through their TV cable or satellite package — and many people have large screen TVs and home theater systems to really replicate a moviegoing experience,” said Taylor.
“They really need to be wooed by something special to make the effort to leave their homes and see a movie in the theater.”
So far in 2018, the box office is seeing better results. The year is on track to have the highest total revenue, with five out of the last 10 months setting box office records, according to Box Office Mojo. Movies like “Black Panther,” “Avengers: Infinity War,” “Incredibles 2” and “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” have topped the charts.
Taylor said that while these big blockbusters have brought in a lot of people, the renovations are paying off. “It makes for a calmer, more pleasant experience to be able to choose your seats ahead of time, and the nicer, reclining seats and upgraded refreshment options make going to the movies more of a destination entertainment alternative, rather than just watching a movie.”
Customers don’t mind paying a little extra for an upgraded experience either, Taylor said. “They are willing to pay a higher price for an upgraded experience. Being able to reserve seats, have more comfortable reclining seats, perhaps even order food and drinks (more than just popcorn and candy) makes for an overall more luxurious experience, and consumers can readily see the value of what they are getting for their money.”