Theaters offer gourmet food, wine

OLATHE, Kan. – When the AMC Studio 30 Fork & Screen opened Friday in suburban Kansas City, moviegoers sampled a lush life not normally associated with a megaplex.

Most of the 30-screen complex still features popcorn, to be washed down with soda in theaters with masses of stadium seats. But 11 renovated and redesigned auditoriums offer – for a premium – padded recliners, alcoholic drinks and a full kitchen making Parmesan fries, Thai coconut chicken and Darkiccino chocolate brownies.

“This will be a great draw for customers who want an upscale experience,” said Andy DiOrio, a spokesman for Kansas City-based AMC Entertainment Inc., which plans eventually to include elements of Fork & Screen in many of its more than 350 theaters.

So-called cinema eateries have been around for decades, but they’ve gained ground in recent years as theater operators look for new ways to attract customers, especially older moviegoers who have more money but less tolerance for the junk food, uncomfortable seating and rowdy teenage crowds that typically populate multiplexes.

In an industry that already makes around a quarter of its revenue and about 40 percent of its profits from food, giving customers an excuse to splurge more on treats and drinks is a hefty incentive to rip out the seats and go upscale.

Patrick Corcoran, a spokesman for the National Association of Theatre Owners, estimates about 7 percent of theaters now offer an expanded menu.

Also Friday, Village Roadshow Gold Class Theaters opened a theater in Redmond, Wash., its second U.S. location, where the Australian company will command up to $35 per ticket for luxury leather seats and the chance to exchange the Jujubes for duck tacos, lobster rolls and expensive wine.

“One of the reasons I think you’re seeing this is there’s been an increase not just in the number of older adults but in the number of older adults going to movies,” Corcoran said. “You want to get hold of that market. The older demographic tends to have more disposable income, (and) looks for maybe a different experience than what teenagers and people in their 20s are looking for.”

The Fork & Screen is built around a central bar and lounge called MacGuffins. While ticket prices in eight of the 11 auditoriums are the same as in regular theaters, three are so-called “CineSuites” offering more intimate and comfortable seating and costing $10 extra.

All 11 auditoriums offer menu items ranging from $5.29 to $11.59 a plate plus beer and wine.

“It gives customers options,” DiOrio said. “Dinner and a movie is one option. If you want to have a drink after the movie, we have that too.”

Knoxville, Tenn.-based Regal, the nation’s largest chain, has three Cinebarre cinema eateries that it operates jointly with a North Carolina-based entrepreneur who helped found the nine-theater Alamo Draft House chain in Texas.

CineBarre, like Alamo, offers menus heavy on sandwiches, appetizers and pasta, which are served on long tables that line each row of seats.