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What follows is a press release I received today from Curt Thornton of Provision Entertainment:
Provision Entertainment Contracted for 15/70 Large Format Projectors
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CHATSWORTH, California – (December 20, 1999) – Provision Entertainment, Inc. today announced that they have signed a contract with the County of San Bernardino to remove and broker the sale of one Iwerks 3D 15/70 Large Format Projection System located in the Ontario Mills Mall. The County Board of Supervisors approved and signed the agreement with Provision in late November, which followed the agreement to terminate the County’s lease of the theatre site known as the UltraScreen Theatre, located in Ontario, California.
To prepare for the removal of the Iwerks equipment within a very limited time constraint, the County’s Department of Community and Cultural Resources solicited proposals from four firms for this highly specialized, technical and unique service. “Of the four vendors solicited, Provision Entertainment was considered the most responsive and presented the best overall proposal”, says Laurie Rozko, Administrative Division Chief of the Community and Cultural Resources Department. Rozko added, “We recommended the services of Provision Entertainment to the Board of Supervisors because of their expertise, availability, and experience in handling the highly specialized, technical and delicate Iwerks equipment.”
Curt Thornton, President & CEO of Provision Entertainment, Inc., and formerly a Vice President of Iwerks Entertainment, Inc. [NASDAQ: IWRK], stated, “We are extremely pleased to have signed this contract with the County, and are grateful for their accolades. They have given us a tremendous opportunity to demonstrate and validate what we have done and can do for the industry as an emerging independent provider of services.” Thornton continued, “This is also another strategic opportunity for Provision to continue its growth into the large format market. As installation, maintenance, and ongoing customer service concerns can determine the ultimate success of a theatre, our infrastructure has been developed to provide a viable option to equipment owners and providers.”
Provision’s contract with the County calls for them to broker the sale of the 15/70 3D Projection system once they decommission and remove it from the UltraScreen Theatre. Two 15/70 projectors were combined to provide a tremendous 3D experience at the UltraScreen Theatre. The Iwerks 15/70-15KW system projects a sharp, stable, brilliant image on screens as high as 80 feet. The advanced technology used in the projection system can show both 2D and 3D films, and is combined with up to 37,000 watts of digital surround sound. The system is available immediately through Provision Entertainment and includes all
the hardware required for the greatest large format experience available today. Commented Thornton, “This is an outstanding opportunity for someone to acquire a “virtually new”, complete system for a fraction of the cost of a new one, and without paying the hardware royalties usually associated with this type of equipment.”
Provision Entertainment, Inc. is a worldwide provider of contract manufacturing, product distribution, and customer services to multimedia entertainment companies and provides innovative manufacturing, engineering, service and installation solutions to OEMs and their customers. Full range of services include contract assembly, systems integration, project management, and creative design. A privately held corporation, Provision Entertainment’s corporate offices are located in the greater Los Angeles area.
For more information, contact Provision at (818) 775-1624, (818) 775-1628 fax, or at http://www.provisionentertainment.com. |
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OK, I'm game...
Who wants to chip in on the world's first 3D drive-in LF theater? All we need is a few mil... |
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Hey...Why not install the system in a couple of trailer beds and take 'em on the road. We could paint the red rocks over with silver paint and voila...
...or not. |
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| Okay, I missed something somewhere...why are they removing it at all? Is the theatre no longer open? or do they not attract customers anymore? Curious, that's all. |
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 Anonymous posted on Friday, December 24, 1999 - 07:56 am
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| I'd also like to know what happened, considering that: a.) this is near L.A., so there certainly wasn't a shortage of potential customers; b.) this was a 3D theater; and c.) this was a relatively new theater, not even open 3 years, I think. If it closed due to low attendance, that certainly doesn't bode well for the future of the sit-down multiplex-based 3D 1570 sector. I mean, if you can't be viable with a 3D theater near L.A., how can you be viable in a smaller market? Maybe Iwerks has the right idea about the future: they seem to be concentrating on integrating their film experiences into theme parks and action-styled "rides" (which is where they started). Maybe the future of 1570 is that it really doesn't HAVE a future outside of Disney World and the occasional National Geographic documentary at the local science museum. Wouldn't THAT be a bit of bad news--especially for Imax, which has heavily invested in putting 3DSR theaters into multiplexes? "The sky is falling! The sky is falling!" (This post brought to you by the paranoia of Y2K--no relation to the paranoia of F2K). |
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| Nothing like that...This whole situation was brought to the attention of the industry two years ago after the nearby Imax opened its doors. In a nutshell, you could park your car at the Ontario Mills Mall lot and walk to either theater (Imax in the mall or Iwerks as a stand-alone in the parking lot) in less than five minutes. Stalemate. One HAD to close. There is a lot of finger-pointing and it seems that this is about to recur in several more locations. |
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| Fred M. Burr posted on Saturday, December 25, 1999 - 05:05 am
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Close...
Except that Imax is in the parking lot, and neither theatrer did the kind of numbers to support themselves as a stand alone. When we would send an employee in to their theatre to do a head count they often had one more person in their show than we had in ours. San Bernadino is not a viable 15/70 market (at least not at the Ontario Mills). There were 54 screens in a block (1 iWERKS, 1 IMAX, 52 35mm). Guess which ones attracted the customers. Of course, Edwards (the IMAX operator) would also over-bid by a large percentage to prevent the UltraScreen from getting a movie. And we had a difficult time getting any IMAX controlled/distributed films for the first 2 years. Am I bitter/defensive? Yes, it was my first 15/70 theatre. Could I say more? Yes, would it offend people still in the area? Well, I'll say that if Edwards really wants to run quality IMAX shows, they might want to pay the projectionists a bit more (like we haven't heard that before). Anyone interested in more information is free to contact me.
Fred Burr |
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| oops...you're right, Fred. Edwards has their Imax, along with their entire multiplex, in the lot. What becomes of a building that was specifically built to be a large-format theater, anyway? This may be a good time to bring up this question...This scenario is about to repeat in at least TWO more locations. There can't be many other uses without completely gutting such a place...or demolishing it. |
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| Anonymous posted on Sunday, December 26, 1999 - 10:49 am
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| It's going to be interesting to see what happens here. The Ultrascreen was owned by the County, but was run by Ogden as part of the Great American Wilderness attraction in the mall. Ironically, the theatre that Ogden followed this up with was the Arizona Mills IMAX Theatre. The American Wilderness attraction is still operating a specialty Simex motion simulator system, but after the opening of both the Simex and Ultrascreen attractions in Ontario, Ogden for some reason decided not to continue with the theatre systems at their other American Wilderness sites. It seems that Ogden hasn't been having too perfect a time with LBE's. Their Tinsletown attraciton in Anaheim was recently changed to a concert venue. Looks like they do better with waterparks and concert venues/stadiums/arenas. |
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Fred Burr summarized the UltraScreen Ontario situation fairly well. Thanks Fred (who was a former valued employee). Of all the points Fred makes, perhaps most important is the close proximity of the two large format theatres to one another. Not even a 3 iron folks!
This issue has been covered fairly well in the press (MaxImage and more mainstream pubs), but let me add my firsthand knowledge to this thread.
I joined Ogden in October 1996, after the UltraScreen theatre deal was put together between Ogden (as manager) and the County (as owner). We tried to make the most of an impossible situation. In essence, this theatre was "dead on arrival" when it opened in May 1997. No amount of clever marketing, quality operation or great programming was going to allow this theatre to meet its ridiculous initial targets of 485,000 peopple per year. This was apparent to almost everyone, but just as the decision to build this theatre with 100% taxpayer money was a political one, so too was the ultimate decision to close the theatre permanently by November, 1999, (which Ogden actively encouraged). Ogden began the process of trying to help the County with this prickly situation by attempting, as early as September 1997, to broker a deal with Edwards and the County. (Edwards considered moving their IMAX equipment into the UltraScreen Theatre's space, to create one LF theatre in what remains as arguably the best location. Unfortunatley, the Mills mall (UltraScreen theatre's landlord) threw up some roadblocks, and although they eventually came around after almost a year of back and forth discussions, Edwards eventually lost interest.)
The Ontario market's profile is the antithesis of what we know works in this business. The core resident base (about 300,000 people) is small, and at the low end demographically (income, education, etc.). Despite the mall's marketing pitch to many of its tenants, tourist visitation is virtually nil. In short, this would be a very tough market for a even single IMAX-branded screen.
To clarify the situation with Ogden's American Wilderness Experience attraction, it was operated as a separate attraction, and in fact did not open until late October 1997, 5 months after UltraScreen. We shared a common wall, but physically, they were separately built and operated attractions. The synergies between UltraScreen and AWE were next to none, other than some limited "combo" ticketing for groups. (This was a huge missed opportunity in my opinion.) AWE (re-named American Wilderness Zoo & Aquarium) is still open in Ontario, and this site was the ONLY site that Ogden ultimately developed. There were plans for several other AWE's (AWZA's), but because of the lack of success with the Ontario site, the AWZA roll-out plan was aborted by Ogden. However, the relatively successful "Wilderness Grill" restaurant concept, connected to the AWZA Ontario site, did go forward in a few other sites. The SimEx simulator was conceived as a relatively minor element of a predominantly nature-based AWZA attraction.
There is no connection between Ogden's decision to go forward originally in Ontario with the iWerks/UltraScreen theatre and the later Tempe IMAX theatre (which is a JV between Imax and Ogden)other than the Mills Corp., developer of both malls, was interested in building its entertainment tenant base at all of its properties, and a (former) executive at Ogden had a close relationship with the chairman of the Mills.
Ogden's success -- or lack of it -- with LBE's is indeed checkered, although there have been some some rays of sunshine -- such as the succesful Silver Springs theme park in Ocala Florida. There's no doubt that investing and operating LBE's takes a lot of capital, the right management, patience, and probably some luck. Truth is, in the universe of LBE's, there have been few real "hits" and a lot of misses. |
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One other point ...
What do you do with an apparently single-purpose building once its use ceases to be an LF theatre?
If it were in a conventional multi-plex, I could imagine converting it to a premium 35mm screen. If a standalone, it's not as obvious. (Unless the conventional biz goes retro to the old days of single screen movie palaces.)
In the case of the Ontario Mills site, that former UltraScreen Theatre building was sold back to the mall owners (Mills Corp) by the County of San Bernardino. The mall will likely try to rent the space out to a new tenant. However, I understand that this site cannot be a theatre of any kind for at least 2 years. Pure speculation on my part, but maybe it will become an indoor rock-climbing wall, or a big new "eatertainment" restaurant/attraction. |
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