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A Second Act: Movie multiplex makes return to downtown

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After a nearly two-year absence, movies are again lighting up screens in downtown Springfield’s College Station development.

Nov. 22 was the grand opening for College Station Theaters, a 50,000-square-foot multiplex at 415 W. College St. The official launch was preceded by a week of film showings that served as a soft opening, said theater officials.

Curtis Killingsworth, assistant general manager, said he is among 40 employees at the theater, adding plans are to hire up to 10 more people during the holiday season. Tillman Redevelopment LLC, which owns the building and College Station, previously announced this year it was bringing its own theater concept to the spot left vacant in January 2023 by Regal Cinemas, according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting.

College Station Theaters is the fourth movie theater in Springfield, joining downtown arthouse venue Moxie Cinema, Alamo Drafthouse Cinema and AMC Springfield 11.

The grand opening was “excellent,” Killingsworth said, noting the theater drew as many as 180 customers per hour over the weekend.

“I’m thrilled with the turnout that we had,” he said, adding moviegoer interest was fueled by the theater’s initial slate of films that included “Wicked” and “Gladiator II,” which finished first and second, respectively, at the U.S. box office for the Nov. 22-24 weekend.

On schedule
The opening achieved the goals set out by Tillman Redevelopment officials when the company announced plans this summer.

Killingsworth said Tillman Redevelopment served as general contractor. “With a project this size, it’s just you never feel like you’re going to get there. Then sure enough with a great group of people putting in the seats, doing the construction, doing the renovations, we were able to get it done right on time,” he said.

The work included installation of laser projectors and four rooms with Dolby Atmos technology, which Killingsworth said is top-of-the-line sound quality in the industry. The independent, first-run theater is utilizing 10 of its 14 existing screens at its launch. Decisions on how best to use the additional screens are still to be determined, he said. All 10 of the auditoriums, which have capacity ranging 50-150, feature heated, reclining seats.

“It’s just all fluid right now. We’re going to see what we need to do and what the demand is by the community,” he said, adding one or more of the four additional auditoriums might be available to rent out. “We have our ear on the ground for that.”

Theater officials declined to disclose project investment costs.

“It was a sizable investment into our local community,” Killingsworth said. “There’s a reason why AMC or other competitors around haven’t gone to laser projectors. There’s a reason why they don’t have Dolby Atmos sound.”

According to online publication IndieWire, a new laser projector can cost roughly $40,000 for a standard screen, up to $100,000 for a premium large format screen, or $150,000 when combining the cost of the projector and lens.

Killingsworth, who has worked for 15 years in various movie theaters, starting at a Regal Cinemas venue in Las Vegas, said he and general manager Danielle Signaigo were hiring and training employees in the weeks leading up to the opening. He came on board in July after five years working at Alamo Drafthouse Cinema.

The theater building has been considered the anchor tenant to the College Station development that includes Blue Room Comedy Club across the street. The building also gained a new mural this month from local artist Susan Sommer. It features several past and present Hollywood stars with Springfield connections, including Brad Pitt, Kathleen Turner and John Goodman.

College Station’s opening comes at a time when the industry continues to navigate challenges such as digital streaming, strike-delayed content and an ongoing high inflationary environment.

Total movie screens in the U.S. decreased in 2022 to 39,007, a 5.3% drop from the prepandemic level of 41,172 in 2019, according to Omdia, a London-based analyst and advisory firm.

However, U.S. moviegoers are showing signs of slowly returning to cinemas. The domestic box office last year reached nearly $9.05 billion, its highest total since 2019, when it finished at $11.36 billion in ticket sales, according to media measurement and analytics company Comscore Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR).

Community connections
Another part of Killingsworth’s role has involved securing partnerships with local businesses. That’s led to a brick-and-mortar Pineapple Whip shop, pizza from The Big Slice, coffee from The Coffee Ethic LLC and a planned arcade area from 1984 that he said was set to debut over the Thanksgiving weekend.

“Everyone’s been very excited to join up,” he said. “It’s been a lot of fun.”

Paul Tillman, property manager of Tillman Redevelopment, is a big Pineapple Whip fan, said Zach Fortner, owner of the longtime Springfield business.

“When he first started talking to me about the theater, I could tell just how passionate he was about making this a Springfield thing,” Fortner said, noting he connected with Tillman on the idea earlier this year.

Pineapple Whip occupies space formerly dedicated to the theater’s box office, an area that officials said would otherwise have largely gone unused in its current iteration. Fortner said the Pineapple Whip serves people inside and outside the venue and is open during regular theater hours.

“It’s going to be an interesting experiment because initially we were thinking it would be just with the concessions and then I think it was Paul’s idea to put it out there,” Fortner said of the box office area. “It serves both functions. It’s kind of its own stand-alone serving the public, and then it also serves theater crowds at the same time.”

The theater even includes a Pineapple Whip slushy, which is exclusive to that location. Fortner said the frozen treat also was Tillman’s idea.

Declining to disclose terms of the deal, Fortner said theater employees staff the Pineapple Whip.

“We’re involved day to day, but it is their staff that’s actually doing it. We’ve trained them,” he said. “We just thought it made a lot more sense rather than cross training our people on theater functioning to just train the theater staff to do our stuff.”

Downtown asset
Joe Dull, Moxie Cinema’s executive director, wasn’t working at the downtown theater when Regal Cinemas exited in 2023. He began in May, succeeding 14-year leader Mike Stevens, according to past reporting.

“Anything that brings attention to downtown and just how much there is to do downtown is obviously a win for everybody,” he said of the College Station opening. “We wish them the best of success.”

Dull said the Moxie and the multiplex at College Station, which first opened in late 2008 as Hollywood Theaters before that company was bought by Regal Cinemas in 2013, have coexisted through most of their history. The Moxie launched in 2005.

“That’s absolutely the goal,” Dull said of wanting to be a complimentary theater downtown to College Station. “Obviously, we’re both going to do what’s best for our organizations, but also no one’s out to hurt the other.”

Killingworth said he expects College Station Theaters will be a particular draw for those living in and north of downtown, as well as surrounding towns.

“It’s revitalizing downtown, we hope in a big way, and it lets people come downtown, walk around downtown and have plenty to do while they’re here,” he said.

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