Town and Country theater closes during busiest month

North-side moviegoers are without a movie house this holiday season, which is historically the busiest time of year at the box office. Yet, tempting ticket sales couldn't keep Town & Country 6 operating a month longer.

The theater, at 2711 N. Kansas Expwy. in the Town & Country shopping center, closed earlier this month due to mediocre ticket sales and scarce profits, according to Robert Goodrich of Goodrich Quality Theaters. The Grand Rapids, Mich.-based movie circuit operator bought out the remaining 18 months on its contract in late summer. It vacated the property Dec. 13.

Bill Jester purchased Town & Country center in July 2001 and announced in March of this year that he was investing more than $7 million for a facelift and out lot development. The contract buyout occurred in August.

"It was a surprise to us since we're spending about $2.5 million on renovation of the existing center and adding another $5 million in new construction," Jester said. "The timing is even more confounding, because December is the busiest month of the year in the theater business. It is odd."

Considering 10 percent of annual movie ticket sales come between Christmas Day and New Year's Day, the timing is unusual.

But Goodrich said it was agreed with Jester's group, Resource Development Inc., that early this month would be the best time in concert with the remodeling activity.

The contract reportedly bought out at less than $100,000 was to expire at the end of 2003.

Such urgency to vacate the space left RDI chief operating officer Jerry Hill wondering if more was wrong than what showed on the surface.

"I really think it had more to do with their internal business operations, than it had to do with this particular site," Hill said.

However, Goodrich said it was simply a matter of profitability based on the theater's below-market performance. He said it received nearly 10 percent of the Springfield market share for first-run theaters; his goal since purchasing it almost four years ago was 15 percent of Springfield's movie pie.

"We thought at that level, we could make a modest profit and we never quite achieved that," Goodrich said. "We were basically breaking even."

Fighting the good fight

The struggle for north-side box office dollars has been waged for years. North Town Mall Cinema gave up the fight when it went out of business in 1998. No one seems to know why north-side theater success is so elusive.

"The general retail life in the north end of Springfield is very solid. Why didn't the theaters share in it?" Goodrich asked. "It's an unanswered mystery."

Jester believes it was a lack of investment within the movie house and an outdated operations approach.

"The history of the theater was that it had under performed," he said. "They had invested no money in the theater in several years, and that sort of stuff just catches up with you."

Jester believes that a theater can make it there, a viewpoint Goodrich argues.

Jester's group, including leasing agent Ken Schwab, is in negotiations with three other theater operators, all of which would be new to Springfield. A tenant announcement is likely in the next 30 days.

"We hear a lot from the north side about the need for a theater," Hill said. "We've also had interest on this space from others that aren't theaters, but we are going to do our best to try and get a theater to go back in there to keep one on the north side."

Schwab agrees that there is a need. "It seems to make sense because the only other theaters in Springfield would be on the far southern edge."

Goodrich does not see it that way.

"That would astound me," he said at the idea of another theater in the 20,000-square-foot space. "I know there are people who relied on it. ... But sadly, from its inception when the Dickinson family built it in the 1980s, the theater has really struggled.

"After every theater on the north end of Springfield has lost money for over 20 years, for somebody else to come in doesn't make any sense. It would have to be a very inexperienced theater operator who doesn't know the history of business on that side of town. Any other commercial use would be more successful than a theater there."

Goodrich suggests turning the theater into retail space, as was done with the Fremont Theater on East Battlefield, which he once owned.

According to Schwab's Web site, the Town & Country theater space leases for $10 per square foot, with a $2-per-square-foot common area maintenance rate.

Town & Country 6, Fremont Theater and Springfield 8 were part of a $24 million, 10-theater package deal with Dickinson Theaters.

Goodrich closed the Fremont Theater shortly after purchasing it and renovated it into retail space, now occupied by Play It Again Sports. Goodrich has now sold four and closed two of the 10 Missouri theaters. Four theaters remain in operation in Missouri, including Springfield 8, which will now receive more attention.

Goodrich said plans are to add three movie screens to that theater by 2004.

He has paid a $50,000 down payment for about two acres of land next to Springfield 8.

He is working with Springfield officials to relocate a portion of the Springfield 8's parking lot on that property, so the screens could be added in the existing building.

The show must go on'

In the short term, both south-side venues Springfield 8 and Campbell 16 should have a greater holiday sales season than was projected.

Movie fanatics will follow their favorite titles, leading Campbell 16 General Manager Denny Goins to believe his theater will benefit from the closing.

"I think we're going to see some of those customers, but it won't be anything significant," Goins said. "I don't think that theater captured much of the market share."

Campbell 16, a megaplex theater, controls more than 60 percent of the Springfield market, while Springfield 8 gets around 30 percent among first-run theaters.

Megaplex theaters with a dozen screens or more have been the industry trend of late, squeezing out the smaller ones. Goodrich believes the new screens at Springfield 8 would make it more competitive with Campbell 16.

"(Megaplexes) have made the circumstance for three- and four-plexes fragile," he said.

Apparently even six-screen theaters like Town & Country 6 have become fragile at the hands of megaplexes.