By Rose Graner, Duncan Gregory, and Audrey McKenzie
Entertainment Editors
For decades, the Beach Cities Pacific Theaters 16 has provided Costa students and South Bay residents with a cost-effective way to socialize. With the introduction of the new ArcLight Theater that has been constructed in its place, that tradition is soon to end.
ArcLight’s grand opening is today, Nov. 5, and the old Pacific Theaters is now non-existent. ArcLight plans on making the theater experience better than ever, and they pride themselves on their service and compatibility, but for a high school student (or to anyone with a limited budget), the additional funds that customers are charged each time they go to see a movie at the Arclight are exorbitant. For that matter, the perks they receive in exchange for that extra cash are minimal and certainly not worth the exchange.
Some of ArcLights luxurious features include all-reserved seating, which supposedly “makes waiting in ‘hold-out’ lines a thing of the past.” This allows the audience to buy tickets as if it were a concert, with assigned seating to eliminate the rush to save seats. ArcLight also contains a small café where friends and family can enjoy a meal before or after attending a movie. In addition to the small restaurant, ArcLight has “always fresh” popcorn with real butter, and if you ask for caramel popcorn, they will make it right in front of your eyes.
Really, though — how often do moviegoers walk out of a theater saying to each other, “Wow, those seats were really uncomfortable! I would have paid extra to have a marginally more comfortable experience?”
Never. The movie-going experience is about the film itself, not the theater it is shown in.
Granted, having more comfortable chairs and higher-quality food available will be appreciated by people without as many monetary concerns—namely, the elite few South Bay residents unaffected by the recession.
However, those few individuals are far outnumbered by less fortunate South Bay residents, scads of high school kids, and the copious El Segundo and Hawthorne residents who regularly patronized the Pacific Theaters (many of whom struggle financially even without the recent economic downturn hanging over their heads).
ArcLight has also bought out the smaller Pacific Theater up the street near the Manhattan Beach Village Mall. ArcLight plans to completely close this theater because they believe they will simply lose business if it remains in such close proximitity to the new ArcLight Theater. The new plans for the lot have not been decided, but local movie-goers will not approve of this new adjustment.
This remodel might gain the theater a more diverse range of customers. However, it is plainly evident that it will force many viewers to seek out cheaper options if they wish to view a recently-released feature film. In short, the end result of the remodel will be nothing more than a small, local rise in illegal piracy rates.
While many higher income individuals will now enjoy the luxury of this deluxe, modernized theater, many local movie-goers will now be stripped of their ability to attend reasonably priced movies they were once able to enjoy with family and friends.
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