High-Tech Mogul to Transform Cinema?(Brief Article)

Imagine going to your local megaplex and instead of purchasing tickets for the latest blockbuster, buying ones to see an airing of the Stanley Cup finals, or the latest Broadway show. In addition to viewing the action on a 50-foot screen in digital surround-sound, you'd get behind-the-scenes glimpses a person watching at home or live wouldn't be able to see.

Well, if Philip Anschutz gets his way, having such options at the neighborhood cinema may soon become a reality. Earlier this year, Anschutz--whom Forbes estimates to be the sixteenth richest individual in the world, worth around $15 billion--stunned the business world when he began purchasing movie theater chains like United Artists, Regal, and Edwards that had fallen into serious financial trouble amidst theater overbuilding.

Given the woes that theaters have experienced over the last few years, sinking more than $700 million into the business (which bought Anschutz close to 7,000 of the country's 37,000 screens) seems about as smart as pouring money into dot-coms in February. A movie theater buy seems even more surprising if you know that the Colorado-based Anschutz is an evangelical Christian. The trendy and often amoral views that suffuse most Hollywood films wouldn't seem to hold much attraction for him. But Anschutz's move may actually give him a chance to both make theater exhibition profitable again (while turning the business in a different direction), and encourage entertainment that squares with his generally culturally conservative views.

Movie attendance hasn't changed much for years (having long since become mostly an adolescent activity, with two-thirds of all movie tickets sold to 15- to 24-year-olds). Yet when the rest of the retail world became enamored of giant stores, theater exhibitors also decided to shift to bigger multiplexes, some of them housing 15-20 screens and featuring stadium-style seating.

Gone, suddenly, were the lines around the block when a blockbuster opened. When Tomb Raider opened this summer, it had an average of 19 daily show times at its megaplex. This kind of availability ended the tradition of a film staying practically ...