{"id":155,"date":"2009-03-28T17:47:57","date_gmt":"2009-03-28T17:47:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/?p=155"},"modified":"2020-03-28T05:11:53","modified_gmt":"2020-03-28T05:11:53","slug":"fantasy-failure-with-jerry-lewis-cinemas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/2009\/03\/28\/fantasy-failure-with-jerry-lewis-cinemas\/","title":{"rendered":"Fantasy & Failure With Jerry Lewis Cinemas"},"content":{"rendered":"
Cinemas have stirred the entrepreneurial spirit in want-to-be moguls and dreamers since the dawn of commercial film. Be it the perceived excitement and glamour of being involved in the entertainment industry or merely the draw of a potentially lucrative cash cow, countless individuals have looked on theatre ownership as\u00a0somewhat of a fantasy\u00a0business venture. While a few managed to\u00a0find great success in the\u00a0exhibition industry, many more found themselves stopped well short of their\u00a0goals and fantasies, failing to even get\u00a0a foot in the proverbial door.\u00a0A situation that\u00a0laid the groundwork for a\u00a0doomed chain and concept, that was fronted by an unlikely “get rich guru”.<\/div>\n
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In 1969, entertainer Jerry Lewis (yes,\u00a0that Jerry Lewis) partnered with the Network Cinema Corporation to form a chain of theatre franchises, via\u00a0“Jerry Lewis Cinemas”. The\u00a0concept was to open the possibility of theatre ownership to anyone who was able to\u00a0meet initial investment requirements (a $15,000 to $50,000 downpayment),\u00a0through franchising both\u00a0individual\u00a0cinemas and territories. Jerry and company would provide the know how, name recognition,\u00a0and marketing; franchisees would put up the money and man hours. Promising\u00a0“if you can press a button, you can own a Jerry Lewis Cinema”, the company appeared to be the “turn key” answer to owning\u00a0your own\u00a0movie theatre.<\/div>\n
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Lewis’ theatres, branded “mini cinemas”,\u00a0followed a standardized model that called for 1-3 auditoriums,\u00a0seating 200 to 350\u00a0patrons each, focusing on operations efficiency. While similar to the “cracker box” design of most 70’s multiplexes, mini cinemas were generally a notch above their peers in decor and featured what could best be described as mid level amenities (i.e. neither cheap nor luxurious). Perhaps, the key sales point to these venues was the promoted automation of projection, concession, and box office, which was alleged to make the theatre an ease to operate. Billed as requiring as\u00a0few as two individuals to run a theatre, the Jerry Lewis\u00a0business model\u00a0was targeted to\u00a0increase profit, through lower overhead costs.<\/div>\n
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Implementing a heavy\u00a0sales push, throughout the early 70’s, franchise seminars were held\u00a0across the country,\u00a0instantly\u00a0pulling from the long standing pool of want-to-be cinema owners. Franchisees\u00a0were given the option of either\u00a0owning an individual site or becoming an “area director”, who oversaw a protected territory and licensed cinemas within their area.\u00a0By\u00a0mid decade, the chain had grown to include\u00a0some 200 sites, with another 100 slotted for development. Yet, despite the company’s rapid growth, cracks in the Jerry Lewis business model\u00a0soon became apparent.<\/div>\n
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Almost as quickly as the chain had spread throughout the country,\u00a0mini cinemas\u00a0began to fold at an alarming\u00a0rate.\u00a0Initially, owners\u00a0cited the company’s policy of only booking “family friendly” films as the trouble spot, but,\u00a0the\u00a0decline continued, even after the policy was expanded to include more competitive booking practices.\u00a0The finger pointing then turned to the company’s lack of continued support and lackluster marketing of venues; with owners\u00a0feeling that they were left out in the cold once a cinema had been\u00a0purchased and opened. Additionally, owners had discovered, much to their dismay, that the “push button automation”\u00a0fell well short of what was advertised, leaving many sites in a continuous state of chaos.\u00a0The end result of all these issues being a growing series of lawsuits and the company grinding to a near halt\u00a0towards the\u00a0close of the decade.\u00a0By 1980, the chain was completely defunct, with both Jerry Lewis and the National Cinema Corporation filing for bankruptcy.<\/div>\n
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While a host of poor business decisions likely played a role in the failure of Jerry Lewis Cinemas, the most glaring flaw was the very concept that anyone could own a theatre and operate it with minimal effort. As with\u00a0far too many “get rich” schemes, all of the involved parties had\u00a0been “blinded” by their fantasies\u00a0and failed to consider the practical realities of running a successful business, let alone a business as unique as a movie theatre. Most franchisees\u00a0entered in to the venture without the skills or\u00a0experience to properly operate their theatres; in turn, Lewis and company failed to adequately prepare or support their, primarily inexperienced, cinema owners.\u00a0The “ease” of running a movie theatre had been highly exaggerated, the\u00a0extensive demands of\u00a0operating\u00a0a successful \u00a0business had been overlooked.<\/div>\n
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There\u00a0were few positive notes left In the wake of Jerry Lewis Cinemas’ disastrous run.\u00a0Former franchisees tend to reflect on shattered dreams, broken promises,\u00a0and ruined finances; one particular individual I corresponded with\u00a0relayed that, even thirty plus years after the fact, Lewis’ yearly telethon appearance never fails to anger him. Mr. Lewis went on to release\u00a0the dreadful 1981 film “Hardly Working”,\u00a0to aid in his financial recovery,\u00a0managing to emerge\u00a0from bankruptcy\u00a0shortly thereafter. The former mini cinemas, once touted as “a big money making business”, are all but gone, with only a handful of structures still standing in any form.\u00a0At best, Jerry Lewis Cinemas’\u00a0overall legacy stands\u00a0as part cautionary tale, part obscure\u00a0trivia on a legendary entertainer’s biography.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cinemas have stirred the entrepreneurial spirit in want-to-be moguls and dreamers since the dawn of commercial film. Be it the perceived excitement and glamour of being involved in the entertainment industry or merely the draw of a potentially lucrative cash cow, countless individuals have looked on theatre ownership as\u00a0somewhat of a fantasy\u00a0business venture. While a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,5,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-industry","category-popular"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1225,"href":"https:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155\/revisions\/1225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}