{"id":249,"date":"2009-07-19T09:19:04","date_gmt":"2009-07-19T09:19:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/?p=249"},"modified":"2009-07-19T09:27:08","modified_gmt":"2009-07-19T09:27:08","slug":"the-not-so-magic-kingdom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/2009\/07\/19\/the-not-so-magic-kingdom\/","title":{"rendered":"The Not So Magic Kingdom"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Disneyland area of Anaheim has long been an entertainment focal point,\u00a0yet cinemas have always struggled to find a\u00a0niche within this Mecca for recreational spending. Since 1955, over 500 million people have been drawn to the Magic Kingdom, supporting a dense network of hotels, motels, restaurants, and assorted retail establishments that encircle the resort. However, that same period has only seen three commercial cinemas in the area;\u00a0each\u00a0having struggled\u00a0to\u00a0tap in to the area’s lucrative cash flow.<\/div>\n
.<\/span><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
The area’s first cinema, Cinemaland<\/a>,\u00a0opened in the spring of 1968 and barely managed to stay in business for a decade.\u00a0Located directly across the street from Disneyland, the theatre was operated by National General\/Fox West Coast, as a plush single screen. Never a run away success, the venue experienced modest business from the onset, despite being considered a flagship\u00a0theatre, for it’s facility excellence. While offering a top of the line movie going experience,\u00a0Cinemaland\u00a0quickly fell victim to the era’s multi plex craze and was poorly divided in to three auditoriums, by new operator Mann. The tri plexing of Cinemaland only served to hasten the theatre’s decline, with the venue closing for good in June of 79′. After sitting vacant for another two decades,\u00a0as a decaying eyesore, the theatre was razed for a large parking lot and bus depot (the empty space beside Howard Johnson’s Plaza Hotel).<\/div>\n
.<\/span><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
AMC’s Downtown Disney\u00a012 <\/a>opened in 2001, as part of the resort’s outdoor shopping, dining, and entertainment plaza. The\u00a0twelve screen, 2,930 seat, complex was a dramatic downsize from the\u00a0megaplexes AMC had become known for\u00a0by that time, but the theatre\u00a0also\u00a0pointed towards\u00a0the “quality over quantity” direction the entire industry would undertake in years to come. Featuring “classic\u00a0era”\u00a0styling, coupled with “megaplex era” technology, the theatre exemplified the modern retro movement that has become a staple of cinemas in\u00a0the new millennium.\u00a0While\u00a0experiencing healthy business\u00a0anytime family oriented\u00a0blockbusters screened,\u00a0the theatre never fully lived up to attendance expectations; proving\u00a0more successful as a special events venue, than day to day cinema.<\/div>\n
.<\/span><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
Finally, we come to the area’s latest\u00a0contender, The Movie Experience’s Garden Walk 14\/Cinema Fusion theatre<\/a>. Officially opened on July 18, 2008, the $17 million theatre was built as part of a large commercial “lifestyle center”, Garden Walk. While styled with a retro “googie” decore, the fourteen screen venue also implemented a host of innovative\u00a0and cutting edge amenities that defy industry standards. Perhaps, the most adventurous offering being the\u00a0theatre’s multi\u00a0format exhibition style; featuring four separate\u00a0viewing options, traditional, 21+, luxury screening room, and IMAX. Termed “cinema fusion”, by the\u00a0theatre’s operator, the “all in one” theatre experience was hailed as the next step\u00a0in film exhibition. Whether this bold effort will ever live up to expectations or not\u00a0remains questionable.\u00a0A year in to operation, Cinema Fusion has struggled to capture a sizeable audience, in a center that, to date,\u00a0has also proved less than successful.<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
In an odd contradiction, the film exhibition industry, which\u00a0was built around the proverbial magic of escapism, has faltered\u00a0in capturing a\u00a0successful\u00a0presence within a place known as the Magic Kingdom. Be it poor decisions,\u00a0too much competition for entertainment dollars, or simply an attraction to options one doesn’t readily find elsewhere, the area has proven\u00a0to be\u00a0a not so Magic Kingdom for cinemas.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 The Disneyland area of Anaheim has long been an entertainment focal point,\u00a0yet cinemas have always struggled to find a\u00a0niche within this Mecca for recreational spending. Since 1955, over 500 million people have been drawn to the Magic Kingdom, supporting a dense network of hotels, motels, restaurants, and assorted retail establishments that encircle the resort. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-theatre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249","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=249"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":255,"href":"https:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249\/revisions\/255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}