{"id":6,"date":"2008-08-17T22:37:51","date_gmt":"2008-08-17T22:37:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/?p=6"},"modified":"2008-08-24T11:33:14","modified_gmt":"2008-08-24T11:33:14","slug":"coming-soon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/2008\/08\/17\/coming-soon\/","title":{"rendered":"UA Buena Park & The Pass Relationship"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"UA<\/a>Twenty four years ago today, United Artists opened the Buena Park 8, in the lower level of the, then highly popular, Buena Park Mall. Long since closed and gutted, this venue had a brief \u201chot\u201d run, but quickly fell victim to the fragile dynamics <\/a>of mall life cycles. By the mid 90\u2019s the Buena Park Mall was a virtual ghost town and area joke. The mall would receive a substantial remodel, circa 2002; the former UA 8 site being taken over by a Burlington Coat Factory (which also closed in short order), and an impressive eighteen screen \u201cflagship\u201d cinema would be constructed, by Krikorian Theatres, where JC Penny\u2019s once stood (roughly fifty yards from the old UA site). However, the remodeled mall, and most would argue the new cinema, have yet to recapture a substantial piece of the area market. These days, the mall is better known for hosting failed businesses and the Krikorian Metroplex 18 for being \u201cthat nice theatre in a crappy mall\u201d; the United Artists 8 is little more than a hazy memory for most. \u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

About my only memory of the old UA is the \u201cpass relationship\u201d the venue had with my first management post, the AMC Fullerton 10. Prior to the mega-plex boom of the late 90\u2019s, many competing theatre chains had an unofficial arrangement, where in employees were permitted to watch movies for free at each other\u2019s cinemas. A different time and attitude, there was a general feeling of being in an extended family of sorts; there was even a sense of pride in showing your theatre off to the employees of another. The only exception, in Orange County, was Edwards theatres, which operated as somewhat of a hostile cousin (perhaps grumpy old uncle) to the likes of AMC, Century, United Artists, and SoCal Cinemas. Where in most chains recognized an \u201cI\u2019ll scratch your back, if you scratch mine\u201d agreement, Edwards always went out of their way to make competitors feel unwelcome.<\/p>\n

Sadly, this arrangement, not to mention the spirit behind it, was one of the many \u201cmega-plex era\u201d casualties. With an expansion explosion came an increased sense of competition and some stressed relationships between exhibitors. \u00a0<\/span>In short order, the extended family was in the midst of a cold war and the pass agreement was unceremoniously ended. Even today, long after the mega-plex boom turned in to a bust, you would likely hear a sarcastic chuckle, followed by the hum of a dial tone, if you were to enquire about passes with a competitor. But, there was a time when such a call would result in a friendly conversation.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Twenty four years ago today, United Artists opened the Buena Park 8, in the lower level of the, then highly popular, Buena Park Mall. Long since closed and gutted, this venue had a brief \u201chot\u201d run, but quickly fell victim to the fragile dynamics of mall life cycles. By the mid 90\u2019s the Buena Park […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,5,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-industry","category-theatre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6","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=6"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinelog.org\/cinelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}