Drawing Lines : Big Crowds Hit Irvine’s Big One--but at Whose Expense?

IRVINE —  While families across the country were stuffing their stomachs at the start of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, Edwards Cinemas Inc. was busy cramming more people into its new Irvine Entertainment Center theater complex than perhaps any movie house in history.

The Big One, as Edwards calls the 21-screen complex near the El Toro Y, set a company record on Wednesday, surpassed what executives believe is a world record on Thanksgiving Day, and then appeared poised to pass even that stratospheric mark on Friday.

Even though Edwards officials acknowledged the new theater was drawing customers away from its other locations in Orange County, executives were elated.

“We knew it was going to be a big opening, but this is a lot busier than even we expected,” said Michael Tiemeyer, executive director of operations for the Newport Beach-based chain of 75 Edwards theaters.

More than 22,000 tickets were sold at the new complex on Thanksgiving day, after 13,000 tickets were sold during a half-day on Wednesday, when the $27-million theater opened, Tiemeyer said.

Both those marks surpassed the company’s previous single-day record of 12,000 tickets, set at Edwards’ 12-screen complex in La Verne on the day after Thanksgiving in 1992, Tiemeyer said.

But the Big One’s success also exposed a potential problem for the Edwards chain. While the line to enter the Irvine complex stretched into the parking lot at midday Friday, the twin lines at Edwards’ six-screen complex in Tustin, just a few miles up the Santa Ana Freeway, were barely 10 people deep.

Mike Smith, an assistant manager at the Tustin location, said many films were playing in theaters that were only half full, and that the complex had sold just 2,900 tickets the day before, on Thanksgiving.

“I think the Big One is taking some of the business away,” he said. “We’re still getting the regulars, but people are going down there [to Irvine] to see what it’s like.”

Two patrons at the Tustin cinemas said they were there only because their trip to the Irvine cinemas had been foiled by traffic and big crowds.

“We saw the line and decided not even to try to go into the parking lot,” said John Neel, 49, a Tustin resident who recently retired from the Marine Corps. “We turned around and headed back to Tustin.”

He and his wife, Juanita, found ample parking in Tustin, arrived at noon and promptly bought tickets for the 12:30 p.m. showing of “Casino.” Nevertheless, the couple plan to visit the Big One as soon as the crowds thin out. “We’ll catch a matinee during the week,” John said.

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While acknowledging that Irvine’s drawing power will hurt ticket sales at other Edwards locations, Tiemeyer said what matters most is that sales for the chain as a whole are expected to grow.

“At a theater like Tustin, we have a draw of about a 10-mile radius, but here the draw is a 60-mile radius,” he said. “It definitely will affect grosses at surrounding theaters, but with proper bookings we’ll be able to increase overall business.”

That may turn out to be an understatement if business in Irvine continues at the frantic pace set this weekend. By 4 p.m. Friday, 12,342 tickets had been sold, and another company record seemed at hand.

“This is the busiest day of the year in the movie business,” said Tiemeyer, pausing to do a little math. “We’ve got 6,400 seats and six showings a day, so 36,000 is quite possible. That’s the population of a lot of cities around here.”

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As he spoke, work crews were stilling rushing about in the new complex’s cavernous lobby, decorated with neon lights, pink carpet and expansive murals of famous movie scenes and actors. The theater is the centerpiece of a 250,000-square-foot development that includes restaurants, a giant bookstore, a virtual reality game center and a coffeehouse.

By 9:30 a.m. Friday, more than 150 people waited in line to buy tickets for the first round of movies starting at 10 a.m. Even though the complex has 6,400 seats, popular movies sold out quickly.

Jim and Cindy McFadden arrived at 10 a.m. to take their two boys, ages 4 and 2, to see “Toy Story,” a blockbuster Disney movie. The film was appearing on four screens, with one showing starting every half hour, but after waiting in a line that often spanned five or six columns across and 50 rows deep, the McFaddens found the earliest showing they could attend was at 11:30.

“And we were staying away from the malls to avoid the crowds,” Cindy McFadden said.

They were lucky to get tickets at all. Within an hour the film had sold out through midafternoon, said Tiemeyer, who added that every showing of “Toy Story” had sold out since the complex opened.

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Inside, patrons loaded up on popcorn and soda--offered free of charge for the opening weekend--and filed into theaters where work crews were still scrambling to bolt down chairs and attach handrails. Those distractions hardly mattered to moviegoers, who were dazzled by the size of the screens and the richness of the theater’s decorations.

“It’s truly great,” said Rand Scherff, an executive at an office furniture manufacturing company in Tustin. “The screens are nice and big, and I love the idea that the theaters go by names [such as the Egyptian and the Palace] instead of numbers.”

Scherff, who usually goes to the movies at the Edwards theaters in Newport Beach, said he may become a regular at the Irvine location.

“It’s a little closer, a little faster, and I like the big screens,” he said, revealing both why the Big One is bound to be a huge moneymaker for Edwards, and why that success may come at a significant price.