The state's largest movie theater in a single building will open March 27 at the Newgate Mall, 36th Street and Wall Ave. It will have 14 screens and almost 3,200 total stadium-style seats.
This new theater will be another Cinemark Tinseltown USA movie building, like the Tinseltown USA at the Layton Hills Mall. The Layton Tinseltown has two buildings, one with 10 theaters, the other with seven.In fact, this theater will reign as Utah's largest movie house until later this year when the Century's new 16-screen theater, opens on 3300 South in Salt Lake City. Work is expected to begin this summer on a 24-screen complex planned in West Jordan.
Located on the west side of the Newgate Mall, the Cinemark theaters have expanded the mall westward. They replace the Newgate Four discount movie screens, formerly on the site.
Randy Hester, vice president of marketing and communications for Cinemark, said this style of theater is what moviegoers prefer.
"They want something they can't get at home," he said in reference to the digital sound, stadium seating and wide screen. "We're driven by what the customers want."
Hester said big screens are a trend nowadays. For example, Cinemark currently has a 24-screen complex in Houston. Another two-dozen screener is scheduled to open later this year in a Dallas suburb.
With so many screens, a theater can put a blockbuster movie like "Titanic" on three or four screens.
"It'll be a big draw," Hester said of the new Ogden theaters.
"We are very excited about the new theaters," Newgate Mall manager Brent Parkin said.
The movie screens, with their cutting edge technology, are expected to put the Newgate Mall on the map.
Parkin said other malls with similar theaters have attracted a lot of new customers. He's hoping for the same.
"The theaters will be a destination for all of Weber County," Parkin predicted.
In fact, he also said the theaters, being the best in northern Utah, will also draw from Box Elder and Cache counties, too.
Parkin even believes Weber County movie fans who currently travel to Layton's Tinseltown theaters will go to Newgate instead, thus lessening the traffic congestion on weekends around the Layton Hills Mall.
Several new stores, including Eddie Bauer, will also open at the Newgate Mall the week the new theaters premiere.
"We know there will be a huge increase in traffic," Parkin said.
Newgate plans on opening a new parking entrance, the mall's fourth, on the northwest side of Sears, so parking and traffic should go smoothly.
The entrance to the theaters will be inside the mall, so patrons can enter either the east or west sides, while avoiding whatever weather there is outside in waiting for a movie.
The new Tinseltown Theaters will have 3,173 total seats in an approximate 30,000-square-foot building. The 14 different screens will range in size from a low of 154 seats to a high of 290. There will also be two separate concession areas and three different sets of rest rooms.
The theaters will employ 100 people, many of them high school or college students.
The Dallas-based Cinemark is the nation's fifth-largest theater chain. It has a total of 1,813 movie screens in 30 states and 10 countries.
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Movie theaters
Largest in Utah
14 screens
Movies 14, Ogden*
12 screens
Carmike 12, West Jordan
Wynnsong 12, Provo
Midvalley 12, Taylorsville
10 screens
Movies 10, Salt Lake
Movies 10, Layton
Southtowne Center, Sandy
9 screens
Layton Hills, Layton
Movies 9, Sandy
Valley Fair 9, West Valley City
8 screens
Spanish 8 Theaters, Spanish Fk
Movies 8, Provo
Gateway 8, West Bountiful
7 screens
Tinseltown USA, Layton
*Opening March 27