It's a new twist on a classic paradox: There are more movie screens than ever along the Wasatch Front, but there aren't any more new movies available.

In the Sandy area alone, there are 48 screens at four theater multiplexes, all of which show first-run films. On State Street, there's the newly opened Megaplex 17 at Jordan Commons and the Loews Cineplex 10-screen South Towne Center. To the east, there's the Cinemark Sandy Movies 9, and to the west, the Carmike 12 Theaters.And if that isn't enough, a fifth opened today: the new Cinemark at West Jordan complex, located just off Bangerter Highway and 7000 South -- with 24 screens.

The upshot of all this growth? Local moviegoers have more theater choices than ever -- many of them with stadium seating, as well as state-of-the-art stereo and projection systems, extensive food courts and the convenience of advance ticket sales, some as early as a week before a movie opens.

"With this much competition, you've got to have something extra to bring people in," said Valerie Herzog, marketing coordinator for the Cinemark office in Dallas. "You've got to make sure you've got all the amenities, such as gourmet food and coffee bars, just to be competitive."

"Every little bit helps," agreed Dale Harvey, general manager of the new 17-screen Jordan Commons complex in Sandy. "We've tried to make our theater a destination location -- make it someplace where a family can spend the entire day eating, playing and watching movies."

However, all this growth has its share of downsides, such as the fact that, lacking enough movies to fill their many screens, some of the valley's biggest and brightest theaters are taking on a discount-house look -- that of the so-called "dollar" house. They are also playing films that once were exclusive to art-house theaters.

For example, take the brand-new Jordan Commons theaters. When that multiplex opened earlier this month, not only did it include a handful of first-run features (such as "The Bone Collector" and "The Straight Story"), it also opened a few films still in sub-run and discount theaters. In other words, Jordan Commons was charging full-price admission -- $7 -- for "Mickey Blue Eyes," "Tarzan" and "Runaway Bride," films playing elsewhere in town for $1.50 admission (including the Sandy Starships, just up the road).

According to local theater booker Dave Sharp, it's not really all that surprising or unusual, considering how many theaters dot the Salt Lake Valley these days and how much movie "product" there is out there.

"Historically, theaters open their doors by bringing in what the others have swept out," said Sharp, who books for Consolidated Theaters, a group of moviehouses spread throughout the Wasatch Front, Nevada and Idaho. "What will be interesting is seeing how long it takes them to really get up and running."

According to Harvey, it won't be long. Already, Jordan Commons has five films playing that are in the current box office top 10 -- and the complex is preparing to open one of the holiday's most highly anticipated blockbusters, "Toy Story 2."

"We've got 1,400 seats ready for that one," he said. "You could say we're pretty excited that we got it -- and that the others near us didn't."

Competition between theaters for films like "Toy Story 2" is heavy, to put it mildly. With chains building more multiplexes, established film zones or "boundaries," which at one time prohibited studios from opening films in nearby competing theaters, are gradually eroding.

Sharp, an industry veteran, remembers that at one time those boundaries were as large as four miles.

"But things have gotten ridiculously out of hand," he said. "In Ontario Mills (Calif.), you've got the single biggest example of it -- there's a 24-plex on one side of the street and a 30-plex on the other side. And some of the studios are giving each unit a print of the very same movies."

"The days of real boundaries and theater exclusive-runs are over," agreed Art Proctor, who owns the Avalon Theatre in Murray.

Not surprisingly, the drastic influx of theater screens is taking its toll, both on the more traditional, independently run theaters and on the older multiplex theaters. Several first-run moviehouses, such as the four-screen Sandy Starships, have recently been converted to sub-run theaters.

"There are just so many of them. It's a losing battle," said Proctor, whose theater is one of only two remaining independently owned, single-screen theaters in the valley (the other being the Tower, an art-house venue at 900 East and 900 South).

For years, Proctor faced competition from the Century Theatres. But when that complex was torn down and replaced with a 16-screen multiplex, his business and that of the nearby Murray Theater, took a significant downturn.

(The Century Theatres 16 is now one of the most successful theaters in the Intermountain West -- its per-screen box-office grosses are among the highest in the United States. The Murray, however, stopped showing films in favor of stage productions and eventually closed its doors.)

"You're going to see one of these big ones go out of business or get turned into a dollar house," Proctor predicted. "Pretty soon there won't be enough (movies) to go around for any of them."

Herzog, though, isn't so sure.

"More and more people are going to the movies," she said. " Do I think that the industry can continue to grow at this rate? No. But I'm not sure it's hit its peak yet, either."

One major problem is that, although film production remains at an all-time high, the number of prints available for each movie has not increased in recent years. Though studios will ship out as many as 3,200 prints of certain films to theaters around the country -- such as the "Star Wars" prequel, "The Phantom Menace" -- most of the time they won't send out more than 2,500. And smaller films, such as "The Straight Story," have many fewer (there are about 100 prints in circulation).

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That also means some of the multiplexes are encroaching on the art-house scene. When the Sundance Film Festival hit "SLC Punk!" opened locally this spring, the Tower Theatre expected to get the movie exclusively. Instead, they were unpleasantly surprised when theirs was only one of five Salt Lake-area moviehouses to land the comedy.

"To have made money on that movie, we had to have it exclusively," said Andik Wijaya, who books films for the Tower. "But when it opened at the Century, we were (in trouble). If people have a choice of going to the Century or to the Tower, we're going to lose every time."

Still, Wijaya remains confident that there is a place for both multiplexes and single-screen theaters.

"We have our niche and they have theirs," he said. "Our audience isn't likely to go there and vice-versa."

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