My morning started off on a great note when I saw the following headline on WOOD-TV 8 on October 30^th at around 9 AM… “Studio 28 to cut some matinees.” As we move into the holiday film season this news was not met with a lot of enthusiasm by me.  According to John Loeks Theater's spokesperson, Steve VanWagoner, “Studio has a centralized location and has had to share its part of the matinee market with the other theaters for a few years now.” He then went on to mention, “We do 90 percent of our business at Studio during evening shows.”  So the big news is that Studio 28 is delivering a big FUCK YOU to their loyal customers and eliminating two matinee shows on Monday – Friday and one matinee performance on Saturday and Sunday beginning Monday, November 3^rd.

I guess this news really shouldn’t surprise me.  But the fact that they are complaining about losing Studio customers to the competition really irks me.  Every single theater in this city is owned by John D. Loeks with the exception of the rather crappy Star Theater on Alpine. Even on their worst day, I’m betting Studio 28 still does more business then the Star Theater. 

Loeks purchased the two new Cinemark theaters last year. One located at River Town Mall, the other located at Woodland Mall. The put their Celebration Cinema logos all over the building and then the first thing they did at Woodland was reduce the price to $3.50 for all shows effectively turning that complex into a bargain house. If you had the option of seeing a movie matinee at Studio 28 for $5.50 or driving out to Woodland Mall a few weeks after the film opened and could see it in 2^nd run theater for only $3.50 which option would you choose? DUH!  And of course the mall has a built in audience from the time it opens to the time it closes. Surrounded by a food court, the theater at River Town is a teenager’s dream, a fast food meal followed by a 100 foot walk to the theater. DUH! The matinees that Studio shares with its “competition” are all Loeks theaters. They ARE their own competition.

Looking at history of Loeks Theaters on their website, they mention their master plan for Studio 28. They talk about the liquor license that has recently been acquired. They go on to talk about all the great plans they have for the building in terms of adding restaurants and so on to the existing facility similar to what they have at the Celebration Cinema located on the East Beltline and Knapp.  I’ve seen this same article on their website for two years now. In all that time, not one bit of work has been done to Studio 28, the theater that was their flagship for the longest time. The treatment that building is being given is worse than an adopted step-child. That building made Loeks theaters. For a very long time it was THE ENTERTAINMENT DESTINATION for an entire city. If you wanted to see a film in a quality venue, you went to Studio 28 or you went nowhere at all.

At this point in time, Studio 28 is the oldest existing movie theater in this city. With the loss of the Northtown Twin, the Alpine Twin, the Eastbrook, the Movies at North Kent and the Movies at Woodland, Loeks Theaters has pretty much dominated this city and tied-up the market. Again, the only outside venue is the Star Theater and I’m sorry, but it’s just not that great a theater. I live two miles from the Star… I live almost ten from Studio and my choice again and again is Studio 28.

I think the real truth behind any statements made by Loeks Theaters concerning Studio 28 is much closer to this… they have oversaturated the market by scooping up every theater in town except for Star. They have chosen to eliminate matinees at Studio 28 because someone got a little over ambitious or eager and over extended their reach not really analyzing what the likely outcome would be if they purchased the two Cinemarks. That’s just lovely.

Studio 28 has the largest auditorium in Michigan at this point in time with a seating capacity of 908. Theater One is still pretty impressive when you walk in, but even now, the company has done her wrong time and time again. The curtains are permanently locked back in the wings. They no longer majestically sweep open announcing the start of your film, and they do not close at the end.  Instead they keep the screen visible all the time so that this grand dame of movie screens in West Michigan can be reduced to a platform of streaming local advertisements, annoying music and just lousy produced ads.  If they want to do this on all their other screens that’s fine… do it… but return theater one to its original glory. They wonder why they can’t get people into theaters… its things like this that keep people away. They haven’t enhanced the movie going experience, they have destroyed it and then stomped on all the pieces making smaller pieces and then stomped on it some more while flipping all of us off and laughing gleefully all the way to the bank as they deposit more of your hard earned cash and delivered a subpar movie going experience.

The experience has been cheapened by lackluster presentation and sky high prices that you are forced to pay for admission and snacks, just so you can enter the theater before show time and become a captive audience for all the car ads, and mattress ads and Kodak ads and whatever. I stopped feeling like an honored guest at any Loeks Theater a long time ago. The ONLY reason to go anymore is for the digital projection. And now with HDTV, plasma displays and more, again watching it at home is easier than going out.

In everything I have read online today… so far the new hours of business have not been announced anywhere. They are not on the bigscreenmovies.com website… have not seen it in the press ads… the article on WOOD-TV 8’s website has no mention of new operating times.

And just exactly what do they mean when they say they are eliminating the first two matinees? When you have show times that are listed as 11:30, 12:15, 1:00, 1:45, 2:30, 3:15, 4:00, 4:45, 5:30 and so on, are they just removing the 11:30 and 12:15 shows and opening at 1:00 PM? Or do they still remember what scheduling used to be like when show times were always 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9. And they just pretend the other times don’t exist and they will open at 5 PM now? So what is being eliminated exactly?

Hey I have a better idea…  How about you knock out the first matinee at ALL YOUR THEATERS and share the hurt equally. Or… to bring people in offer a less expensive matinee for the first two shows you are eliminating and see if that brings the people in that you are losing to your competition… oh wait… that would be YOU!

There are quite a few rumors circulating about Studio 28 at the moment and I’m working on getting to the bottom of all of them… but I make this one prediction… and remember it well.

The elimination of matinees at Studio 28 is the first step in what in all likelihood will be the eventual shut down of this movie complex. As customer choices are taken away, they will go elsewhere and over the next couple of years the numbers attending that theater will drop off dramatically. This is a very deliberate first step on the long road to shutting that theater down. And what does it cost Loeks in the long run? Nothing at all, they own every theater in town (except for Star). If you can’t go to Studio, they figure you will go elsewhere so they will still get your money. In my case, when Studio 28 goes, I’ll be finished with setting foot in any movie theater ever again. I’ll just wait for the DVD release and watch it at home with a group of friends.

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