$35 movie ticket may be coming to O.C.
September 4th, 2008, 12:00 am · 55 Comments · posted by Hang Nguyen, retail reporter
Yep. Gold Class Cinemas is negotiating with Triangle Square in Costa Mesa to open a movie theater charging as much as $35 a ticket, said Rob Goldberg, chief operating officer for Gold Class.
Expect to pay $35 for a new release on a Friday and Saturday night. On the low end, a matinee ticket is $25.
What do I get for that?
You can go online to pick your seats. Valet parking is included. Concierge services like remembering the exact Pinot Noir you ordered last time in case you want it again.
Want a $19 Wagyu steak sandwich? Or feeling chilly? Just ring a button from your seat and a waiter will come to fetch you that blanket and sandwich.
You can even coordinate when to get your food. Bring the dessert 15 minutes before the show ends, please.
The customer is “blanketed by service” carried out by folks who once worked for luxury hotels and fine dining restaurants, said Goldberg.
Yeah, those are nice perks. But $35?
And that price doesn’t include the fancy food (entrées range from $13 to $19) and drinks (bottles of wine range from $33 to $695). The menu lists 100 wines, 20 beers and cuisine like Ahi tartare on crostin, ricotta ravioli and Chinois chicken salad rolls.
Some folks may think this movie package is too expensive. To those people, Goldberg said: “They have to experience it. It’s just so different from a traditional cineplex.”
If the lease is signed, Goldberg plans to open the Costa Mesa theater in December 2009. The roughly 40,000-square-foot theater will have 8 screens and no more than 40 reclining arm-chair seats per screen.
The Gold Class movie theater, Goldberg said, is the typical theater size that fits hundreds of seats. Because there are fewer seats in a Gold Class theater, there’s 6 feet of space in front of you and every chair is one seat from the aisle.
Goldberg thinks Orange County can eventually support three to five Gold Class theaters. One of the reasons is that he recognizes the county’s high household median income. Gold Class’ target audience is an affluent customer ages 21 to 54 as well as corporate clients.
Village Roadshow Limited, an entertainment company that’s produced films, created Gold Class in Australia in 1997. Tickets for “The Dark Knight” and “Sex and the City” sold out weeks before they were released in Australian Gold Class theaters.
Gold Class, which has U.S. headquarters in Burbank, hopes to open as many as 100 theaters in the U.S. in the next 10 years. The first U.S. theater will open in South Barrington, llinois on Oct. 3 and the second U.S. theater will open in Redmond, Washington on Oct. 24.
(Photo courtesy of Gold Class.)
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For more from OC Retail, see list of links on right-hand side of this blog.
September 4th, 2008 at 9:21 am
Well, it’s confirmed…..you have the “haves” and the “have-nots” and I am below the “have-nots”. I can’t remember the last time I was able to go to the movies, it’s too expensive today. AND the movie stars and sports stars make WAY too much money today. In order to pay them, advertising is very expensive. Bottom line, we, the poor have to pay for it by buying the products we need which are advertised at very high prices. NO THANK YOU, I will not support the rich if I can help it. I will stay home and watch my TV, where I can eat and drink cheap, cuddled up in my PJ’s. By the way, I have lived in this area all my life, approx. 45 yrs, and I am still poor. I work very hard, for very little because prices are way too high. Why are there so many rich people here? Didn’t use to be. Can I get a job with them? Shamful !!!!! Now just because they say this area can support a theater like this because of the high household median income, someone wants to open a theater right near my poor neighborhood and charge $35.00 a ticket. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
Bah humbug !!! I hope it doesn’t make it….sorry, I’m sick of being poor and watching my neighborhood cater to the rich.
September 4th, 2008 at 9:45 am
How they offer complimentary cocktails!
September 4th, 2008 at 9:53 am
atleast those annoying little kids and punks that always sit in the back of a movie theatre won’t be there..
and it would probally be a really nice place for a date.
I think I would for sure try it once.
September 4th, 2008 at 10:07 am
I already don’t go because it cost $50 just to see a movie with your family. I’m not spending $160! These people are out of their minds. Of course the rich people will pay for it.
September 4th, 2008 at 10:24 am
I would very much enjoy this for my girlfriend and I. I mean we are already paying 30.00 so why not pay a little more an actually feel like you are getting first class service. It is a high expensive but the perks are worth it…unless of course you enjoy irritating audiences and sticky floors.
September 4th, 2008 at 10:38 am
i don’t mind splurging sometimes but I’d rather go to Knotts berry farm for the whole day or something. seems dumb. If i wanted to be ThaT comfortable I’d stay home.
September 4th, 2008 at 11:19 am
Eh, I don’t think it’ll work. People rich enough to indulge in fancy wines, freufreu meals, and valet service—and who have no problem forking over $35 for a movie ticket (besides, I thought that’s how expensive movie tickets were apiece anyhow)—generally already have built their own mini-movie theater in their own home, complete with theater-level sound system. And Triangle Square!? This kind of idea sounds like it should be more fittingly located at Fashion Island. I see this “fancy feast”-style of movie theater as a novelty at best, good for perhaps impressing a date, but little else. Give it a year or two and it’ll go the way of that fake Academy Awards dinner-show in Anaheim.
September 4th, 2008 at 11:29 am
I’m in my late twenties, definitely not rich, and I have to say for a date or celebration with my significant other this sounds pretty cool. I don’t think it’s intended to be a theater to “take the family” to, but is more geared towards adults who are going out on the town. The article brought to mind the the stereotype nostalgia of theaters from the 1940’s and 1950’s that probably didn’t exist but are a really sweet idea. The atmosphere of making something something special out of something ordinary sounds like it would be a lot of fun.
September 4th, 2008 at 11:50 am
I rather take my butt to Cinema CIty Theatres; great place at a cheap price. It $8 for a night movie, i take my old man on Thursday Senior Days and he $3! Concession food is pretty cheap too! What theatre is making you guys pay so much?
September 4th, 2008 at 11:53 am
For 35 bucks it should include an unnatural act
September 4th, 2008 at 11:56 am
If this rolls, it will not last. This will go out of business within a year.
September 4th, 2008 at 11:57 am
It won’t work for the same reason that the OC Fair’s Star-Vue drive-in closed down: The movie companies want lot’s of bodies in the seat for the first few weeks to boast their ticket sales. At $35 per person, and only 40 seat per theater, that comes out to only $1400 per showing. And for $35, people are not going to want to be rushed out of the theater after the film ends, especially if they are in the middle of a bottle of fine wine. And what about the usu