As a lot of you who live in the Starkville and surrounding area know by now, Starkville, Mississippi is getting a new theater. The Golden Triangle area of Starkville, Columbus and West Point will be getting an 8-screen, stadium seating theater called Hollywood Premier Cinemas . The stadium seating is the first of its kind in the Golden Triangle area and one of only three or four in the entire state of Mississippi.
Mary Ann and I are, as some of you already know, true movie buffs who go to movies about as much as we go to Mississippi State sporting events. We have been pretty excited about the new theater ever since we heard that it was being built. This past week we decided to drive over to Starkville to see how the new theater was coming along. The theater is located on Stark Road, directly behind Wal-Mart. I talked with one of the two co-owners, Dan Curran, about the theater. Here is the entire interview.
GS: You and John Clark are partners in this endeavor. Could you talk about your partner a little bit?
Dan Curran: John Clark is my partner. He owns a theater in Louisville, Mississippi and manages one in Philadelphia, Mississippi. His family has been in the theater business for 40+ years I believe.
GS: When do you expect to open?
Dan Curran: Our projected opening, if everything goes right, is Friday, July 7th. If not, then we will open Monday, July 10th.
GS: During the summer, what times will your movies be shown?
Dan Curran: Right now we are planning on having a matinee at 2 p.m. everyday. We will also show movies at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. We are not sure at this time if we will have a midnight show or not. We will probably have one show on Monday night which will be student night. The rate will be less than our normal rate of $6.
GS: What will your rates be?
Dan Curran: Our rates are going to be $6 and $4. Even though we feel we have a better product, we want to be competitive with our prices.
GS: Tell me more about the features of your theater?
Dan Curran: Our theater has eight screens, 100% stadium seating, and Dolby Digital sound in each theater. We have curved screens which go from wall to wall. In our larger theaters, we have six speakers on the side walls, four on the back wall and three behind the screen itself. You are going to rock and roll when you watch a movie at our theater.
Just to tell you more about the curved screens. Like I said, they are wall to wall. But the thing about the curved screens is you don't have any distortion in them like you do with the flat screens. (I measured one of the curved screens. It was about 45 feet wide and about 18 to 20 feet high. - GS)
The stadium seats rock and have an arm-rest with a coke holder that you can leave up or move down. We tried to make the seats as comfortable as possible. (Mary Ann and I sat in the stadium seating. They were the most comfortable that I have ever sat in. - GS)
We also have a party room for birthdays and other special events. We also will have a video room for the kids. We are also going to offer special showings for birthdays, fraternities, sororities, church groups and school groups.
The basic colors in the theaters themselves are maroon and white, although fans of any school are welcomed.
We will have parking for more than 600 vehicles. The total seating capacity is 1,203 with the individual theater seating capacity ranging from more than 230 to a little over 100.
GS: Since there is already another theater in Starkville, how will it be determined who will get what movie first?
Dan Curran: Because of the size of Starkville, we will rotate movies with the other theater. In other words if Disney comes out with a movie in June then comes out with a movie in July, we will get one of them first and he will get one of them first. After he is through with the movie that he gets first, we will show it on our theater.
(* You can click on the images to see a larger version of the images. - GS )