I went to college (Blinn) that was converted from a non-stadium seating multiplex theater. Structurally, nothing changed (I think that the emergency exit doors were added after conversion) except replacing the screen with a smaller screen used for projection.architect wrote: ↑April 18th, 2020, 5:55 pm Interestingly, in DFW, AMC and Cinemark are the dominant players, with Regal operating a more sparse selection of theaters around the market (mostly in lower-end areas). Their may be a bit of local bias here though, as Cinemark is headquartered in Plano, and most of their local theaters are run at a level indicative of that (recliner seating, upscale dining/concessions options, etc.). Studio Movie Grill is also headquartered in DFW, while Alamo Drafthouse also takes a substantial chunk of the indie market, so there is quite a bit of competition here. AMC's theater base is split down the middle from extremely upscale (Village on the Parkway in Addison, Northpark 15, etc.) to practically falling apart. However, if AMC was to liquidate, their would be at least a decent amount of their locations which would be picked up by other operators (particularly upscale mall/lifestyle center-based locations such as Northpark, Stonebriar, Firewheel, Grapevine Mills, and the Parks at Arlington, along with the aforementioned Village on the Parkway). This trend also tends to be the case in the other major Texas metros, with both Cinemark and AMC having a dominant market presence.
As far as converting theaters for other uses goes, this is much more difficult with modern theater buildings, as once the stadium seating foundations and concrete walls are removed, there is little useful building left behind. Older theaters were much easier to convert, as a lack of stadium seating allowed for drops in the concrete floors to simply be filled in.
I do think the movie theater model isn't fundamentally flawed, though—people like going to movies, and some of the biggest hits of all time have been in the last 10 years. Yeah, China and other overseas markets contribute a lions share to that, but some sort of "post-cinema" future is still a bit farfetched.