The $1 million overhaul of the former Regal Cinemas movie theater complex will be a lot like the one Naos Entertainment is finishing up in Birmingham, Ala.
“It’s a good comparison,” said Marty Felts, president and CEO of the Alabama-based company. “We had mold in the theater here that was a big issue. In Macon, the primary thing is it’s just old. It hasn’t had any money put into it.”
The multiplex at the corner of Tom Hill Sr. Boulevard and Northside Drive — which had operated as the Regal Rivergate Cinema 14 — closed Sunday night. A company spokesman declined to give a reason except to say the company’s lease had expired.
“I don’t have the details. Our lease was up, and we decided not to renew it,” said Regal Entertainment Group’s Chad Browning.
The new leaseholder is an upstart company, but its founder has worked in movie theaters since college. Felts started Naos Entertainment in 2006, and the company built its first theater from the ground up the following year in Greenville, Ala.
The renovated theater in Birmingham will open next month.
Macon will be the company’s third location. Felts said demolition work will begin next week. Moviegoers will likely not recognize the place when it reopens near year’s end.
The lobby, concession stands, restrooms, game room — essentially the entire interior — will be rebuilt.
“Basically, we’re giving it an entire face-lift in all the commons areas.
The whole entire thing we’re basically demolishing, going back to concrete, and redoing it.”
The seating in all 14 of the multiplex’s theaters will be tiered. Currently, only eight have the stadium-style seating.
“When you go to a movie now, you don’t know if you’re going to sit in the stadium theaters or the sloped-floor theaters,” Felts said. “The seats look like they’re from the ’70s. We’re going in with all-new stadium seating.”
Felts said his company is excited “about Macon and the opportunities in Macon.”
“Really, right now what you have if you want to go see quality entertainment, a good movie, a night on the town, you have one option, and that’s not the Regal. It’s the one across town,” he said of the AmStar Cinema 16 theater on Zebulon Road.
“We’re going to give people two viable options when they want to go out to see a movie.”
For much of the 1990s, Regal was the only movie ticket in town. The company opened the Tom Hill Sr. Boulevard location in 1991 as a 10-screen theater and two years later added four screens. It also at one time or another operated theaters at Macon Mall, the old Westgate Mall and on Riverside Drive.
Regal spokesman Browning would not comment on whether business had declined here.
“We don’t give out individual attendance,” he said.
Browning described the industry overall as “about flat” due to the economy.
“You still have some opportunity out there where people have a burn for some sort of escape, to go see a movie. Folks still like a date night.”
To contact writer Rodney Manley, call 744-4623.
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