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Mattydale’s venerable second-run Hollywood Theater (2221 Brewerton Road, 454-0321) is the last stand around these parts for seeing a movie at the tail end of its theatrical release, just before its next destination on the DVD shelves. At one point, however, the Hollywood seemed like it would be in danger of having its own last stand. Now that 35mm film prints are being phased out by the movie industry in favor of digital hard drives, old-school single-screen houses like the Hollywood, not to forget scores of art-house venues and drive-in theaters across the nation, are facing the adapt-to-digital-or-die dilemma.
So Hollywood owner Conrad Zurich made the digital decision and switched formats in spring 2011. No longer does the theater have to worry about ragged prints that have had their sprockets throttled by major-chain platter systems, because the Hollywood gets the same digital copies, too. And with the installation of a new 14-by-32-foot silver screen, the theater can run three-dimensional fare on the cheap, too.
The 3-D ViewMaster-styled images look just fine at the Hollywood, with its 78-foot-throw from the projector booth providing a clear picture, while its roomy 417-seat capacity tops Regal Cinemas’ other screens at Carousel Center and Shoppingtown. And it’s tough to beat the Hollywood’s admission: $3.50 per person, which covers the movie tariff and the 3-D specs fee, compared to Regal’s price of $10 (upped to $10.50 on weekends and holidays) plus $3 for the glasses. On bargain Tuesdays, the Hollywood’s 3-D price is lowered to $3. (For non-3-D screenings, the admission is $1.75, with people getting in on Tuesdays for $1.25.) And boy, do they turn out on Tuesdays, as the old subrun mantra of “wait a little, save a lot” clearly lives on.
The Hollywood has mostly been a discount neighborhood house since it was built during the Depression (40 years ago, patrons could see the second-run engagement of Dirty Harry for $1.50), with its painted-on-the-walls stage masks of comedy and tragedy still flanking the screen and a snazzy neon marquee that heralds the current attractions. Yet Zurich has been sprucing it up here and there since he took over operation in 1966. For a first-run engagement of 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Zurich installed a Dolby stereo system, one of the few theaters in Central New York to boast that aural experience. (Take that, CinemaNational!)
Zurich went for the gusto with the Hollywood’s recent digital rehab, which includes a Sony 4K high-resolution projector system and a new nine-speaker system that pumps out Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. The Hollywood’s price tag for the conversion was in the $100,000 neighborhood, which means that the digital gizmo might be paid off by the time Duck Dodgers is patrolling the skies of the 24½ century.
Still, for Zurich, who owns seven statewide multiplexes for a circuit of more than 60 screens, the Hollywood has sentimental value. “It was my first theater,” he recalls about the purchase that he made after graduating from Syracuse University’s law school at age 23. “I really learned a lot about the business here, and I want to keep it for the community.”
It also helps that being a movie exhibitor is part of Zurich’s family tree: His father was a Syracuse-based film salesman for the Buffalo branch of Warner Brothers during the 1940s and 1950s, and he also dabbled in acquiring local movie houses. “My dad owned several theaters, although not at all at once: the Midtown, the Community in Solvay, the Franklin on South Avenue, the Cameo, the Novelty.”
Zurich, who spent much of his teenhood working at those theaters, sums up why he’s still in the exhibition biz: “I can watch movies and eat popcorn.” Sometimes it’s as simple as that.
