Local theaters offer
diverse celluloid options

Bijou, mall theaters provide choices for those who enjoy movies

Drive along 13th Avenue toward the University of Oregon campus in Eugene, and on the right you'll see what looks like an old church on the corner of 13th and Ferry Street. But look closer: On the marquee, you'll see it says "Far From Heaven" instead of "Finding Heaven." Or "Talk to Her" instead of "Talk to God."

The outside of the Bijou Art Cinemas, which sits on the corner of 13th Avenue and Ferry Street in Eugene.

See, this old building is a church, of sorts. But it's a church with a religion not practiced on Sundays. It's a church with a religion practiced on Friday and Saturday nights, and the holy book is Leonard Maltin's Guide to Movies. Its religion is cinema.

That old building houses The Bijou Art Cinemas, and it's one of many offerings in Eugene for those under-21 movie buffs. Or over-21 movie buffs. But if you're under the legal drinking age, there's no better time-waster than a two-hour popcorn and celluloid ride.

The Bijou, founded in 1980, is the oldest operating movie house in Eugene. It plays mostly independent movies on two screens. For those looking for more Hollywood-type fare, there's the Cinemark 17 theater in Springfield's Gateway Mall or Regal Cinema World at the Valley River Center.

But The Bijou is the original. It shows movies that won't play at the other two theaters, and has a devoted fan base that demands, cajoles and bullies the management into playing the movies they want to see.

The Bijou loves this. The theater's Web site offers an online forum for fans to post messages, and most fans ask when their favorite independent movie is coming to their favorite movie house.

The Bijou doesn't just show movies. The theater hosts semi-regular charity events, including an annual Oscar-night party that benefits the Willamette Wildlife Foundation. Patrons buy $10 tickets, watch the Academy Awards on a big screen, and afterwards local radio personalities auction off memorabilia for the charity. The 2003 event will be the sixth-annual Oscar party at the Bijou.

The Bijou shows independent movies like "Talk to Her," which was nominated for a Best Director Oscar.

On the other side of town, the big movie theaters attract a much wider audience to their cinemas.

In Springfield, the folks at Cinemark offer 17 screens of first-run movies and a 12-screen $1.50 theater that shows movies out of the big house but not yet in video stores. The 12-screen theater used to be Gateway's main cinema until Cinemark built the 17-screen theater in 1999 to compete with Valley River's eight-screen theater.

Since then, the Cinemark theater has dominated the local movie scene, as fans are drawn to the stadium-style seating, bigger theaters and larger number of screens. Although Cinemark 17 general manager Chuck McLaughlin couldn't give out any attendance numbers because of company policy, he said the Gateway theater is popular because of its newer amenities.

"It's the primo entertainment center in town," McLaughlin said. "You'd have to go to Portland to find something equal to our theater."

But McLaughlin was quick to point out that his theater and Regal Cinema World don't have a competitive relationship.

"I don't want to put down Regal; we have a good relationship with them," McLaughlin said. "They have a good theater."

The Cinemark theater in the Gateway Mall shows mainstream movies on 17 screens.

The Valley River theater is owned by Regal Entertainment Group, which counts United Artists Theaters and Edwards Cinemas among its holdings. With the three combined companies, Regal is the largest movie exhibitor in the world. It takes in an average of 20 percent of America's domestic box office receipts every year, and owns 5,663 screens in 36 states. Cinemark owns 3,014 screens in 33 states.

So both major cinemas have parent companies that take care of their babies. Which means if you're under 21 and looking for a job, it might be a good idea to eye the big movie houses. McLaughlin said that his theater employs about 100 people, and the Web sites at both Cinemark and Regal offer links to job offerings at their cinemas.

Cinemark's church was built in 1999. The Bijou's was built in 1925. But between the old and the new, there is one common religion.

The religion of cinema.