New owners reopening movie theater Sept. 20
A sequel soon will debut at the former Cinematropolis movie theaters in the Penn Hills Center, and management is hoping for the same in space to be vacated by Phar-Mor and the Ames Department Store.
A premiere of the new Penn Hills Cinemas is scheduled for Sept. 20, when three of four theaters will reopen for the first time in nearly two years after the previous operation abruptly shut down.
There is candy behind the counter that dates back to the closing of the Cinematropolis in November 2000. The building is now up to code, so redoing the concession area will be the next item of business for Rasikant and Manjula Dhanani, of Monroeville, who owned and operated The Oaks Theater in Oakmont for 17 years before selling in December.
At the time of the sale, they already had their eyes on the multiple screens in Penn Hills.
"The Oaks was successful, but I need a multiplex — I don't want one screen," Rasikant Dhanani said.
In addition to showing first-run movies out of Hollywood, the Dhananis also plan to augment the bill with films from India, known as "Bollywood" movies.
With an estimated 10,000 Indian-Americans living in the Greater Pittsburgh area — 40 percent of them in the South Hills — the Dhananis occasionally rent theater space in Bridgeville to show Indian films.
In the eastern suburbs, traffic from four different segments of the Indian population circulate among temples and mosques in Penn Hills and Monroeville. The Dhananis see an entertainment demand.
"What we're offering is a mainstream theater complemented by Bollywood films, as we need them," said Dhanani, a retired Westinghouse engineer. "It will be a flexible schedule that plays like a harmonium — if something's not working, we will retract it."
The fourth theater will not be opened for another six weeks, thanks to water damage from a leaky roof that since has been repaired. A movie screen and seating still need to be replaced.
Still, the cinema was sound enough to serve as a location for an independent film, "Spielburg," about an ambitious usher with a slight spelling variation on the name of the famous Hollywood producer and director.
Dhanani said it was interesting to see a movie in the making.
"You wouldn't believe the amount of equipment they brought in," Dhanani recalled. "It took them a week and a half just to get everything out."
Tickets at the cinema will be on the "lower end" of the going premium rate of $7-8. There also are plans for discount matinee showings, possibly as low as $3.50 a seat.
"Maybe the timing is right and the public's urge to go to the megaplex" — 10 theaters or more in one location — "has subsided," Dhanani said. "People may want to come back to their neighborhood theater rather than driving miles and miles to the megaplex."
Don Martin, the director of property management with The First City Co. of Pittsburgh, which oversees Penn Hills Center, said the shopping complex provides a prime retail destination in the area.
First City continues to actively seek tenants for 100,000 square feet of floor space in the Ames Department Store and 60,000 square feet at Phar-Mor. Both bankrupt retail chains are going out of business.
"The business done at those two stores in Penn Hills is not indicative of the overall problems these chains were having elsewhere," Martin said.
Those two stores combined for what amounted to "tens of millions of dollars" in retail sales each year.
"With all the sales those two stores generated, there's some retailer who's going to want to take advantage of the location and capture those customers," Martin added.
He expects the cinema's new owners to succeed where the previous owners failed.
"The new owners have a lot of experience in the theater business," Martin said. "It can be very hard for a newcomer to make a go of it. But they know the site and are very confident that they can be successful there."
