Will Movie-Goers Pay $35 a Ticket?

The LA Times covers Village Roadshow, which is opening three ultra-luxe theaters in Southern California in 2009. Think the ArcLight's swank? It's a grindhouse compared to this, baby.

Josh Friedman writes:

The Gold Class experience starts with online seating selection, valet parking and a concierge desk at check-in.

Auditoriums will be the regular size but hold 30 to 40 table-side seats each, as opposed to 150 to 200 seats with drink holders at a typical multiplex, said Rob Goldberg, chief operating officer of Village Roadshow's Burbank-based Gold Class Cinemas division.

With the extra room, black-uniformed, "stealth-like" servers will be able to whisk menu choices such as lobster spring rolls, duck tacos, Wagyu beef burgers and creme brulee to customers' tables without obscuring the movie, he said, all at the call of a button. The theaters will offer seasonal menus with more than 100 wine selections, plus signature cocktails.

Two other Gold Class locations, in Illinois and the Seattle area, will open later this year.

Here's the site for their Australian locations, and here's a Variety story from earlier this year.

Clearly, they're not targeting teens who might see a movie a week during the summer... but adults for whom movie night might happen every other month.

Innovation in the exhibition business? I'm all for it!