Everything You May or May Not Have Wanted to Know About Sioux Falls' Newest Movie Theater

Right now, Sioux Falls' first new movie theater in over a decade is under construction on the east side of town, right next door to the new east-side Target.  If you're a local movie geek like myself, you're probably wondering, "What's the new theater going to be like?"  Well, last night while waiting for A Nightmare on Elm Street to open at the west-side Century 14, I talked to the manager and asked about the east-side theater (as both the Century 14 and the east-side theater are managed by Cinemark).  Here's what I learned...

• Right now, the construction folks are gunning for a June 25th opening.  However, if the schedule gets tight, the opening may be pushed back to June 30th.  However, the theater staff would like to avoid a June 30th opening, because that is the day that Eclipse opens... and if you've been around the midnight openings of Twilight or New Moon, you know how busy and crowded movie theaters can get when a new Twilight movie opens.  So, June 25th is the target date.
• The east-side theater is going to have 12 screens.  Between these 12, the Century's 14 screens, and the Carmike's 7 screens, Sioux Falls will now have 33 first-run movie screens. For trivia's sake, the most first-run movie screens that Sioux Falls ever had was 34 (from November 1999 to January 2001).  This was when the Century 14 just opened, and Carmike was operating three first-run theaters: the Carmike 7, the West Mall 7, and the Empire 6.  In January 2001, the Empire 6 closed, and just a few months later, the West Mall 7 was shut down, too... only to be re-opened as a second-run budget theater later in 2001.  However... if the downtown State Theatre finishes its renovations and re-opens to the public, then we'll get one more first-run movie screen, which gets us back to the 34-screen record.
• All 12 screens will be digital. (The Century 14 has only one digital/3-D screen, while all of the Carmike's 7 screens are digital.) So, not only will this provide perfect picture quality, but it will reduce the chances of technical problems, and it will allow the theater staff to be more dynamic in their scheduling, as they can quickly add additional shows for movies that are selling out.
• As you're no doubt aware, 3-D is taking over America's movie screens right now.  Unfortunately, the Century 14 is limited to one digital 3-D screen (which opened in June 2008), which led to scheduling problems this spring.  (They had to cut Alice in Wonderland 3-D after three weeks to accommodate How to Train Your Dragon 3-D... which, in turn prevented the Century from showing Clash of the Titans in 3-D.)  Fear not: the east-side theater has four screens capable of showing 3-D movies.  Given the late June opening, at least two of these screens will be reserved for Toy Story 3 in 3-D (which, at that time, will only be a week old).  Because of the increased 3-D capabilities, it's very likely that the east-side theater will skew towards showing more family movies, as kids' flicks make up the majority of 3-D films in the marketplace.
• It's a possibility that one of the east-side's 12 screens might be a 'Cinemark XD' screen. What does that mean?  Well, it's an extra-large wall-to-wall digital screen with a deluxe sound system.  Some folks have affixed the "fake IMAX" label to these XD screens, if that helps explain the type of screen we might get.  But remember, this XD screen is still a rumor, for the most part.
• As you know, the Century's concession stands are in a "cafeteria-style" format, where moviegoers grab each of their items from various staff members as they go down the concession line. The east-side theater will utilize a different, "cafe-style" format, in which each customer will be serviced by a single employee who will take their order, grab each item, and ring it up for them.When the Century 14 opened in November 1999, it opened with a special VIP Night.  On this night, if movie patrons donated food items to charity, they would get a free movie pass and free concessions.  For the east-side theater's opening, the Cinemark staff are planning not one, but THREE such VIP nights!  I don't know about you, but I'm blocking off late June right now. ;-)
• And of course, all the amenities we've currently come to expect from the Century will be on the east side, too... stadium seating, special event broadcasts, and so forth.

And there you have it - that's what I know so far.  Fortunately, the theater will be open for a good chunk of the summer, so lots of folks will be able to take this new movie-going experience in.  I'm going to have to drive clear across town to check this new place out... but I'm guessing it's going to be worth it. :-)