The Studio Movie Grill
Plano, Texas, USA
Here it is in all it's glory...The Studio Movie Grill. This is Brian Schultz's latest movie grill. Previously he was responsible for the Granada Movie Grill at Greenville and the GMG Prestonwood (both pictures are in the warehouse here). Can you believe this used to be an old United Artists theater?
The box office is inside the theater's lobby so customers don't have to stand out in the Texas heat to get their tickets.
This is the main entrance to the auditoriums.
Reverse shot of the lobby.
There is a few sitting areas like this for those who have arrived early for their movie.
For those who don't want to "sit", there is the Studio Lounge where they can kill some time and get a drink before their movie.
The lounge is just down this hallway.
Here is a shot of the lounge as viewed from the booth. Sporting events and other programming run on the video projector constantly. (The "padded walls" are a nice touch for when the Dallas Cowboys lose.)
Here is the Barco video projector for the lounge. This used to be auditorium #8. (Note the old console has been moved to the side.)
A wide shot of the south end of the booth with projectors #5, 6 and 7.
Although in the earlier "construction" shots of this booth it was spacious...adding tons of video equipment has made this booth very cramped.
Video projectors have been added above each projector. This makes threading a bit tight with the addition of cat 701 Dolby Digital penthouse readers. Auditoriums #2-7 are SRD with Dolby CP-500 processors. Auditorium #1 is still mono.
See what we mean? Check out the 1/4 inch clearance on the film as it runs underneath the video projector's shelf!
This is the "booth desk" and video control station for #6. Windows have been added beside each one of these stations, which reside at every auditorium, for controlling special events' sound and various special formats. It may look a bit messy, but with the day to day multimedia presentations requiring constant rewiring and setup by the projectionists, it gets the job done.
Here is a shot of a theater as viewed from the projection booth. Yes, this theater actually does curtain calls! Food service in the Studio Movie Grill (unlike earlier movie grill designs) comes from the rear of the theater instead of the front, which rarely makes the food servers' actions distracting.
Here is a shot of a small auditorium during a movie. The bar lights aren't really that bright appearing, this is just the way the picture turned out.
Here is another multimedia desk.
Baby night? Yes, that's right. To cater to the parents of toddlers, one show a week is presented with the heaters cranked and the volume whisper quiet. This seems like a bad idea by pushing for parents to bring their crying babies to the theater, but apparently it is somewhat popular.
Finally we meet Ethan Harper (the chief projectionist) at the end of a long day. He is responsible for not only the film presentations but must also keep up with the day to day special event "rentals" and the various multimedia presentations. The camera broke (as it always does) when we tried to get a picture of the other projectionist and in-house tech, Jeremy Spracklen.
CLICK HERE to see the construction pictures of the Studio Movie Grill