Page 58 - BCM July 2024
P. 58

The concourse area at B&B Theatres’
             FIRST LOOK
                                                                                      venue in Red Oak, Texas, provides
                                                                                      plenty of room for guests to obtain
                                                                                      movie tickets, purchase concessions,
                                                                                      relax with a beverage and more.





















               Screen Test











                   B&B Theatres has opened its fourth entertainment complex with

                    bowling among the attractions. Surprisingly to some, there are
                 lessons proprietors can learn from this no-longer-unique marriage.


              BY BARRY SPARKS                      B&B has proven it knows some-    as well as 65 arcade games. Outdoor
                                                 thing about foreseeing the future   attractions include four pickleball
                  owling centers and movie       and adapting to change.    e family-  courts, two bocce pits, four cabanas,
              B theaters have been major         owned business, in its fourth gen-  a full bar and a large   re pit.
              entertainment venues for millions of   eration, is the   fth-largest chain of      is is the fourth B&B location with
              Americans for decades. One hundred   theaters in the country.         bowling.
              years ago, when B&B    eatres was       e Liberty, Missouri-based       “After we added bowling at our
              founded, movie theaters showed     company is celebrating its 100th   location in suburban Des Moines,
              silent   lms in a simple setting, while   anniversary this year by combining   Iowa, in 2019, we were hooked on
              bowling centers employed pin boys   movie theaters with bowling, along   bowling,” says Dennis McIntire, the
              to set the pins and provided cus-  with other attractions, at its Red Oak,   company’s vice president of strategic
              tomers with pencils to keep score.  Texas, facility, which opened in April.  development and innovation.
                   rough the years, B&B    eatres      e location, one of 54 in the B&B   “   ere are attractions with a ‘small
              has embraced the coming of sound,   chain, features 12 movie screens   a’ and attractions with a ‘large A,’
              color, multiplexes, widescreen,    with advanced cinematic concepts,   and we consider bowling a ‘large A’
              digital, 3D and countless other    including an amphitheater with 270-  attraction,” he says. “It’s a critical
              advances in projection and stereo   degree Screen X, 4 DX, Grand Screen,   element of our entertainment com-
              sound. Today’s movie-goers can     Screen PLAY (featuring playground   plex.”
              enjoy their favorite   lms in various   equipment in the theater), Lyric   Bowling   ts B&B’s brand and what
              screen formats, surrounded by sound   and Max Relax.    e theaters o  er   the company is trying to accomplish,
              and in stadium seating that features   premium, immersive sound.      according to McIntire. It attracts all
              luxury high-back reclining chairs.      e complex also houses an enter-  ages, especially families and multi-
              It’s a long way from watching Charlie   tainment center with what has been   generations, and is great for team-
              Chaplin in “   e Gold Rush,” a 1925   dubbed B-Roll Bowling — 16 lanes   building activities.
              silent movie.                      with string pinsetters and SPARK —   “Bowling is an easy sell,” he says.

              56  •  BCM  •  JULY 2024                                                               www.bcmmag.com




         056,058,060_FirstLook_RedOak_0724.indd   56                                                           6/13/24   11:23 AM
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