IMAX theater to open March 28 at Hamilton Town Center

February 20, 2008

IMAX theater to open March 28 at Hamilton Town Center

By Betsy Reason [email protected] [email protected] February 20, 2008

NOBLESVILLE -- Mitch Ross said the IMAX movie theater opening March 28 at Hamilton Town Center is just what Hamilton County needs to satisfy its growing thirst for entertainment.

"People are tired of driving a long way to get the amenities a mall like Hamilton Town Center offers," said Ross, 31, who moved here from Kalamazoo, Mich., to manage the Hamilton 16 IMAX.

He's been employed by the 16-screen theater's parent company, Goodrich Quality Theaters, for seven years. This is his first experience with an IMAX, which will have a screen six stories high -- 70 feet wide by 44 feet high. A grand opening with free movies is set for March 28, although a movie for the IMAX theater hasn't been selected yet.

The Hamilton 16 IMAX will be able to show 2-D and 3-D movies. This will be Goodrich's first-all digital theater, said Ross. The smaller theaters in the complex will have wall-to- wall screens, and even the smallest, which will seat 100 moviegoers, will feel like a big room, he explained. The largest theater seats more than 400.

"It's absolutely gorgeous," Ross said of the 70,000-square-foot multiplex that will feature an 8,500-square-foot lobby and a 2,500-square-foot second-floor mezzanine that will offer lounge seating under a sky of 800 fiber-optic lights that resemble a starry night, games, coffee shop, plasma TVs and an upper entrance to the IMAX theater.

"I think it's going to be the best theater in town," said Ross, who is working daily to ready the theater for guests, doing everything from ordering concession foods to visiting local high schools in a hunt for employees.

Ross said he'd be hiring his staff of about 100 the first week of March, when the company will host a job fair March 3-7.

Ticket prices haven't been set, but Ross said admission would be competitive with other local theaters, likely under $10 for adults and under $7 for children at the 15 smaller theaters, $9 to $13 at the IMAX theater.

The entire theater will seat 3,200, including 454 in the IMAX auditorium.

"It's one of the largest theaters we've built," said Kelly Owens, marketing/creative

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AI...04/802200419/1186/LOCAL010403&template=printart (1 of 2) [2/21/2008 9:08:21 AM] IMAX theater to open March 28 at Hamilton Town Center director for Goodrich in Grand Rapids, Mich. With Hamilton 16's opening, Goodrich will have 31 theaters and 279 screens company wide. She said the design is a reverse floor plan of the Portage (Ind.) 16 IMAX, which opened in January 2007. Goodrich's first IMAX opened in November 2006 in Batavia, Ill., she said.

Owens said the theater will offer a 12-station bowed concession stand, two drink stations, eight bathrooms and an elevator. The theater will feature two box offices, online ticketing and lobby kiosks, and two party rooms.

"People will be very wowed with the oversized lobby. It's very attention grabbing," she said.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AI...04/802200419/1186/LOCAL010403&template=printart (2 of 2) [2/21/2008 9:08:21 AM]