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Star Theatres Are Now AMC Theatres! Column for February 10, 2006

On Friday, February 3, AMC Theatres officially took over theaters owned by Loews Cineplex as AMC and Loews completed their merger. On that day, newspaper ads proclaimed "Loews has joined the AMC family. Combining two respected names into one." Here in Michigan, as Loews operated the Star Theatres, that declaration was modified to "Star Theatres has joined the AMC family!" The Star Theatres in Michigan officially became AMC Star Theatres and proclaimed as such in movie ads in cities where AMC has AMC Star Theatres. <%FloatImg "images/flinn/a^main_entrance.jpg", "The AMC Star Great Lakes Crossing", "left", "location.asp?id=371&type=5"%> This is a follow up to my earlier column dated August 1, 2005 which reported the merger of AMC and Loews. Fellow Water Winter Wonderland contributor Steve Bielawski reported the immediate changes to the AMC Star Theatres which are initially minimal as AMC and Loews used different ticketing equipment so AMC tickets and Loews tickets are not the same dimensions. The stubs will still bear the Loews logo until the supplies run out. I recall when Standard Federal Bank (now LaSalle Bank) took over Michigan National Bank, the equipment was changed along with the signs so my account receipts were changed to Standard Federal receipt dimensions. Of course, the refreshments will still bear the Loews name on cups and bags until their supplies run out. <%FloatImg "images/flinn/a^main_entrance2.jpg", "The AMC Star Grand Rapids, which displeased Jim Loeks' father upon its construction", "right", "location.asp?id=915&type=5"%> On line ticket sales are a little more complicated as they involve contracts. AMC deals with Movietickets.com, but the newly acquired Star Theatres will still use Fandango.com The theater chains may have a financial interest in the ticket companies, but on line ticket sales are expected to be unified once the contracts expire <%FloatImg "images/flinn/1017b.JPG", "The AMC Livonia 20", "left", "location.asp?id=1017&type=5"%> As I had expected and mentioned in my earlier column, AMC and Loews were not required to sell off theaters in Michigan. By the time the merger was announced, the two theater chains did not directly compete with each other as the overlapping theaters which did exist were already closed. You can give credit to Star Theatres founders Jim and Barrie Loeks who, with Loews money, built ultracool multiplexes and megaplexes which caused older theaters, including AMC theaters, to close. <%FloatImg "images/flinn/1085.JPG", "The AMC Meridian 6 in Lansing, AMC's smallest multiplex in Michigan", "right", "location.asp?id=1085&type=5"%> The only "old" AMC theater left in Michigan is the Meridian 6 in Okemos. That theater has no immediate competition, but other parts of the Lansing area has large megaplexes operated by the Jack Loeks (Celebration Cinemas/IMAX Theatre) and Neighborhood Cinema Group (NCG Eastwood Cinema) chains, both Michigan based. I mentioned the Jack Loeks chain in my previous column. I should talk about the Owosso-based NCG chain in a future column around the time that their Trillium Center megaplex under construction in the Flint suburb of Grand Blanc opens. <%FloatImg "images/flinn/a^main_entrance3.JPG", "The old AMC Americana/Southfield City, killed by the Star Southfield", "left", "location.asp?id=1176&type=5"%> The old Loews and Star Theatres URLs now go to AMC Theatres. As already mentioned, if you order tickets on line through the AMC website to a Star Theatre, it goes to the Fandango web page. If you order a ticket to an AMC Theatre in Livonia, Sterling Heights or Okemos, it goes to the Movie Tickets.com web page. Some of the URLs I mention in my earlier column which are associated with Loews or Star Theatres are now dead links. But you can see the contents by doing a copy and paste with the old URLs using the http://www.archive.org web site. This is a useful tool for looking up what the dead links contained as well as looking up the content history of URLs over the years.

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