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Death of a Theater Chain Column for July 5, 2005

This is the first of two planned columns about the consolidation of theater chains with Michigan locations. On May 18, Carmike Cinemas, based in Columbus, Georgia, took over the GKC Theatres chain which was based in Springfield, Illinois. GKC stood for George Kerasotes Corporation and Carmike bought the theater chain for $66 million. GKC operated theaters serving the Alpena, Battle Creek, Big Rapids, Jackson, Ludington, Marquette, Port Huron, Saginaw, Sault Ste. Marie and Traverse City areas. Carmike already had a theater in Houghton. GKC once served other Michigan cities including Ann Arbor, Flint and East Lansing but they either sold or closed those theaters by the early 1990s. Because of the sale of GKC to Carmike, many of the GKC executive positions in Illinois were either relocated to Georgia or eliminated. Carmike Cinemas, just like the GKC Theatres they bought, specialize in operating theaters in small and medium sized cities. GKC Theatres was founded in 1985 but its origins go back to 1909 when Greek immigrant Gus Kerasotes opened a storefront nickelodeon, the Royal, in Springfield, Illinois. Gus developed a love for the movies which inspired him to enter the theater business. He had four sons all of whom were working for their father’s Kerasotes Theatres chain by the mid-1940s which had 14 theaters at that time. Over the next few years, Kerasotes would expand and add additional theaters. It’s 50th theater opened in 1967. The first Kerasotes theater which George Kerasotes ran on his own was the Beverly Theatre in Peoria, Illinois in 1937 when he was 26. George would become the CEO of Kerasotes Theatres. At the end of 1984, Kerasotes purchased most of the W.S. Butterfield Theatres chain in Michigan. The first thing Kerasotes management did was to fire the union projectionists which angered many of the Butterfield patrons. The manager of the Butterfield Theatres operations in the Flint area, Earl Berry, was forced into retirement by the Kerasotes acquisition. George had a falling out with his brothers over the personnel changes and quit Kerasotes Theatres to form his own company, George Kerasotes Corporation or GKC Theatres. Among the Kerasotes theater locations George took with him were the ones in Michigan. Kerasotes Theatres is still in operation and is now Kerasotes ShowPlace Theatres, LLC which is on the Internet at http://www.kerasotes.com George Kerasotes died in 2001. His daughter Beth Kerasotes took over as the head of GKC Theatres. I recall in my immediate area that GKC started with the 4-screen Genesee Valley Cinemas (which GKC carved into six), the 4-screen Towne Cinemas and the single screen Flint Cinema in Flint, the Bella Vista Twin Cinemas in Grand Blanc, the Campus Twin Theatres in East Lansing, the 4-screen State Theatres and the single screen Campus Theatre in Ann Arbor and the Wayside Twin Theatres in Ypsilanti. GKC sold or closed all of these listed theaters. Of all these theaters, only two of the Ann Arbor State Theatre’s auditoriums in the former balcony are still in operation. GKC sold its Flint area operations to stronger local rival National Amusements in 1992. The Flint area theaters GKC ran were whittled down to the Genesee Valley Cinemas and the Towne Cinemas. Four newly acquired Carmike theaters are former Butterfield Theatres: the State in Alpena, the Big Rapids in Big Rapids, the Plaza in Jackson and the Lyric in Ludington, They were originally single screen theaters and were carved up into smaller theaters. The Plaza’s suburban location allowed for additional auditoriums to be built. GKC had other theaters such as the Huron in Port Huron, the Soo in Sault Ste. Marie and the State in Traverse City which were closed after larger multiplexes were built by GKC to replace them.. From personal experience and from reading other moviegoers’ opinions, the GKC theaters themselves were not that great. I thought that the local GKC Theatres had the atmosphere of a shoe box. I understand the newer GKC multiplexes, of which I’m not familiar with, do not have the amenities I’m used to seeing nowadays such as stadium seating although the newest one, the Harbor Cinemas in Ludington does have stadium seating. The early reactions I’ve heard about the Carmike takeover has been positive. Carmike announced that they will eventually remodel former GKC Theatres to include modern amenities. I read through the grapevine that Carmike may replace the Big Rapids Cinemas because it does not meet Carmike standards. GKC generated controversy last year when they banned the Michael Moore film "Fahrenheit 9/11" although it did play at the GKC Horizon Cinemas in Traverse City. It also continued the Kerasotes family feud as the intra-family rival Kerasotes Theatres chain decided to let that film be shown in their theaters. You can read about that at http://www.illinoistimes.com/gbase/Gyrosite/Content?oid=oid%3A3388 Carmike does not make political judgments about which films they decide not to show. But they do have a policy of not showing NC-17 rated movies as Carmike strives to be a family-oriented operation. So to sum things up, we won’t miss GKC Theatres very much and look forward to Carmike’s operation of the former GKC cinemas. The official Carmike Cinemas web site is at http://www.carmike.com Last month, the #2 theater chain, AMC Theatres, bought the #3 theater chain, Loews Cineplex. The sale is subject to regulatory appoval. Both theater chains operate theaters in Michigan, but they do not directly compete with each other in Michigan nowadays. Loews operates the Star Theatres. The combined company will be called AMC Entertainment, Inc. Both of these theater chains are the subject of the next column.

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