BUSINESS : Theater Partners Betting on Magic Touch

From hoops to Hollywood, Earvin (Magic) Johnson has teamed up with Sony Theaters and is planning to make a fast break into the entertainment business with a new 12-screen cinema complex next to the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza.

A groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled today for the theater, which is intended to be the first link in a nationwide cinema chain called Magic Johnson Theatres.

The theater is scheduled to open in May. Johnson is not ruling out the possibility that the venture will eventually lead him into movie production.

“I’d like to be involved in at least one movie, but first I’m going to do this,” he said with a coy smile.

The Magic Johnson Theatre will feature first-run films, a posh interior and first-rate customer service, Johnson said last week. Minority neighborhoods, such as the Baldwin Hills and Crenshaw areas, are underserved by cinema chains and deserve better treatment, he said.

The theater is expected to create 75 jobs and is intended as an economic boost for the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza and for the predominantly minority neighborhood that surrounds it. During off-hours, the Magic Johnson Theatre will be open to community groups, churches and schools that want to use the space for private events, Johnson said.

The Johnson and Sony joint venture is not the first attempt to build a minority-owned movie theater near the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza. American Multi-Cinemas (AMC) and Economic Resources Corp., a nonprofit group based in Lynwood, came close to doing it in 1993, but the deal collapsed when AMC sued its partner.

“(Minorities) make up 35% of all moviegoers . . . but we have to travel to the suburbs to see movies,” Johnson said.

Sony executives and Johnson say they are in search of a second theater location in Los Angeles, and they also are looking in New York, Chicago and Atlanta. Over the next several years, there could be as many as 10 Magic Johnson Theatres across the country, according to one Sony executive.

“Any site that makes economic sense, we’ll consider it,” said Lawrence Ruisi, president of Sony Retail Entertainment. “If we had our druthers, we’d love to have another location in Los Angeles for operating efficiency.”

The former Los Angeles Lakers star is an equal partner in the theater project with Sony Theatres, which operates 170 theaters nationwide, most of them in the Eastern United States. Each is financing half the cost of the project--an amount neither of the parties will disclose. In addition, both will be involved in the theater’s administration and operations, Johnson said.

The partners say they are uncertain about who first came up with the Magic Johnson Theatre idea. Nevertheless, they agree that their interests merged: Johnson hoped to bring movie theaters to minority neighborhoods and Sony has been eager to expand west.

“I wouldn’t say we’ve avoided these (minority) neighborhoods, but it’ll be more successful this way,” Ruisi said. “This is good business.”

The Crenshaw and Baldwin Hills area, where Johnson attends church with his wife and 2-year-old son, is the type of place Johnson and Sony sought--a minority neighborhood surrounded by stores, restaurants and other businesses that could use a boost from movie crowds.

“If they don’t eat at the movie theater, they will eat at the restaurants around there, either before the movie or after,” Johnson said. “That’s why Universal works so well. You know, the mall is right there.”

Indeed, the movie theater may be just what the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza needs. The 47-year-old mall has been losing money, pummeled by low occupancy rates and recession, among other problems. Things worsened after last year’s Northridge earthquake when Robinsons May, one of the mall’s anchor stores, closed for six months. As a result, the other stores lost customers, and two went out of business.

In addition, the mall was the subject of citywide controversy last year when developer Alexander Haagen cut the city out of its financial share in the plaza. The city spent about $50 million to build the center with Haagen, who sold the mall to a real estate investment trust that he controls and ended his partnership with the city.

Haagen and the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency eventually agreed to split the profits, if any, from the mall.

The Magic Johnson Theatre may give a new polish to the mall’s reputation. The theater will be typical of those Sony is building in other parts of the country--and unlike many of the older local cinemas.

For instance, the theater will make a “next-in-line guarantee”--anyone who waits in line longer than three minutes at the box office or concession stand will receive a free Coke. And theater employees will greet customers and bid them farewell at the door, handing out mints.

An Art Deco-style lobby will feature an arched glass atrium and a kiosk where a theater manager will be available to take questions and complaints from customers. There will be computerized box-office stations selling tickets for shows and video monitors running film previews.

The concession stands are designed to have several stations operating at once, to speed sales. The audience can expect to settle into plush, oversized chairs that rock.

“(Sony) builds these kinds of theaters back East, and we wanted to have the same prototype here,” Johnson explained. “People (in minority neighborhoods) are tired of getting second-class treatment.”