8th Street theaters open with $1 movies

More than a year since the closure of the two-screen movie theater at 8th Street Marketplace, the Boise movie house is back in business, now showing discount films.
Dick Lehosit, owner of discount theaters in Overland Park and Northgate shopping centers, signed a one-year lease earlier this month for the 13,000-square-foot Marketplace space at Eighth and Broad streets. The theater opened March 22. At press time, Lehosit was still hiring staff, but planned to employ three to five part-time workers.
The previous tenant, New York-based Loews Cineplex Entertainment Corp., closed the theater in January 2001 as part of cuts following a Chapter 11 filing.
After the bankruptcy filing, Loews Cineplex closed all of its Treasure Valley theaters, which in addition to 8th Street included a six-screen Nampa complex on the Nampa-Caldwell Boulevard, a six-screen Boise Towne Square site, the one-screen Egyptian in downtown Boise and the six-screen Northgate Cinemas at State and Glenwood streets.
Lehosit, 55, leased and re-opened Northgate as a discount theater in March 2001 and is now negotiating to renew his lease.
The Boise man first considered renting the 8th Street space more than a year ago but said building owner JRS Properties III LP, an entity of the J.R. Simplot family, was more interested at the time in pursuing another first-run theater chain to lease the space.
“Eventually, I had a renewed interest in the space, they had an interest, and we had a meeting of the minds,” Lehosit said. “It really fell together over the last month.”
Lehosit opened his first movie theater in Emmett in October 1978. The one-screen Frontier Cinema “intermediate” movie house remains open, usually showing films that have ended first-run play, but not yet hit the mainstream discount market.
He purchased the three-screen Overland Park on Overland Road near Cole Road in late 1997, after the Hollywood Cinemas chain vacated the space following the opening of Edwards 21 Cinemas that year.
For 14 years, Lehosit also operated the Frontier Cinema discount theater at Lake Hazel and Five Mile roads. He closed it in December 1997 because he didn’t want to compete too closely with Overland Park. His daughter, Amy Lehosit, owns a Frontier Cinema theater in Nampa.
“We fill the void for the families with kids to see movies at a reasonable price,” Lehosit said. “Discount theaters cater to families. My best products are the Disney and animated films.”
The 8th Street theater debuted with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius. Also opening was the adult comedy Ocean’s 11.
Ticket prices at Lehosit’s theaters are always $1 per person, compared to $8 for evening shows and $5.25 for matinees at Edwards, which also operates a 14-screen theater in Nampa.
Lehosit’s only competition in the Boise discount theater market is the six-screen Reel Theatres on Overland Road near Orchard Road in Boise. Reel Theatres also operates the former Loews theater in Nampa and an eight-screen unit in Ontario, Ore.
The Reel Theatres, owned now by Salt Lake City-based entity Casper Management, was owned and operated for several years by Robert and Margo Denning of McCall. The Dennings filed for voluntary Chapter 7 liquidation in December 2000.
The Dennings also owned the Karcher Reel Theatres in Karcher Mall in Nampa, which closed in February 2000, and briefly operated the Egyptian Theatre in downtown Boise after Loews pulled out.
The Egyptian is owned by the Hardy Foundation of Boise and shows first-run films, some classics and hosts occasional live events, such as author and humorist David Sedaris who will appear there on April 15.
Besides Edwards Cinemas’ two Valley theaters and the Egyptian, the only other first-run movie theater between Boise and Nampa is The Flicks, a four-screen movie house operated by Carole Skinner at Sixth and Fulton streets in Boise. Linden 3 Theatres in Caldwell also shows first-run films on three screens.
Lehosit said he does not consider first-run theaters to be his competition.
“It’d be like saying the Outback competes with McDonalds,” he said. “They’re competing for the food dollar, but it’s coming out of a different pocketbook.”
Lehosit said the expansion of the Valley’s discount movie business is akin to the growing number of discount retail stores like Wal-Mart, and a reflection of the economy.
“People are looking at being thrifty with their dollars,” he said.
Lehosit noted that attendance at his theaters is dictated by the movie’s popularity. He tends to play more G-, PG- and PG-13-rated flicks than R-rated ones to keep his target family audience coming in.
Lehosit’s wife, Lynn, and several of their children are also involved in the operation of the theaters, which helps keep some of his overhead expenses down, he said.
“My customers are coming in to watch a movie,” Lehosit said. “They’re interested in the movie – not the glitz and glamour, the lighting or the paintings on the wall. That’s what I give them.”