THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, August 8, 1995 TAG: 9508080269
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANCIE LATOUR, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Long : 112 lines
Imagine having the power to decide how Americans will define fun. One of the country's biggest theater chains has brought its definition to Chesapeake: Funscape.
Regal Cinemas Inc. opened the doors Friday to its $9 million ``escape to fun'' amusement center opposite Greenbrier Mall. It is being billed as the entertainment equivalent to the mega-mall: a one-stop shopping center for fun. But it also reflects an on-going corporate battle to win back the attention and dollars of consumers plugged into home entertainment.
``I think I have this thing for knowing what fun is,'' said Richard Rowman, director of entertainment centers for Regal. ``And I think people are pretty much agreeing with it. We're an entertainment mall. We're bigger than Wal-Mart.''
At least 11,000 people agreed with Rowman last weekend, according to preliminary figures from Regal's home office in Knoxville, Tenn. The company would not release revenue figures, but said the number surpassed the 8,000 to 9,000 they had hoped for.
Rowman's idea of fun is a sprawling, two-story, 13-screen theater complex equipped with everything from human mazes to virtual reality, from cybersled video games to simulated police drug raids.
For Rowman, who has been dubbed the Walt Disney of Regal, it's not just that there are two 18 hole miniature golf courses inside a movie theater. It's that the golf balls come in all different colors and are dispensed from a giant bubble-gum machine.
Rowman even tried to put some fun in the least amusing parts of family entertainment: buying tickets and ordering food.
Touch-screen kiosks with animated figures help customers choose whether they want fries with their burger or whether they're paying cash or credit. The machines give out cards with battery charges. Each ride or event costs a certain amount of battery charges, which are taken by swiping the cards electronically through a machine. An afternoon's entertainment for the typical fun-crazed adolescent can cost $25, not including admission to a movie.
``Paying for entertainment and standing in line for food is usually boring,'' Rowman said. ``I hated that when I was a kid. So we try to make it fun. The idea is, batteries here aren't included. You have to buy batteries if you want to play.''
Regal says its 95,000-square-foot facility is the first of its kind in the nation. Regal plans to follow up with two other complexes, in Rochester and Syracuse, N.Y.
Regal Cinemas, one of the largest theater chains in the nation, is among a handful of entertainment companies creating the all-purpose, indoor amusement park.
Those who watch the changing industry push for the ever-more gargantuan fun-mall say it is being driven in part by the onslaught of entertainment options people can choose from without ever leaving their living rooms.
For multi-media executives who get paid to know what consumers will want next, complexes like Funscape are part of an increasingly high-stakes quest to figure out how Americans want to be entertained.
``There's a lot of competition for consumers and their entertainment dollars,'' said, Tom King, who reports on the entertainment industry for the Wall Street Journal.
``Pretty soon, you're going to be able to watch any movie you want on the 500-channel universe and order dinner from your Lazyboy,'' King said. ``So there's a real fear that these new-fangled systems of the information superhighway will capture a huge chunk of the movie-going market.
``There are really big questions now as to what people want to do,'' King said. `` I don't think anybody knows what the answer is yet.''
But others in the media industry are trying to divine the entertainment future.
United Artists, the largest theater chain in the country, has built mega-complexes with simulated motion theaters. In New York City, where real estate is precious, Sony Theaters has built the first multiplex theater to contain a full-screen Imax at the Lincoln Center.
The idea is a simple one: Bombard people with candy colors and fun things to do. That's what Rowman has done at Funscape, offering such state-of-the-art technology as virtual reality. Take a look.
You're in a batting cage. Prepare yourself: You are about to face Oakland A's pitcher Dennis Eckersley. You crouch over home plate as a ball flies towards you, sometimes as fast as 90 mph.
Ok. So you miss every ball. But the point is this: Where else can an average kid from Great Bridge dare to take on a major league pitcher?
``It was really hard,'' said Cali Mohr, 18, who came to Funscape with two friends. ``Those balls come at you really fast, but it was worth it. The pitches are totally lifelike.''
One friend, Jason ``Rook'' Barnes, 17, decided not to take on the likes of Roger Clemens because of a bad arm. Instead, he played golf at the famed Pebble Beach golf course in California, also through virtual reality.
The bumper cars are of the post-Nintendo age, controlled by a pair of joysticks instead of a steering wheel.
And if that is too mild a ride for you, you can always enter the world of cosmic pinball.
A multi-ethnic cyberspace operator beckons riders into a swerving, jet-propelled race through strobe-light tubes, around giant metallic domes and head-on collisions with neon-colored phantom cars. ``Welcome to cosmic pinball,'' the operator says. ``As you know this is a game of human nature.''
Ursula Tanksley of South Norfolk brought her two nephews with her, but caught herself having a good time once they wandered off.
``They're here somewhere,'' Tanksley said. ``But I'm playing the games, too, collecting the tickets so I can try and win a cheap prize.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color staff photos by Vicki Cronis
Ken Ward of Norfolk and Kim Phipps of Virginia Beach take turns
Monday on the pinball machines inside Funscape.
Funscape sports two indoor miniature golf courses.
by CNB