The coming of College Station
Written by Dan
Ever since the College Station development broke ground about a month ago, people have been voicing their concern over the fate of The Moxie. We've discussed it at length on the forum, and it's been popping up more and more in discussions with customers and other downtown business owners, which is why I thought it would be a good time to bring the issue to the forefront (a.k.a. the blog).
For those of you who aren't from Springfield, and might not know what I'm talking about, College Station is a new downtown development that is being built a block and a half North of The Moxie. When completed, the complex will offer tens of thousands of leasable square footage to lure more businesses to downtown Springfield. The anchor of College Station will be a fourteen (14!!!) screen Hollywood Theaters' multiplex, which I wrote about a long, long time ago.
Over the years, the development has been caught up in various stages of limbo, but since the ground was ceremoniously broken in mid-December, they've been moving lickity-split... announcing an opening date for the theater of February 2008. So, what does this mean for The Moxie? The answer, of course, is "I don't know." No one knows, but that hasn't stopped certain people (including some reporters) from asking us very pointed questions about our future.
Are we worried about College Station? Of course we are! No self-respecting small business would want a giant competitor to move in right next to their store. It may be true that we're going after different movies, and appealing to different audiences, but butts are butts, and both of our seats will need to be filled if either business is going to survive. So, let's prognosticate a bit and see what we can come up with:
We'll start with the worst-case scenario and move our way up. Let's imagine it's late Summer, 2008. There are five or six huge Hollywood blockbusters on the horizon, as well as one crossover indie flick that's wowing audiences and critics alike. Campbell 16 and Hollywood immediately go head-to-head for the big fish, and Hollywood comes up empty-handed. Campbell is an aggressive booker, and has proven, time and again, their dominance in the Springfield market.
So, what's Hollywood to do? They scan the market, and pick whatever looks fresh, including the little crossover indie flick that had MOXIE written all over it. We, however, are left with the smallest of the small films... the ones that audiences have proven, time and again, they simply won't show up for. Now, you may be thinking, why can't The Moxie play the bigger films along with Hollywood and Campbell, and let the audiences decide which theater they want to watch it in? Well, unfortunately for us, distribution doesn't work like that. If it did, I'd gladly go to head-to-head with the multiplexes. We have a growing, core audience of Moxie fanatics who I have no doubt would forego stadium seating, rocking chairs, and movable armrests to watch a movie in our cozy little theater... but they're rarely given the opportunity to choose between us and them. That's just the way distribution works. In a situation like this, you can see how it wouldn't take long for the inevitable to set in. Tiny niche films fulfill our mission, but if we want to continue showing those, we need the occasional crossover hits to pay the bills.
Now, let's look on the brighter side of things. First of all, Hollywood Theaters is owned by Wallace Theater Holdings, a big corporation, as tends to be the case with most businesses whose name ends with the word "holdings." Although many people might think they're evil, one thing that corporations are NOT is stupid. They're run by armies of intelligent people who dress much nicer, and have much better health insurance than Nicole or I COMBINED! I mean, do you really think a big corporation, with its battalion of high-end executives, would invest millions of dollars opening a new multiplex if they hadn't already done an extensive competition analysis? And do you really, in the deepest depth of your heart, believe that the same corporation, with its regiment of pencil pushers, would commit to a project that would put them at a disadvantage to the biggest competitor in town? Of course not!
Wallace realizes that for them to be able to fill fourteen auditoriums with hundreds upon hundreds of derrieres each and every night, that they must be outside of an imaginary radius around Campbell 16 (drawn, of course, by the distributors to create competitive situations). There's no if, ands, or buts about it. Hollywood can't sustain a 14 screen theater on Campbell's sloppy seconds, and knowing this helps me sleep a little better at night. They know it, I know it, and now you know it.
Corporate geniuses or no, we're not going to allow ourselves to believe that Hollywood is simply going to overlook us and focus on films that we couldn't get in the first place. We're going to proceed in much the same way as any small business would in the face of incoming competition: whining on the blog, sabotage, and an eventual pilfering of the coffers followed by a quick getaway to the Cayman islands. Ha ha! I kid! I kid! 2007 is going to be a big year for The Moxie! We're going to expand on our mission of bringing quality film to Springfield, continue collaborating with local businesses to create even more unique movie-going experiences, and do a whole bunch of other stuff that we haven't even thought of yet.
How many times have the entrepreneurial among you daydreamed of heading a small, locally-owned business in the shadow of an evil, greedy corporation? It's not really the case here, but I like to think it is... on occasion. I also like to imagine Nicole and I are Eskimos when our heat and power goes out for 36 hours straight... if you catch my drift.
