It can’t really promise that the movies will be any good, but Frank Theatres has thought of every other way to make your evening out at its new CineBowl & Grille at Delray Marketplace a peak entertainment experience.
“West is best,” offers corporate CEO Bruce Frank in response to why he is betting that South Florida moviegoers will trek west of the turnpike, at Lyons Road and Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach to spend time and money at a 12-screen movie house, plus a 16-lane bowling alley and a restaurant that seats 192.
Not mentioned in the complex’s name, probably because it would be an even larger mouthful, is a state-of-the-art, relatively non-violent video arcade “with full redemption.” That sounds awfully spiritual, but only refers to the ability to cash in your winnings for a variety of prizes from plush toys to iPads.
The company, dually headquartered in Jupiter and Atlantic City, already has a presence in South Florida, having taken over the Sunrise movie chain in North Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Sunrise and Coral Springs. So the CineBowl & Grille marks the firm’s first venture in Palm Beach County and its first new construction in the region.
The 70,000-square-foot center anchors a still-to-come retail and restaurant venue ― no one uses the label “mall” anymore, have you noticed? ― expected to open in the next few weeks. The CineBowl kicked off with a splashy party on Valentine’s Day Eve, proudly featuring A Good Day to Die Hard on its 85-foot-by-55-foot IMAX screen, with the latest playing-everywhere-else releases like Beautiful Creatures and Safe Haven in other auditoriums, ranging in size from 90 to 400 seats.
According to Frank, the complex will be featuring “art house films” on a regular basis, though details on that were sparse. Amour, Austria’s foreign language Oscar nominee and odds-on favorite to win, was among the opening attractions and the Oscar-nominated documentary The Gatekeepers is slated to open here March 8, so there does seem to be a something-for-everyone programming effort.
On Tuesday, the day before opening, the affable Frank led a media tour through the not-quite-ready complex, with stops in the ladies’ room to show off the row of 20 toilet stalls ― (insert joke of your choice about no waiting) ― as well as the concierge service bowling lanes, the cocktail bar and the concession stand (strictly canola oil for the popcorn, health nuts).
With a little mist in his eye, Frank pointed out that the two large portraits in the center of a wall that included the likes of Greta Garbo, Clark Gable and Humphrey Bogart are his grandfather Sam, who began the company in the silent era, and his father Alvin, who built it into a major East Coast chain.
The mist turned to a twinkle when Frank unwrapped a prototype pair of seats from Sony for a new motion-simulation system called Tremor FX, which offers a kinetic experience synched to the movie soundtrack. Name a projection gimmick and CineBowl has it. All 12 auditoriums are equipped with High Frame Rate (HFR) technology, RealD 3D and D-BOX Motion Technology.
Frank Theatres has its own IMAX-ish large screen format called FDX (Frank Digital Effects). The company is also introducing to Florida a Dolby “surround sound” system called ATMOS, with overhead speakers for what Frank calls “voice of God” sound. Most of these, of course, are add-ons to the basic ticket price (whatever that is).
The “Grille” of the complex is Red Brick Grille, a full-service eat-in-or-take-it-to-your-movie-seat operation, with a menu of burgers, pizzas, “handcrafted” sandwiches and a few actual entrees like ribs, rib eye steak or fish tacos.
The menu has moderate prices (The full rack of ribs is the highest ticket item at $19.99.) Frank was curiously vague about how much movie tickets will go for (“Comparable to other theaters in the market”) or the price of bowling. And with Frank Theatres a privately held company, all he would say about how much the whole complex cost to construct was “a lot.”
A lot is also the number of CineBowl & Grilles that the company expects to open, with 12 upcoming locations from New York to Florida listed on its website. Now, if Frank Theatres could only figure out how to get Hollywood to make better movies.