The first construction loans for his theaters came from Far East National Bank, a Chinatown-based lender recently acquired by Cathay Bank. My projects cost $25 to $30 million each.” “I’m not doing little tiny projects,” Esparza said. That hesitation only magnified after the last recession, when commercial lending dried up. He chalks up his early struggles to the difficulty of persuading lenders to believe in him, and a longtime reluctance by financial institutions to back major developments in working-class communities. He is also working on opening a theater in Compton, but the project faces challenges, he said, because of limited land available for parking. He now estimates Maya Cinemas’ circuit will include 10 theaters within the next two years, including locations in Phoenix and Las Vegas. In a 2010 interview, he told The Times he expected to eventually open 40 locations with a total of 500 screens around the country. Maya has struggled to expand as fast as Esparza hoped after he opened his first theater in Salinas in 2005.
Johnson sold his theater chain in 2004, and the Baldwin Hills theater was closed, renovated and reopened as a Rave Cinemas. Former Los Angeles Lakers star Earvin “Magic” Johnson advocated for more entertainment options in largely black communities, opening the Magic Johnson Crenshaw 15 in Baldwin Hills in the mid-1990s. “It’s a community that really goes to movies.”Įsparza is not the first person to try to build a business putting theaters in locations neglected by the major chains. “The market is underserved, and it’s the market that contributes more than any other to the bottom line of Hollywood,” Pozo said. Santiago Pozo, founder of the Los Angeles-based, Latino-focused marketing firm Arenas Entertainment, said Esparza’s plans make sense.
(The MPAA defines frequent moviegoers as people who go to the cinema once a month or more.) Latinos accounted for 24% of frequent moviegoers in 2017, though they represented 18% of the total population, according to a recent report by the Motion Picture Assn. And Maya’s expansion to date has fallen far short of Esparza’s initial goals.īut Esparza says he can succeed because his target audience has a voracious appetite for movies. Independent cinema operators have struggled to compete with the major chains that are consolidating the industry. Building a chain of multiplexes in relatively small markets is risky at a time when Hollywood is contending with long-term declines in attendance.
0 kommentar(er)
