Dickinson Theatres goes bankrupt... (Kansas City, California: apartments, lease, buy)

[jason87x]

Dickinson Theatres files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy - Kansas City Business Journal

Probably not all that huge, but Dickinson does have a decent presence here, between westglen, eastglen, northglen, great mall, others I'm forgetting?

It's not as flashy as AMC, which I do like, but having worked there many years ago, I find it a kind of good kind of run down, memories from back then lol.

Is KC overbuilt with theatres? I heard somewhere once that KC views the most movies per capita out of any city, but does anyone know anything about this?

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by jason87x

Dickinson Theatres files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy - Kansas City Business Journal

Probably not all that huge, but Dickinson does have a decent presence here, between westglen, eastglen, northglen, great mall, others I'm forgetting?

It's not as flashy as AMC, which I do like, but having worked there many years ago, I find it a kind of good kind of run down, memories from back then lol.

Is KC overbuilt with theatres? I heard somewhere once that KC views the most movies per capita out of any city, but does anyone know anything about this?

Dickinson is not a bad chain. I used to like their newer theaters. I remember when westglen first opened and we drove all the way across the metro to see movies there because they had THX.

As far as KC being overbuilt. I wouldn't say it's overbuilt only because like you said, KC people see more movies per capita than just about any major metro. I have read that many times. One reason for that might be because KC has so many high quality theaters. AMC started there and I believe the first multiplex was conceived there.

I can see Dickinson closing its older theaters in KC and maybe selling the ones it has in smaller towns where they don't have other theaters. They can't just sell their theaters in KC because then they will become competitors to their remaining theaters.

This has happened may times and this is my guess on what will happen.

Dickinson will file for protection. They will shop around for a newer smaller HQ and possibly move to the MO side to take advantage of incentives because they will be desperate for cash and ways to save money (like applebee's, for example) or they will move to lesser quality office space in KS like Payless did when they left KCMO for lee's summit.

Eventually they will be bought out, most likely by AMC and most of their newer theaters will convert to AMC. I don't know of anybody else that would enter the kc market and take on AMC.

I have lost all respect for AMC with their move to Leawood and now not even a USA company. But they do still have the best theater in KC and one of the best in the country (mainstreet downtown), no wait, that's not AMC anymore is it? So nevermind haha.

I hope Dickinson pulls out of it. Like anything it sucks when you lose competition. The consumer always loses.

[empires228]

Dickenson had a reputation for running slummy theaters anyways. The theatres in Garden City and Liberal needed multi-million dollar renovations after a smaller chain bought them from dickenson. The Hutchinson Mall 8 is another slummy property that they're losing do to this bankruptcy. Seems like they lease the theater from Simon who kept it when they sold the rest of the mall.

[jason87x]

Speaking of that mall, what has been up with it lately? I haven't been there in forever, and I live in Olathe. Oak Park Mall is actually closer to me and a thousand times better than that epic fail of the great plains. Have any interesting stores gone in there, any talks about making it a REAL mall (though I think that would be useless, as OPM would still hold its own as it has against tons of other developments within 20 miles or so)?

Tbh if anything else in joco became a real mall, it would have to be Corbin Park once burn down the prairie gets built next door and builds some apartments, and when Sprouts, REI, Fresh Market, etc get to those things. Sprouts is wildly popular in Texas and California because of cheap good produce, so would attract actual people to Corbin Park, which may mean they get more real tenants.

And with the theater thing, I now go to AMC anyways, as I can buy alcohol there :0

[vinix1999]

Heard a rumor years ago that Dickinson was intentionally letting the WestGlen run down because they had plans to relocate it to the Lenexa City Center. Obviously that never happened.

Dickinson has never had the capital (or imagination) to keep up with AMC. They need to be bought out so those older properties get some much-needed improvements. I've noticed that several theaters (Ward Parkway, Cinemark Merriam, Palace on the Plaza, Alamo Mainstreet) have been remodeled or spruced up this year. But Dickinson seems to just let their places go...