Curtains come up on Friday

Movies 8, the sequel, opens in Yuba City this week — bigger, better and with a dramatic ending planned for the original.

The new 12-screen Cinemark theater opens Friday at 1410 Whyler Road off Highway 99 and features "stadium-style" tiered-seating, "wall -to -wall screens" and wider rows allowing moviegoers to access seats without disturbing others.

"Yes Man", a comedy starring Jim Carrey, and "Seven Pounds," a drama starring Will Smith, will be among the films opening at the new complex.

Concessions at the new theater, located next to the existing Movies 8, include a cafeteria where the customer is in control.

"You decide how much butter you want to put on your popcorn and how much ice to put in your Coke," said James Meredith, vice president of marketing for Cinemark.

The old Movies 8 is planned for demolition next month after Yuba City police and fire units undertake training sessions at the site.

Former Yuba City Mayor Rory Ramirez said the aging theater, more than two decades old, had spurred many local moviegoers to travel to Roseville or Chico to see films.

"It something that's long overdue for the citizens," Ramirez said of the new theater.

Its opening marks the end of a long saga of city review complicated by a municipal policy aimed at getting a new movie theater downtown at Shasta and Bridge streets 1.5 miles from where the new theater was built.

Supporters of a new downtown movie theater, Ramirez said, saw such a project as the silver bullet to boost the central business district.

"I fully understood the concept," added the former mayor, who said he preferred letting free enterprise and the market prevail.

Councilman John Dukes had supported a downtown theater and the city policy putting a moratorium on such construction outside of the redevelopment agency's boundaries. He recalled problems the city encountered with plans for a downtown theater.

"I said, 'Let's get this done,'" Dukes recounted. "It doesn't matter where it's at."

"At this point I'm happy to see a new theater in this city," he said.

So is Aaron Furr, 18, an employee of Movies 8 who will work at the new facility,

"It's the biggest thing in town," Furr said.

The Yuba City theater's opening comes during a national economic slowdown but traditionally moviegoing isn't impacted by hard times.

"Going to a theater is still one of the least expensive forms of entertainment," Meredith said. "A lot of people — especially during slow economic times — like to escape."

James Estrada, job superintendent for the Aztec Developers Inc. of Yuba City, said at the site of new facility that movie theater construction poses different demands than other development.

"We're really building each theater as its own building," Estrada said.

A special invitation-only VIP Night will be held Wednesday and include special presentations to former mayors Ramirez and Eric Hellberg — who served on the City Council from 1998 to 2006.

Delays, as some sought to secure a movie theater downtown, led to many citizens asking when Yuba City would see a new facility, Hellberg recalled.

"If a day went by when somebody didn't bring up," Hellberg said, "I'd be hard pressed to remember."

Theater Facts

• 39,000 square feet.

• 12 screens

• 2,113 seats

• $8 ticket price for adults: $8.50 Friday, Saturday nights; $5 matinees. Seniors, $6.

Contact Appeal reporter Ryan McCarthy at 749-4707 or rmcarthy@appealdemocrat.com