New movie theater has first show on Friday

Everything about the new Galaxy Fandango Theatre is ridiculous, said AJ Witherspoon. Everything including the quality of the movies, the large amount of leg room, the few technical problems and the flexibility managers have to please customers.

Witherspoon, the general manager at a Las Vegas branch of Galaxy Theatres, said the company was determined to make everything ridiculously good at the new $15 million Carson City movie theater opening Friday. The company was going to spend as much as it had to make it perfect, he said, down to putting popcorn in buckets rather than bags.

"It's more comfortable," he said. "People don't get butter dripping on them and stuff like that."

This week, Witherspoon is at the Carson City all-digital 10-screen multiplex to help get it ready to open.

One of the things customers will be most impressed with, he said, is the digital picture. It's steady, sharp and more colorful than traditional 35-mm film.

To get digital movies, the Galaxy downloads them as a file, so it doesn't have the problems other theaters in Northern Nevada do.

For instance, if a traditional projector is stopped too long, the bulb can burn through the film.

With digital, an employee checks the focus before the movie starts and it's set, Witherspoon said.

He added that customers don't have to worry about the picture shaking or having to wait for an employee to come in and tell them why the movie stopped.

"We know the community has been in need of a state-of-the-art, up-to-date theater for a long time," said Galaxy Theatres' director of operations, Chuck Goodman.

It is the first all digital-theater in the region.

Carson has one other movie theater, the smaller Northgate Movies 10. There is also Ironwood Stadium Cinema 8 in Minden, about 15 miles south of the city.

The multiplex also has digital sound that compared to non-digital is like hearing a CD next to a cassette tape, Witherspoon said.

"The minute I moved here, everybody I told was extremely excited," said Joe Williams, general manager of Galaxy Fandango. "It's something that was needed in the community for a long time."

The theater might also show Monday Night Football and other sports, he said, so Galaxy Fandango could draw people who would go to theaters in Minden or Reno.

"The thing that's great is we're going to be better than either of those anyway," he said.

The theater is part of a $50 million expansion by Casino Fandango that will include a new hotel, an Italian restaurant and an expanded gaming area. The entire project is expected to be done in early 2008.

• Contact reporter Dave Frank at dfrank@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1212.

If you go

What: Galaxy Fandango Theatre

Where: 4000 S. Curry St., behind Casino Fandango

When: Opens Friday

Contact: 882-7469

Showtimes: www.galaxytheatres.com/fandango_schedule.html