Malco to Expand in Rogers, Eyes Fayetteville

Malco Theater Inc. plans to expand its 12-screen, 44,000-SF Malco Towne Cinema in Rogers by about 10,000 SF, said Jim Tashie, senior vice president of the Memphis-based company.

Tashie said the company hasn’t determined whether the expansion will include two, three or four new screens, but that decision will be made soon. The expansion is scheduled to be completed by November and will cost about $1 million, Tashie said.

The Rogers theater, which has been open for about a year, is currently the only one in Northwest Arkansas to feature stadium seating and a state-of-the-art THX sound system developed by George Lucas’ Lucasfilm Ltd. After the expansion, the new screens will be capable of showing digital movies.

When asked if it was early to be expanding the Rogers theater, Tashie said, “We didn’t go in there and spend all that money thinking it was going to take five years. We’re in one of the best locations in the state there.”

Fayetteville next?

The theater in Rogers’ Scottsdale Center is considered a “regional theater,” but the company is also considering the construction of a new, similar theater in Fayetteville.

Malco already owns the Razorback Cinema 6 and the Mall Twin in Fayetteville, as well as the Sunset Cinema 9 in Springdale.

Building a new 12-screen theater in Fayetteville would cost between $8 million-$10 million, Tashie said.

“It’s on our radar screen,” Tashie said, noting that the bankruptcy of Regal Cinemas Inc. had left an opening in the Rogers market. “We’re exploring. We’re not close-minded about that … There are a lot of things up in the air. We have to wait until things get resolved in Fayetteville. We love the area. We’ve been there for 60 years.”

Knoxville, Tenn.-based Regal, the world’s largest movie theater chain, filed for bankruptcy protection in October with $2 billion in debt.

Loews Cineplex Entertainment Corp., the No. 3 theater chain after Regal and AMC Entertainment Inc., filed for bankruptcy earlier in 2001 as part of a plan to be acquired by Canada’s Onex Corp.

At the time of the bankruptcy filing, Regal was owned by investment firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts Co. of New York and Hicks Muse Tate & Furst Inc. of Dallas, which owns the Pinnacle Foods plant in Fayetteville.

Philip Anschutz of Denver, who gained control of United Artists Theatre Circuit after its 2000 bankruptcy filing, is expected to take over Regal after the restructuring.

Regal Cinemas operates 3,831 screens at 328 theaters.

Malco History

Malco has a total of about 40 theaters, all of which are located in Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi and Kentucky. In the Northwest Arkansas area, the company also owns the Malco Cinema 12 and Mall Trio in Fort Smith. The only Malco theater in Arkansas outside the northwest quadrant is in Jonesboro, but one is planned for Blytheville. Malco was founded in Little Rock before moving to Memphis.

“We were in every little town in Arkansas before the television revolution of the 1950s,” Tashie said.

In 1915, M.A. Lightman opened his first Malco theater in a small storefront space in Sheffield, Ala. Malco is now a fourth-generation company that has remained family owned and operated for more than eight decades.

Malco built Memphis’ first multiplex in 1971.