Penn Cinema Riverfront is faring well in the early going.
The 14-screen theater in Wilmington is on track to draw 600,000 patrons in its first year, according to owner Penn Ketchum.
Ketchum spoke last week at a kick-off event for WilmFilm, slated for late April. The new film festival will be based in three theaters at Penn Cinema, which is adjacent to restaurants, apartments and condominiums.
Ketchum is confident the cinema complex, which opened two months ago, can attract 750,000 customers a year. That would put it in the top 15 in the region as measured by attendance.
The original Penn Cinema in Lititz, Pa. Ranks in the top 15, despite its location outside Lancaster. The new theater complex features stadium seating that allows an unobstructed view of the screen The theater does not use the conventional box office. Instead, tickets are purchased at self-service terminals or at the concession stand.
Like its Lancaster-area counterpart, Penn Cinema Riverfront features an IMAX theater that will not see nearby competition, Ketchum says. No IMAX complex can be built within 15 miles of another.
Penn Cinema will see another competitor off I-95 in 2014 when theater giant Cinemark opens in 2014 in a complex at the edge of the Christiana Mall property southeast of Newark.
Ketchum said the cinema’s staff has spent the last two months making certain that patrons have a good experience. According to Ketchum, the two Penn cinemas will not resort to discount pricing or other promotions to draw customers.
“We set fair price,” he says, adding that the matinee and evening tickets are competitive with other theaters in the area.
At the film festival kick-off event, Ketchum made a pitch for local businesses to advertise at the Wilmington theater complex.
Unlike large theater chains, Penn Cinema Riverfront wants to focus on local companies and organizations.
The riverfront theater already has a close relationship with the nearby Delaware Children’s Museum, Ketchum says.
While Penn Cinema Riverfront will host WilmFilm,, there are no plans to show independent and documentary films that are mainstay of such events. Ketchum remembers being asked to show a much-discussed film in Lititz that ended up drawing only a few patrons.
Wilmington also has Theatre N, a venue for independent films in downtown, Ketchum says.
