Spanish-Subtitled Films Are Unique Hits at Plant 16 By SHELLY GARCIA Senior Reporter Como se dice “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”? Patrons at Mann Theatres’ Plant 16 in Panorama City can probably answer that question, if they’ve gone to one of the Spanish-subtitled versions of the latest Warner Bros. hit release. The multiplex, which opened about three years ago, has adopted a strategy of showing some of its first-run, American releases with Spanish-language subtitles, a move that has proven especially successful in the heavily Latino community where the theater is located. “It’s one of our most trafficked theaters,” said Rana Matthes, vice president of film and marketing at Mann Theatres in Encino. “It does really well.” Matthes, who estimated that Plant 16 ranks either No. 1 or No. 2 in the company’s chain, said Mann typically devotes one screen to a Spanish-language version that also shows on another screen without the subtitles. The theater is the only one of the Mann chain that gives viewers the option of seeing the films with Spanish-language subtitles, and one of only a handful of theaters that use the strategy citywide. Most of the others are older theaters that converted to multiplexes recently. “The theater does great,” said Jeff Goldstein, executive vice president and general sales manager of Warner Bros. Pictures. “It probably does best of all the eight or nine Spanish-subtitled theaters in Southern California.” Warner is among the most active studios when it comes to making its films available with Spanish subtitles. “We make almost every family or action film available with subtitles,” said Goldstein, noting that Southern California is the largest market for Spanish-subtitled, first-run films. The others include New York, Southern Florida and Texas. Perhaps surprisingly, operators say they don’t see a growing demand for Spanish-subtitled films either, despite the rise in the Hispanic population. One reason is that so much of the Hispanic population here is bilingual. But at least part of the reason may also be the consolidation of theaters and the rise of the multiplexes, which tend to draw regionally, making it more difficult to cater to a specific segment of the population. Unlike many new multiplexes, Plant 16 is located in an area where the vast majority of the population is Hispanic. “They’ve been doing well in that theater, and that has come as a result of them making some inroads in the Latino community,” said David Nagel, president of Decron Properties Corp., the owners of The Plant, which also includes a shopping center. But even at Plant 16, demand for Spanish-subtitled films is limited. Plant 16 officials initially opened the theater with subtitled versions of every film available, but eventually learned that audience demand was limited to family fare. “The teenage films tend to do better in English and we do family films with subtitles,” said Matthes, “‘Harry Potter’, ‘Santa Clause 2’. We’re opening ‘Treasure Planet’ with subtitles on Nov. 27.” Matthes estimated that Spanish-subtitled films gross about half the sales that non-subtitled versions take in. Pacific Theatres’ Commerce 14 in the city of Commerce shows Spanish-subtitled versions when they are made available by the studios. In recent weeks, that has included “Harry Potter,” “8 Mile,” “I Spy” and “Ghost Ship.” “The demand is equal, if not better, for the subtitled versions as it is for those that are not,” said Ted Mundorff, vice president of film for Pacific Theatres in Los Angeles. Years ago, the Commerce theater ran Spanish-language films, but Mundorff said the theater changed its fare as the community became more bilingual. “This is the best of both worlds,” he said. Some speculate that the interest in Spanish subtitles is due to the tendency in many Hispanic families to include several generations in recreational activities. The subtitled films allow older generations or newer immigrants, who may not be proficient in English, to enjoy the same pastimes as other family members for whom English has become the language of choice. Those same reasons have made dubbing films into Spanish a far less successful alternative, operators said.
