Entertainment Under One Roof
IPic promises dining, bowling, movies, live entertainment and a lounge all under one roof, in a shopping center environment.
Randall Shearin

After leaving Muvico Theaters in 2005, founder and former CEO Hamid Hashemi was ready for a new challenge. He felt that entertainment concepts for shopping centers were evolving beyond the movies. Well established in the school of retail entertainment, Hashemi wanted to create a concept that was a night out for a sophisticated audience. He wanted to create an environment where customers would have choices, yet save time. His ideas led him beyond the movies and beyond restaurants. This fall, he will debut IPic Entertainment, a new entertainment concept that combines dining, bowling, movies, live performances and lounge under one roof.

Shopping Center Business recently interviewed Hashemi, who serves as IPic’s founder and CEO, from the company’s headquarters in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

A rendering of the café at IPic.

The thought behind IPic is that people still want to leave their homes to have a good time. IPic is part high-end movie theater, part fine dining restaurant, part ultra-chic lounge, part new style bowling alley and part live performances. All the concepts are rolled under one roof that, based on the location, is 45,000 square feet to 65,000 square feet in size. IPic has targeted lifestyle centers and malls with a large amount of nighttime traffic and dining components. Since IPic will primarily be a destination venue, the concept is looking for space located on the second floor at most centers.

The theater component will only have six to 10 auditoriums with plush, luxury seating — 6-foot wide love seats to be exact — with rows 54 inches apart and stadium seating, each row 24 inches higher than the last. Each auditorium could hold 250 people, but with IPic’s seating configuration they will be limited to hold 80 to 100 customers. All of the seating is assigned. There are no concession stands at IPic’s theaters. Each will have multiple bars. And popcorn is free.

“The most common complaints that people have about going to the movies are: popcorn is too expensive, kids are running around in the theater, commercials before the movies and the theaters are too noisy,” says Hashemi. “We wanted to eliminate all of those complaints.”

A rendering of the lobby at IPic.

With the window between theatrical release and DVD releases shrinking (it is currently between 90 and 120 days and many feel it will shrink further over the next year), the movie exhibitors are taking a hard look at what will sell the movie theaters to audiences. There is some talk in the industry of simultaneous release for some movies. When the day of simultaneous release comes, movie theaters will matter even less to studios. The theatrical business today is a $9 billion per year industry. The studios split that revenue about 50 percent with the exhibitors. The DVD business is a $21 billion industry, which doesn’t have to be split by the studio with anyone. With simultaneous release, the studio also only has to market the picture one time, instead of once for theatrical release and again for DVD release months later.

“The day of simultaneous release of movies — on the big screen, on DVD and by download from the Internet to digital device is around the corner — this is the evolution of the theater business,” says Hashemi. “It is the same thing that happened with the music business. The theaters that are more of an experience provider with superior services and amenities will survive. At the end of the day, people do want to go out.”

Rendering of Pinstrikes, the bowling area at IPic.

The bowling component of IPic, called Pinstrikes, is not your league-lanes alley. It is a luxurious environment with a 150-seat bar that surrounds the bowling lanes. Hashemi compares it to other new facilities that are being built around the country but taken up a few notches. Of course, no league play will be allowed. It is designed for open play and corporate events.

A 250-seat restaurant, called Ovation, with food by corporate chef Adam Lamb, is also part of IPic’s offerings. The entrees at Ovation range from $12 to $30. The casual elegant restaurant will be very high design, similar to other white table cloth offerings at lifestyle centers. Also part of the IPic experience will be a lounge/bar, called Sequel, which will contain a full-service bar with light fare. The bar will be high energy, says Hashemi, with an upscale lounge atmosphere. Another venue, IPic Live, will provide space for live performances, such as small concerts and comedy shows just to name a few.

“IPic is meant to be your destination for entertainment,” says Hashemi. “You can watch a movie, watch a live show or go bowl. You can eat, you can drink, or you can just hang out for 4 to 6 hours. By putting all of the concepts under one roof, you can save people time.”

How many times have you been to a restaurant to eat and then haven’t been able to make the movie because of time? This is one of the dilemmas that Hashemi hopes to resolve with IPic. He says the concept is similar to that of a casino — bringing different forms of entertainment dining and clubs under one roof or a lifestyle center where the developer brings all the concepts that appeal to the same audience to the same place; that’s the same idea with IPic but we’ve taken all the entertainment components and put them under one roof and branded them as IPic,” he says.

IPic is designed for young professionals and young families. After 6 p.m., only those 21 and over are allowed at the movie theater. Before 6 p.m., children are allowed to attend movies. Because of IPic’s upscale nature, most children will be with their parents because of the price barrier. The bowling area becomes 21 and over after 9 p.m.

While only a part of IPic is a theater, it is a major component of the venue. “IPic is the evolution of the motion picture business,” says Hashemi. “This is an entertainment destination. The theater component will only generate 25 percent of the revenues.”

Since IPic wants space on the second level, it has designed a dramatic entrance that attracts customers from below. A 60-foot opening grand entrance greets customers as they leave an escalator (IPic does insist on direct access from the escalator). Hashemi says the design of IPic will be superior to the high-end, high design looks that he insisted on at Muvico. Design work for IPic is being done by famed restaurant designer Pat McBride, with architecture by TK Architects and McBride Design. The design team borrowed heavily from the gaming and hotel industries to develop the design of IPic’s venue.

“Think of this as a country club environment where you will see and be seen and go to socialize, make new friends and see old ones,” says Hashemi. “You will have a number of choices of entertainment once you are there.”

Once inside IPic, everything is about the guest. Everything will face the guest and everything is automated. While there will be concierge service in the lobby to assist customers, a kiosk will enable customers to retrieve their movie tickets, which can be pre-arranged online before coming to IPic. There are also areas for guest services, coat check and valet parking. There will be no advertising flashed on the screen before the movies begin. 

“It is a superior level of service,” says Hashemi. “Having no one under 21 sets the tone for the experience.”

The concept is targeting the top 50 markets in the country. The first iPic will be located at Bayshore, Steiner + Associates’ redevelopment of Bayshore Mall, in Milwaukee. That location will open this November.

“That location was driven by the Milwaukee market,” says Hashemi. “Nothing like Bayshore exists elsewhere in the market. Bayshore has already opened to great volumes. Yaromir Steiner knows how to create a sense of place and how to create a great downtown like destination. It makes sense for IPic to be a part of that project.”

IPic has signed deals for locations in Houston, Dallas and Chicago, and Hashemi has numerous other locations on the drawing board. The company plans on expanding at a rate of four to six locations per year.


©2007 France Publications, Inc. Duplication or reproduction of this article not permitted without authorization from France Publications, Inc. For information on reprints of this article contact Barbara Sherer at (630) 554-6054.