Warner Village to open a luxury viewing complex

Warner Village Cinemas will open today what they hope will be Taiwan's most luxurious and exclusive theaters.

Taiwan's luxury movie theater, Warner Village Gold Class, is located in Taichung's Tiger City mall where the company has operated a regular eight-screen, 2,800-seat Warner Village cinema complex for the past year.

Unlike Warner Village's other ventures around the island, the Gold Class cinema is a 50/50 venture with Tiger City.

The Gold Class complex includes a reception area where customers may dine or order from a menu that includes wines, champagne, beer, cakes as well as meals and snacks. The two full-size theaters respectively hold 30 and 40 patrons, who sit in NT$50,000 red velvet "Lazy Boy-style" seats that can be adjusted to a full recline position. Between each pair of seats is a table with a built-in ice bucket for wine or champagne, served by uniformed staff during the movie.

For the first three months, movie goers will be charged NT$350 per person, with prices rising to NT$400 after April 17. Ten movie-ticket booklets, providing a NT$50 discount per film, will also be offered. Cinema managers say that the facilities can be booked for private and corporate parties, meetings and other events, including KTV sessions.

"We're aiming for a five-star-hotel standard," said Jessie Van Patten, Warner Village Cinema operations general manager. "We believe that customers are willing to pay more for better quality, although we don't want to put prices too high."

Van Patten said that Taiwan was the fourth country to have Gold Class-style cinemas. The concept's 1997 Australian launch was followed by additional theaters in Singapore and Thailand, she said.

"We are confident that there is a good market in Taichung," Van Patten said. "We really hope to open more Gold Class theaters, perhaps in Taipei, Hsinchu and Kaohsiung, but we have to see if it's successful here."

Tiger City chairman Eagle Lai (賴信雄) said that he asked Warner Village for a Gold Class theater after sampling the cinemas in other countries, and praised the venture as a "different lifestyle direction" for central Taiwan residents.

Warner Village Cinemas Co, a joint venture between Warner Brothers International and Australia-based Village Cinemas, operates two regular cinema complexes in Taichung, plus others in Taipei, Kaohsiung, Tainan and Hsinchu.