PROFESSOR

Neal Robinson

STUDIO THEME

Twenty-five years after the birth of the "experience economy" and the contemporary consumer's embrace of compelling experiences over products, one would think Film Theatres and Movie Palaces - seemingly ready-made for this shift, would be spatial "all-in." However, in the near now, designers and studios have invested in cinema space with hesitation as "experience" is being throttled. While technology and social change indeed press hard on current operations, ticket price economics most need to be revised to maintain the agency and sustainability of these new spaces. Up to 75% of the ticket purchase price is returned to the film studios. This leaves precious little for local theatre owners, employees, and spatial investment. Thus, on-site "popcorn sales" (concessions) are the real key to design opportunity.

This studio will look to champion "popcorn economics" by interrogating the material and economic potentials of concessions (edible, economical, and phenomenal) as the design driver of a new Cinépolis Movie Palace in Ann Arbor, MI.

Inspired by Herzog and de Meuron's "Sweet Dreams" - sugar-based landscape propositions of 2004, we began to think with our tongues and hands to make sticky, leaky, crunchy, and smooth investigative proposals. We integrated palm oils, milk chocolates, velveteen, and red carpet priorities into new agencies for food space and the culinary reprioritization of the cinema experience.

"We build theatres to sell food." - Luis Olloqui, CEO of Cinépolis Mexico.