Countdown on for new Valley movie theater

WASILLA — Valley cinephiles won’t be on the edge of their seats much longer — just two months separate local residents from the opening of the new 12-screen theater next to Wal-Mart.

Speaking Thursday morning from the job site, John Schweiger, CEO of Oregon-based Coming Attractions Theaters said that he was just wrapping up an inspection.

“I just did a walk-through with the fire marshal and he gave us a triple A rating and said that he likes everything that we’re doing,” he said. “This will be a big, nice asset for Wasilla.”

As for when the theater will open, Schweiger said he couldn’t nail down a specific date.

“We are going to be opening in April,” he said. “I’m not ready to say what day yet because I actually don’t know.”

He’s not sure because there’s still quite a bit left to do. On the one hand, it seems like the building is nearly complete — they’re already painting walls.

On the other hand, there are still some big pieces left to accomplish. Such as next week when the 40,000-square-foot building will have its Internet and phone lines installed.

“There’s a lot of things we can’t do until those come in,” he said.

And the seats for the theaters haven’t arrived yet, either. They’re on the way.

“We’ve got 1,700 seats that we’ve got to drills holes for and set anchors,” he said.

He said construction projects like this tend to take a while and are just generally hard to gauge.

“It seems like it goes real, real slow and then all of a sudden you’re finished,” Schweiger said. “We’re going to be extremely busy for the next two months here.”

He said that anyone just dying to know when the theater will open its doors should probably keep an eye on advertisements; the theater is already buying ad space and, he joked, his ad buyers will probably know before he does when the project is due to be completed. Schweiger has nothing but good things to say about local government bodies that worked with him on the project.

“Everybody in the city has just been great to work with, and the borough,” he said. “We’ve had no problems and they’ve been so responsive. It’s not always like that in the Lower 48.”

He said local officials have been much easier to work with than Mother Nature. Back in September he noted that a rainy summer had delayed his opening date since he had to wait longer for concrete to dry. Other Valley weather proved problematic, Schweiger said, joking that maybe he should have asked local officials for help.

“If they could just find the guy that turns on the wind and talk to him,” he laughed.

This will be Coming Attractions’ first foray into Alaska, which before his arrival had been home to just two national theater chains – Cinemark and Regal. Coming Attractions’ website lists 21 theaters in Oregon, Washington or Northern California. The website lists Schweiger as the founder, saying he began the company when he worked to renovate a theater in 1985 in Ashland, Ore.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.