Outdoor movie theater to be be built at Oxnard high school

posted by CSWalczak on September 15, 2009 at 10:45 am

OXNARD, CA — A California school district has entered into a partnership with a Texas-based company to build a $1.5 million dollar, 1,000 seat outdoor theater with two giant screens. During the school year, the screens will be used for educational and athletic purposes and then family-oriented films would be screened from May to October. The operation is expected to realize over $400,000 in revenue during the first year of operation from ticket and concession sales, and a million dollars a year subsequently, with profits split between the company and the school district.

The Oxnard Union High School District board Wednesday night unanimously approved plans to allow Texas-based Schlosser Constellation Inc. to build the $1.5 million outdoor theater. If state officials sign off on the project, the theater will include two high-definition, 50-foot-high, 200-foot-wide screens with “IMAX-like” quality, Camarillo High Principal Glenn Lipman said.

The theater would feature reclining seats equipped with outlets for viewers to plug in headphones for sound. It would be built between the varsity baseball field fence and the football field.

Read more in the Ventura County Star.

Comments (8)

danpetitpas
danpetitpas on September 15, 2009 at 11:15 am

Some of the details in this story sound fishy. Why do you need 50'x200' screens? That’s a 4:1 ratio. Movies at the most are 2.4:1. So the screens are the wrong ratio.

How is the school going to use these facilities during school hours? The earliest sunset is 4:45pm in December. School is over by then.

Sounds like a way to operate a drive-in without the cars in the summer and to get the land to build it on for free!

CSWalczak
CSWalczak on September 15, 2009 at 12:05 pm

This site:
View link
shows three sketches of the proposed project and the screens.

KenLayton
KenLayton on September 15, 2009 at 1:50 pm

An outdoor video theater? How could you see anything in the daytime and during school hours?

This sounds like a big waste of money.

CSWalczak
CSWalczak on September 15, 2009 at 2:48 pm

Other websites that discuss this project (put Schlosser Constellation in a search engine to see them) indicate that the projection will digital using Texas Instruments DLP technology.
I have seen digital projection used effectively in rooms with considerable ambient light. I have to believe that someone must have raised the issue about the quality of the daytime projection or the project would not have progressed as far as it has.

richjr37
richjr37 on September 16, 2009 at 1:48 am

Well,obviously,it won’t be used during the day,when school is in session,unless they build a retractable roof so that it can.

Maybe,it’ll only be used for school functions like graduation.

Otherwise…i don’t know.

littlepear
littlepear on October 18, 2009 at 3:41 am

The sketches refer to a “Mission Viejo” High School. Not Oxnard.

CSWalczak
CSWalczak on October 23, 2009 at 10:03 pm

Here’s a follow-up article:
View link

raysson
raysson on November 6, 2009 at 4:33 pm

Your kidding…..

And give count of how many kids will cut class to go the movies…..or do something that is unthinkable.

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