At Emagine Theater with Paul Glantz

Mayor Barnett talks with Paul Glantz,  co-founder and chairman of Emagine Entertainment Inc., and the driving force behind the development and operation of metro Detroit’s Emagine theatres. Listen as they chat about the importance of customer service, having something for everyone, and where Paul sees the movie theater industry heading in the next 5-10 years.

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Transcript

Mayor Barnett
Hi, I'm Brian Barnett, Mayor of the city of Rochester Hills, welcoming you to another exciting episode of Right Down the Street. I know, thank you for joining us. Right down the street has been a wonderful opportunity for us to tell the stories of some amazing people, doing things right down the street, but impacting not only just the greater community here, but folks around the globe.
 
And today, our guest is one of those incredible people who's making a pretty big impact. We're here at the Rochester Hills Emagine theater. And we're gonna be talking with the CEO and chairman of the Emagine Entertainment Group, Paul Glantz. The theaters are a big part of a lot of people's holiday experience. There's some great movies out now, and we're going to get a sneak peek behind the scenes of what makes this such an exciting place. I'm excited to introduce you to Paul Glantz Glantz.
 

So we're here in the Emagine Theater with the chairman and co-founder of Emagine, Paul Glantz. Paul, thanks for having us here. The only time in this month that will be the only people in this theater. But, tell us a little bit about, first of all, thanks for being here.
 
 Paul Glantz
 It's my pleasure.
 
 Mayor Barnett
 And, tell us a little bit about your Rochester Hills location first.
 
 Paul Glantz
Well, Rochester Hills, was a, was really an idea that my then partner, John Goldstein had. AMC, of course, occupied this building prior to, us coming here. And I thought that, the landlord was using us as a lever in order to extract a better rent from AMC. But after a while, they got tired, and they said no, we'll actually do a deal with you. And so we signed a lease. And we opened for business, of course, in December 2010.
 
 Mayor Barnett
 And you have how many theaters here?
 
 Paul Glantz
 Well, when we first started out, I want to say we had ten, and now we're up to 13.
 
Mayor Barnett
Yeah. And this is just one of course, this is your favorite theater, right? You always tell me.
 
 Paul Glantz
 Oh, it is my favorite. This is my home theater.
 
 Mayor Barnett
 This favorite.
 
 Paul Glantz
 And my wife Mary and I come to the show here.
 
Mayor Barnett
You have how many theaters now? Across, several states, right? I mean, the imagine Empire has kind of grown.
 
Paul Glantz
It is. I mean, we're, predominately located here in the Midwest. We're in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin. And, my licensee, John, has theaters under the Emagine brand name in Minnesota. So all in, we have 27 theaters. I'm personally responsible for 15 of those.
 
Mayor Barnett
So before we get into all that, congratulations on all that, growth and success. You probably, well, maybe did you grow up as a youngster going someday? I went on a bunch of movie theaters. Or was that this is a unique career path that, sort of resulted later on in life.
 
 Paul Glantz
 Well, we never know where life takes us, and, I can't tell you that, I knew as a young man that I wanted to be a movie theater mogul, but, my mom enjoyed movies, and I would go to the show with my mom frequently. My dad was not much of a moviegoer, and so I was her date.
 
 And, we went to see, wonderful films that, Nicholas George theaters back then and, yeah, just, sort of evolved. It was a business opportunity that we became students in the industry. And, then we thought we'd make it a real thing.
 
 Mayor Barnett
 That's a great story. A talk about the industry for a minute, because obviously we're here in the month of December. There are some massive holiday blockbusters out now. You and I have both seen wicked, Gladiator. I haven't seen Moana yet. You have. What does that mean? You know, when these when these theaters, these production, groups are putting out these big hits, these blockbusters.
 What does that mean for you? How does that trickle down to your level?
 
 Paul Glantz
 Well, of course, we license films from our Hollywood studios and their new studios as well. Now, like A24 and Angel Studios that are filling the gap because the majors have not provided us with quite the quantity of films we were accustomed to prior to the pandemic. But, needless to say, when they, when they were blockbuster film, it certainly, benefits us because it packs the house and, you know, our fixed costs are substantial, whether it's rent or mortgage payment, utilities, property taxes, manager or labor.
 
 Mayor Barnett
 A property taxes are reasonable here, though, right?
 
 Paul Glantz
 Here they are very reasonable. Yes. I can see other municipalities here in Detroit. Not so much, but, Royal Oak, another thing, you know.
 
 Mayor Barnett
 Nobody watches from Royal Oak.
 
 Paul Glantz
 But, the, but needless to say, we need blockbuster films. We need more films, to be honest with you, to bring people in. And we need, a product that appeals to all demographics. Kids films, romantic comedies, horror films, you name it. We'd like to, have something for everyone. Sure.
 
 Mayor Barnett
 Now, staying with the industry. You've been around for a while. You've seen the industry changed. What do you think are some of the largest things? I mean, you have to obviously stay up with technology. There are all sorts of, competitive forces, that, that are kind of, always existent, sometimes always changing. What does that require you to do as a, as a leader in this industry?
 
 Paul Glantz
 Well, you better keep your eyes open, your ears to the ground. And I don't know if you know this, Bryan, but we were the first in the world. We had three theaters at the time to, actually convert all digital projection. And, we had 46 screens at the time. It was in 2005. And, it was, it was a wise move on our part because the industry was going to get there.
 
 Somebody had to kick it off to light the spark. And, we did that. And of course, we've, innovated with, immersive sound with, you know, enhanced food service, with adult beverages. I mean, it's all about providing our guests with a great out of home entertainment experience. And, we're constantly looking at new technology. And, of course, we're constantly battling indirect competitors like streaming.
 
 Mayor Barnett
 Talk about streaming for a minute, because obviously, even in the last few years, you battled Covid shutdowns, you've had a writers strike. You got the constant, you know, evolving nature of Netflix and streaming. What does that you know, what does that mean to you? What does that you know, I mean, how do you prepare for stuff like that?
 
 Paul Glantz
 Well, you know, as an entrepreneur, you just have to get up every day and be prepared to establish a value proposition in the mind of your guests. And, you know, the truth is that pundits have been forecasting the demise of our industry since the advent of television. And, and yet here we are. We're still, sticking around.
 
 We're surviving. In fact, we're thriving. And, I think it's because we've had we paid a lot of attention to how to enhance the quality and experience. And so, one of the things I'm not proud of is that we weren't the innovators in reclining chairs. We saw one of our competitors do it and triple their attendance. By golly, we did it.
 
 Mayor Barnett
 Now the cuddle chair is your idea because you and I have actually shot some stuff and cuddled. Yes, I know how many people can say they've cuddle with Paul Glantz here at the Emagine Theater. We have the cuddle chair. Is one of your, your thoughts?
 
 Paul Glantz
 I actually am the father of the cuddle chairs. Yes. And and you know, the answer there is. And it doesn't sound very exciting, but I don't care if I put the first row of chairs back 500ft from the screen. Still, nobody would want to sit in the front row. And so the whole premise of the cuddle chairs was to take something wasn't inherently, unsaleable as real estate and make it salable..
 
 Mayor Barnett
 There are lots of teens throughout Southeast Michigan who are grateful for that innovation of the cuddle chair.
 
 Paul Glantz
 I'm sure they'd like it better if it was in the back row.
 But we've them in the front of the front row.
 
 Mayor Barnett
 You know, the, the physical nature. Talking about the physical nature changes in theaters is unique because, you have some theaters that have incorporated, more of a bar scene. You've got bowling, you've got, you know, more of a rental, component to those, how are those doing? And is that sort of where things are heading, or do you think you've you've captured that and now it could be going in a different direction?
 
 Paul Glantz
 Well, I would say that for the most part, we are big believers of sticking to our knitting. We've tried restaurants, we've tried bowling centers, event centers. And to be candid with you, the labor didn't scale the way we were liked. And so it didn't turn out to be as profitable as we would have needed to reward our investor capital.
 
 Paul Glantz
 But, and we opened a new theater just a little over a year ago in Batavia, Illinois, which has a party room just like in Royal Oak. And, the difference is there we have duckpin bowling. And these are, on strings or smaller pins. It's sort of a cross between skee ball and bowling. And the bowling ball doesn't have any holes in it.
 
 It's fun. It's really just a party room is what it is. And it was due to the fact we had space that we couldn't utilize as movie theater space.
 
 Mayor Barnett
 Yeah. Interesting. Talking about the theaters, let's talk about you for a minute. So obviously you've been, an entrepreneur and you've been in the business world for a while. You had a company prior to your, CFO and then the CEO, right, of, and the financial industry, is that right?
 
 Paul Glantz
 Yeah. I was actually in the insurance industry, was a company called Proctor Financial Incorporated, and for many years I served as a CFO. And then, later, I had the privilege of serving as CEO of Proctor Financial. And, that company is still doing well today. I departed about six and a half years ago, and, it enhanced the quality of my life in doing so.
 
 Mayor Barnett
 We're going from sort of the insurance business into the movie business. I'm sure there's some things that carried through, running a business. Obviously, there's, understanding, you know, obviously capital and things like that. But did you what was the most interesting difference between the movie industry and the, you know, in the insurance industry?
 
 Paul Glantz
 Well, probably the way you market yourself. But but, you know, I'd say there's more in common than there's different. So, for example, I think, treating your teammates with respect and, and giving them both the responsibility when you give somebody responsibility you have to give them the corresponding authority, I think that's critically important with your teammates. And then I think all is all business about and government as well.
 It's about taking care of your customer, in our case our guests. And that was my mantra at Procter. It's certainly been my mantra always at Emagine that our job is to serve our customers. In fact, I believe all success in business is born out of serving one's customer effectively. And if you ever take your eye off that ball, you’ll begin to get in trouble pretty quickly.
 
 Mayor Barnett
 We say, and I believe in my industry, in local government, we are absolutely at the core of the customer service business, and always feel like our competition isn't our neighboring communities, but it's people who do customer service well, like Amazon, Nordstrom, and those people that are in the in the, you know, the private sector because people experience that.
 
 And then same with you. I would imagine that you can't, you know, expect great service somewhere and not expect it when you go to your moviegoing experience, you want to have the same sort of, luxury as attentiveness to your, your needs and so forth. That's that's a good approach.
 
 Paul Glantz
 That's why another commonality, I would say, is that we have to engage people who genuinely care about other human beings. You know, there are some folks that are sort of ambivalent about other folks and so forth that doesn't work in our business. You have to care about our guest’s experience. Yeah. Or else you have to succeed elsewhere.
 
 Mayor Barnett
 You talk a little bit about, the marketing, of of a place like this and you yourself, are kind of one of the marketing angles of the Emagine theater. You, at some point, someone decided, maybe it you to put yourself in all the, promo commercials and you're a bit of a D-list, maybe B-list celebrity in metro Detroit. Could you ever have imagined that, when you were working at Proctor, that people would recognize you around town?
 
 Paul Glantz
 No, but it is fascinating, even I've been on vacation in Europe. Well, people have recognized me, and and so, here's this here's a funny story. At Piggly Wiggly, which is a grocery store chain. They, of course, they have a pig face for the mascot. And the saying is, when you see this face, you know you found the right place. That means I am the Piggly Wiggly of Emagine.
 
 Mayor Barnett
 I, I've been places with, with you where, we've done some judging in some high schools and so forth. And you, you're the line to get the picture with you was, I'd say generously, 75 times longer than the line for me. And actually, I ended up just holding the camera and taking pictures of you with all the students that wanted to get their picture with you. Does that bother, Mary at all that, you're kind of this famous guy?
 
 Paul Glantz
 No, no, she actually gets recruited to take the photo sometimes. She tolerates that quite well. I'm glad to tell you. But, it was never really my intention to become a quasi-celebrity. Yeah, but I thought that personalizing the business was a wise decision. And I was born out of meeting a guest who said, wow, this must be owned by some giant media corporation.
 
 And I'm thinking, no, I largely ordered, and, I still guarantee a lot of debt here. And so I felt like, you know, it harkens back to old time television to Detroit. There was Mr. Belvedere, and there was all these guys on TV who would, pitch their products. And if you felt good about Paul, then maybe you'd feel a little better about going, to one of his theaters.
 
 And at the margin, I wanted to folks, to decide, okay, it's not just about what film I'm going to see in the time it's showing, but if there's a choice, this guy seems like a pretty good guy. Why don't we go to his place?
 
 Mayor Barnett
 Here with Paul Glantz, chairman of CEO of, Emagine theaters, you know, speaking of, Paul getting to know Paul and, one thing I think that you do in those is you always thank people, for coming to the to the theater. And I think that's, an important close, for, for any CEO and, probably an understated message, but but when you're not shooting all these commercials or, or checking on your, your various, theaters in various states, what do you like to do?
 
 Paul Glantz
 Well, I bought a boat, and, we live on an inland lake, and so we, we spend some time on the boat. I enjoy traveling. And so, and now I'm blessed to have two grandchildren and nothing better than that. And so, they.
 
 Mayor Barnett
 Are they of moviegoing age yet?
 
 Paul Glantz
 Not quite, but they will be soon. And, and so between, grandchildren, loving wife, great family, boating and, and travel.
 
 Mayor Barnett
 Have a favorite place to travel to or a place you go back to?
 
 Paul Glantz
 You know, we're going to try to get back to the Caribbean this winter for a little warmth. And, I've always been a big fan of Europe, been there several times. So, I honestly, if, if things were to loosen up a little bit, I might, try to do a bucket list and see a lot of other places of this world, too.
 
 Mayor Barnett
 Yeah, yeah. Travel is, an amazing, something I enjoy, and get to do as much as I possibly can. And, well, what advice would you give to people? I mean, obviously the movie industry is, is an interesting one. If someone said, listen, you know, I'm not going to be an actor, but I'd love to do what Paul done and maybe get into the business in some fashion. What advice would you give to somebody who might someday want to own a theater or be involved in this industry?
 
 Paul Glantz
 Be tough to replicate what I did, in my career just because the way the industry is evolved. You know, when I was first involved in the industry, we had a one screen cinema with 265 seats, and, guests would come and show up and say, are you showing the current Batman movie? We said, no, but what you get in two weeks. Oh, very good. We'll come back in two weeks. Now, I think consumers, expect immediate gratification. And so I don't know how you can start out with, with one screen today. And, but I was certainly blessed that, I had made friends earlier in my career, who provided capital to us as well. And it's a very, very capital intensive business.
 
 And so, I would tell you, if you were trying to get started, any business today, try crowdfunding. Find some angel investors. And that's really what propelled us the current day Emagine theater was rooted in two gentlemen that I had known from my days in public accounting. But for their capital, their $465,000 in 1996, we'd have nothing today.
 
 Mayor Barnett
 But what are some of the biggest misconceptions about owning a theater? You know, you know, that, that that people might assume again, because I'm sure it's not as glamorous as it necessarily looks from people that just come here and enjoy a great night.
 
 Paul Glantz
 Well, the number one misconception is that we have a zero cost in our, movie passes. And so, every PTA, every Cub Scout group, every organization wants us to give them passes. And the way it works with the studios right now is you can't accept more than 1% of passes. And then even of that, you have to pay royalties.
 
 And our royalties run, on average, about 60%. So if an average movie ticket is just for easy math, ten bucks, ours is below that, by the way. You're paying six bucks to the studio whether you charge for it or not. So that's one misconception. The other is there's a lot of stuff that's not glamorous here. And and I would tell you, for example, that the janitorial crew is the folks who maintain our venues.
 
 They're more important than I am, because if your floors are sticky or the seats are gnarly, you don't want to go there. And so I want to actually tell you that, the less than glamorous parts of this business are really the most important.
 
 Mayor Barnett
 And, difficult question given where the last ten years have taken us, but projections, what do you think this industry will look like in 5 or 10 years? Any thought on that.
 
 Paul Glantz
 You know, it's a tale of two cities right now. We grew during the pandemic. Our bankers hated it, but we did it anyway. And, and so we had the best year in our history in 23. And we're, we're it looks like we could get there or maybe even surpass a slightly in 24, which would be an amazing turnaround given the first five months of this year, which was supply chain constrained by the strikes.
 
 But I think that this is, going to continue to be a tale of two cities in that for those who've had the inclination and the means to reinvest in their venues and to care for their venues and to continually upgrade them, I think this industry will be around for many years to come. If you are capital constrained or you you're you're you've distributed all your money out to your investors, you're going to be in trouble.
 
 Because guests vote with their wallets and they're not going to spend their hard earned money on a mediocre experience.
 
 Mayor Barnett
 You know, obviously the industry has changed. And, there are lots of things that can happen. But, when people are successful, there's usually some leadership traits and some people that have had an influence, in the leaders life, you're no exception. Who or some of the people in your life that have had a positive impact on you? Either personally or professionally?
 
 Paul Glantz
 Well, I think about my mom. My mom was very hardworking. My mom worked before most moms worked outside the home. And, and so certainly, she was a great influence on me. And so, you know, I've had a, pretty good ability to demonstrate hard work throughout the years. And I think that that's a critical element.
 
 You know, the other thing I would tell you is resilience. I've been told no or you can't, it's not going to work and so forth. And, and you have to find ways to, in fact, make it work. You know, years ago we had problems with our film buy and I, a film buyer told me youcan't fix it.
 
 And at the time I had, accepted investors, capital and said, well, I understand, but if I don't fix this particular film buying problem, I'll never be able to reward the capital. And so I have to try and do better. And so that's a great example of, I think you, I think to be entrepreneur for you have to be highly resilient and you have to, persevere.
 
 I think those are really important characteristics. And I've learned that from, from folks over the years.
 
 Mayor Barnett
 Yeah, yeah, I think that's an interesting certainly. I agree with your perspective on that. This industry, it's fun. Everyone who comes to movies, they're usually there for a night out. It's a it's a it's maybe the best thing that's going to happen to them this week. But behind the scenes there's a lot of challenges, right. There's a lot.
 
 You've got the same challenges finding employment. You've got strikes that you can't control. You've got all sorts of product that you can't control. And yet you're still, required to to deliver an excellent experience. Every time somebody comes.
 
 Paul Glantz
 I say there are a thousand details. And so you're constantly scurrying around trying to make sure every detail is right. And, and it's, almost impossible. But I also have the belief that when we fall off, and we do occasionally, it's our obligation to make it right with our guests is, again, our dedication is strictly to the guest experience.
 
 And and I said this already, but I think all success in business is borne out of serving one's customer. In our case, customer comes first, second, third, fourth.
 
 Mayor Barnett
 Yeah, yeah. Well, speaking of details, one detail I've noticed is that the Slurpee machine is not on yet, and we are going to make this interview last long enough until I can get a cherry Slurpee on the way out.
 
 Paul Glantz
 You know, it's interesting. We're, we're probably.
 
 Mayor Barnett
 Whatever they’re called here.
 
 Paul Glantz
 We're probably going to, change Slurpee vendors because, these machines have not been enough, demonstrate enough reliability to serve all these Frozen carbonated beverages very well.
 
 Mayor Barnett
 You know, listen, Paul, it's, we've been friends for a while. I love the way that you talk about your business, and the way that you, respect the capital investment, of your investors, the way you respect the guests, and the guest experience. I think that's certainly one of the reasons that, you've been successful.
 
 We're really proud to have you and, and Rochester Hills, you've been a great partner. Not just on the movie side, but you're really, philanthropic. You are involved in so many charities. Maybe just speak about that for a minute. This has given you the opportunity to to give back to some causes that are pretty important to you, too.
 
 Paul Glantz
 Yeah. I mean, Bryan, I would tell you that, the communities have been so good to us that the, the least we can do, in my opinion, is to, acknowledge that by being a contributing member of society, not just, and I think that gas feel better about doing business with you when you don't just take from the community, but you give back as well.
 
 And so, you know, there's hardly a charity that calls upon us that we don't, that we say no. And so among our top charities, of course, Mojo in the Morning and his “Breaking and Entering”, helping people who were down on their luck. We're very much involved with “Jay’s Juniors” with Jay Towers here in the metro Detroit area.
 
 We, of course, helped the Salvation Army. For years, I served on the board of Gleaners. I'm still on the finance committee there. And so, you know, we we I'm a big proponent of education. So Mary and I have an a scholarship for accounting students at Wayne State University. We're helping fund the the, MICPAs, Michigan Accountancy Foundation, you name it, we're, we're trying to give back.
 
 Mayor Barnett
 Now, it's a great part of your your legacy and your story here. And like I said, we're proud to partner with you. You've been a great friend of the city, and we always end every podcast with the same question for every guest. You've got no prep for this question. So, it's a two parter. So here we go:
 
 If you could have, lunch or dinner with any individual either live or past first part, who would it be? Well, the second part is equally important. Where would you take them?
 
 Paul Glantz
 I mean, well, I think it would be, fascinating. You talked about perseverance to have lunch with Abraham Lincoln. And, you know, I don't, I'll bet, I'll bet the quality of the food we've got today is superior to what he had at the time. And so we might go to, Capital Grille.
 
 Mayor Barnett
 Okay. All right.
 
 Paul Glantz
 Or one right here in town. Kruse. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
 
 Mayor Barnett
 You know, I could listen, you could Abraham Lincoln. I can get you a table, I promise. All right.
 
 Paul Glantz
 That'd be awesome.
 
 Mayor Barnett
 That's interesting.
 
 Paul Glantz
 Yes. There was a guy who dealt with adversity. I mean, you I can't think of any greater adversity that that, that he persevered through.
 
 Mayor Barnett
 Yeah. Well, a great a great conversation. Paul, speaking of adversity, you know, you you've gone through a lot in the last 3 or 4 years. We're excited that, you know, this holiday season, things look great. Great product in the theater. I'm going to come back. I haven't seen Moana yet, so I'm going to be back to see Moana.
 
 Paul Glantz
 And by the way, by the way, 25 and 26, you're looking better.
 
 Mayor Barnett
 Yeah. You said you got some Marvel products. You got all sorts of stuff coming. So we hope we know that our Rochester Hills folks will be back at the, the Rochester Hills Emagine theater for more moviegoing experiences. Paul, thank you so much for being on the show. We appreciate you. We appreciate all that you do in our community, and we appreciate you, our, very valued listeners for tuning in, to another episode of right down the street where we bring, the great stories of the tremendous people that are doing amazing things in and around the Rochester community, in actuality, right down the street until our next episode. We'll see you soon. And maybe between now and then, we'll see you here at the Emagine Theater.
 
 God bless.