By Luther Turmelle, North Bureau Chief
lturmelle@newhavenregister.com

WALLINGFORD — Summer is traditionally the season of movie blockbusters, and the family-run Holiday Cinemas chain is preparing for the onslaught of patrons by adding three screens at its multiplex theater in the Wallingford Plaza.

Robert LaFlamme and his son, Kevin, who is general manager in Wallingford, are hoping that new screens, which are of being carved out from two empty retail stores, will be ready for showtime in about two weeks.

The goal of adding new screens is to give the LaFlammes more options in terms of mixing big-budget Hollywood films with so-called “art house,” or independent, movies.

“With some of the movies that are out there, you need to run two or three screens at the same time because the run time is so long,” Robert LaFlamme said. “The new ‘Sex and the City’ film is well over two hours.”

Early on a recent day, as the sounds of drills and table saws cutting tile filled the air in the new addition, Kevin LaFlamme said the need to add three screens to a 10-screen theater is an indication of how the movie business has changed.

“It used to be that 10 screens was more than enough,” he said.

Wallingford has seen a pair of movie theaters fail in the past 25 years — the old Center Cinema at 185 Center St., and another venue that was in the shopping plaza where Staples is now on North Colony Road.

Ironically, the North Colony Road location — which was closed in the early 1990s — was owned by LaFlamme and his family-run chain, though they sold the theater to a large chain that ended up shutting it down.

Robert LaFlamme and his business partner, Vinny Gianetto, opened the Wallingford Holiday Cinema Stadium 10 in summer 2005, turning an old Kmart location into an 1,800-seat, multiscreen movie theater. Continued...

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The three new theaters at the multiplex will add about 300 seats to the theater’s capacity.

The theater has been successful enough that the LaFlammes have purchased a major section of the plaza, stretching from their theater to the Big Lots discount store at the northern end, Robert LaFlamme said.

“The town has been wonderful to us in terms of helping us make this happen,” he said. “There were some empty storefronts next to us, and officials in the town saw the value in us making them into something productive.”

The chain’s only other location is in Waterbury.

Contact Luther Turmelle at 203-789-5706.

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