MOVIES - Nov. 30, 1988

The price of a night out at the movies has gone up again--at least at the Cineplex Odeon theaters in Universal City. When moviegoers travel to the multiplex theater these days, they will find an added feature: unfree parking. Previously, the theater had subsidized all costs for parking. But now patrons must pay half of the $4.50 charge for night parking ($2.25) and half of the $3 ($1.50) for day parking. Citing higher annual operating costs for the parking operators, Garth H. Drabinsky, president and chief executive officer of the Toronto-based Cineplex Odeon Corp., said in a statement: “We (Cineplex Odeon) have no participation whatsoever in revenues collected by the operator of the parking facility and we are resisting any future price increases. We regret the increase . . . and feel the prices are not out of line with those found at the Los Angeles Westwood theaters.”