Renovated Art-House Cinemas Turn Profits Theaters Now Feature Stadium Seating, Latest Technologies

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Good news for grown-up movie fans: Hollywood is learning that there's money to be made in "art" movies as well as mega- blockbusters.

As a result, the art-house cinemas, long associated with sticky floors, sprung seats, and dodgy sound systems, are being reinvented. Newly built or renovated art houses are getting "all the bells and whistles in terms of the latest technologies," including stadium seating and digital sound, says cinema executive Leonard Schein.

But the new technology is being complemented with a different set of amenities to help draw older, more sophisticated viewers, "who might not feel as comfortable with the noise and excitement" at a new-wave …