Uncover the layers of Great Escape Theatres owner Anne Ragains and you will see why she has the distinction of being “the” industry mogul among her competitors. Her sweet, unassuming smile and soft-spoken voice might lead you to think otherwise. Unmatched in her level of success, Ragains’ story is almost as interesting as any movie you will see on the big screen.
Raised on a farm outside of Valeene, Ind., this small town girl already had her life figured out. The plan was simple: go to college, get a degree, become a teacher. And that’s exactly what she did. A graduate of Indiana State University, Ragains taught elementary school for eight years, but her mother — a realtor at the time — had other plans for her future. “My mother came into my classroom one day and said, ‘I am tired of splitting my commission, the test is Saturday. Take it. You are going to get your brokers license,’” recalls Ragains.
As a favor to her mother, she took the test, thinking it wouldn’t materialize into a career. But after a summer of selling real-estate, Ragains’ paychecks looked better than she expected. “I could make in two months what I was making as a teacher,” she says. So after a year of teaching part-time, she made the switch to real-estate, selling land to investors throughout the country. But when selling land became too strenuous, Ragains opted to buy investment properties instead. Ragains’ entrepreneurial streak continued to grow when she acquired and revitalized Telemessaging Inc., an answering service, in 1990. The company is headquartered in New Albany and services Kentucky and Indiana.
The self-made woman had nailed down a spot for herself in the corporate world, but she wasn’t quite satisfied. “I was thinking about what I could do, because I have a short attention span,” she recalls with a laugh. “I thought: ‘This town needs a movie theatre.’” At the time, the advent of stadium seating had gained momentum in the industry, but Indiana theaters did not have this feature. The advantage of stadium seating, says Ragains, is that it allows patrons to watch a movie without obstruction.
She viewed it as her window of opportunity, but when she asked banks for a loan, investors balked at the idea based on what they perceived as her “unfamiliarity” with the industry. “When you go from teaching to real-estate to building a movie theater, the banks are a little hesitant.” She added, “For the first movie theater I built, I asked to borrow $2.5 million dollars and the thought was: ‘you are going to ask for this much money for a business that you have never gone into before?’”
Many theaters, she notes, were filing for bankruptcy because they were locked into long-term lease agreements on non-stadium seating, which put them at a disadvantage with first run theaters that had stadium seating. And as a result, banks became more hesitant to invest in a shaky industry. “The challenge was convincing and showing them that the reason for this (bankruptcy) was the advent of stadium seating.” But it was clear to Ragains that it would take much more than a silver tongue to convince investors of her credibility.
Determined to build a theater, she took a chance that would have been the equivalent of financial death to most entrepreneurs. Ragains pledged all of her assets — including the telemessaging business — to the bank and said: “I really believe I can do this.” Cool and confident in her stance, Ragains personifies the old adage: “quitters never win and winners never quit.” She says, “It was quite a gamble, but I always say that I really don’t gamble, I just take very calculated risks.”
The calculated risk paid off handsomely, quickly launching her into corporate stardom. Ragains’ company, which is called Aliance Entertainment, has morphed into 20 locations throughout the country including five in Indiana. Steve Menschell, vice president of operations for the company, isn’t surprised by Ragains’ tremendous strides: “When she built her first theatre in Bedford Ind., everyone told her she was crazy and that she would probably not succeed, but seven years later she became the owner and CEO of one of the fastest growing theatre chains in the country.” He adds, “She is on top of the figures like someone who runs a Fortune 500 company.”
Ragains, who has theaters located in Chicago, Houston and West Virginia, expects to open another in Atlanta next month. And here are some other impressive facts: the theater chain has 650 employees with annual receipts totaling $60 to $70 million. “We could go into any market and have any competitor there and as long as we built stadium seating against them, we could control the market,” says Ragains. In addition to stadium seating, the amenities add another dimension of enjoyment to her theaters. Each one has a party room, game room, 16 wide screens, known as megaplexes, with digital sound and deluxe seats called high back rockers.
So how does she manage to keep her finger on the pulse of the industry and do it so well? Ragains says she does not have any hard and fast rules that she goes by. Business plans as she describes it, are “foreign” to her, but when it comes to having a knack for running a business, she gives all the credit to her mother. “Mom was one of the hardest working women but also probably the brightest person I had ever seen in structuring deals. A modest woman, Ragains would rather give everyone else, especially her 11-person staff, accolades before taking any well-deserved pats on the back. “I have always said that I am not that smart of a person but what I have been lucky about is that I have surrounded myself with some very capable people.”
Or maybe another part of her success is attributed to the fact that Aliance Theatres, named for her son Chance and daughter Alicia, is a family business. Chance, 25 is responsible for information technology and oversees site selection, while Alicia, 29 handles payroll for the company. Ragains feels like it is the perfect fit for her. “I am very lucky with my family in that they have been raised with a very good work ethic and their integrity is above reproach.” She adds, “Some people think: ‘oh my gosh, you’ve got your kids working with you…that has got to be a nightmare. And it can be a nightmare in the sense that they don’t hesitate to tell me exactly what they think, but I am very lucky because it is hard to find people you can really trust and dep/files/storyimages/on.”
But while the long days and late nights in and out of the office can be stressful, Ragains still manages to keep morale afloat for herself and her employees. Last fall, the company opened three theatres in 40 days — one in Ohio, Illinois and West Virginia. “Everybody was saying, ‘I can’t handle this and I would just say, ‘guys, get through this and the rest will come.’” She hasn’t been wrong yet.
Community Outreach
Although she is enjoying financial success, Ragains never misses a chance to connect with the community. Aliance Entertainment’s summer camp allows kids free admission into the movies two days a week. The purpose, says Ragains, is to reach out to children who can’t afford to go to the movies. Additionally, the company offers kids’ shows and scholarships to local youth. “I think the difference between a business merely maintaining and a business excelling is that you have to find one thing that sets you apart. If we can offer our patrons something a little different, if we can give back to the community it certainly serves us well.”
The Future of Movie Theatres
With the arrival of DVD’s, some believe it has hurt the movie theatre industry. But according to Ragains, second-run theatres (or smaller theatres) have experienced a profit loss because of competition with larger theaters like hers. “The same thing was said when VHS and cable came out…with the megaplexes, we can hold a film for months until it goes on DVD or VHS. In the past, it went to the second-run and then to video.” As for Ragains, the preoccupation of the business keeps her away from the theatres, but she still loves movies. What is her favorite movie? “Braveheart because it was about a person of tremendous integrity who believed in a cause and fought for that cause and laid everything down on the line for that.”
Tiffany White is assistant editor for Today’s Woman magazine.
