This is not a movie theater," said Jim Lee, vice president of marketing and advertising at IPic Entertainment, the Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based company that will operate the entertainment center at Bayshore. "We are an entertainment venue much more so than a movie theater."

The 38,000-square-foot IPic center aims to offer a one-stop destination for people looking for a night on the town, Lee said Tuesday.

The Glendale location, now under construction, will be the first of six centers that IPic plans to open over the next two years in Wisconsin, Texas, California, Illinois and New York.

IPic Entertainment was founded by Hamid Hashemi, former chief executive officer of Muvico Theaters, a Florida-based theater chain. The Glendale project will be on Bayshore's upper level near the main rotunda, across from Bar Louie.

The six-screen IPic theater will have seating in the form of 6-foot-wide love seats. It also will use digital projection, which is designed to offer a clearer picture, and the movies will be presented without pre-show advertisements.

Tickets, expected to be priced at $15 to $16 for evening shows, will include popcorn and valet parking in an adjacent parking structure. All moviegoers will be assigned a seat number, and after 6 p.m., all guests must be at least 21. Matinee shows, at lower prices, will be open to people younger than 21, Lee said.

The entertainment complex will include the 200-seat Ovations restaurant, and the 120-seat Sequel bar. Ovations will offer what IPic calls "casual chic dining."

The Pinstrikes bowling center will have 11 lanes, where bowlers can lounge on plush couches and sip champagne while contemplating the challenges of the 7-10 split.

"The bowling area will be more like a nightclub," Lee said. "We have put a significant amount of money in the video and sound system in the bowling section to make it a very alive and exciting location."

Perhaps the closest thing to the IPic center in the Milwaukee area is Marcus Majestic Cinema, which opened in May in the Town of Brookfield.

The 16-screen Majestic doesn't have a bowling alley. But it does include two theaters with 72-foot-wide screens, known as UltraScreens. UltraScreen shows cost extra: $9.50 for the regular seats and $11 for premium seats grouped in the upper rows, including two areas that resemble opera boxes. Tickets for the Majestic's other theaters are $9.

The Majestic features the AT&T Palladium, a theater that doubles as a venue for live events. The Palladium offers meals and drinks with tableside service. The Majestic also has the Take Five Lounge; a coffee shop and ice cream parlor; and a cafe serving made-from-scratch pizzas.

The strategies behind the Majestic and the IPic center are similar: provide a variety of entertainment, dining and drinking options under one roof. Customers stay longer, and spend more.

The initial response to the Majestic "has been extremely positive," Marcus Corp. said in its annual report, filed recently with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Marcus, which operates the dominant theater chain in southeastern Wisconsin, is considering ways to duplicate the Majestic's "food and beverage strategies" in several of its other cinemas, the report says.

But another attempt to offer a high-end theater, at Mayfair Mall, failed.

General Cinema in 1999 opened an 18-screen cinema at Mayfair, in Wauwatosa. It included two small auditoriums with large leather chairs, an attached restaurant, alcohol beverage service, free popcorn and ticket prices of $12 or more. Just 17 months later, General Cinema closed the two premium-priced auditoriums.

General Cinema and several other theater chains later went through bankruptcy proceedings after an industrywide building binge that saw supply outrun demand. The Mayfair cinema is now operated by AMC Entertainment Inc., which reopened the closed auditoriums but did not bring back the sit-down food-and-beverage service.