Alaina St. Clair lives in Renton. But she doesn’t go to movies in Renton. She calls the city’s theaters old and “kind of nasty.” She and her daughter Chanel, 4, made an exception Wednesday. Instead of catching a movie at their usual spot, downtown Seattle’s ritzy Pacific Place shopping mall, the pair headed to the new Regal Cinemas at The Landing, officially called Regal Cinemas The Landing Stadium 14.

“It’s nice,” the 18-year-old Alaina says.

Wednesday, exiting the theater. “It’s nicer than the other ones in Renton … I hope they keep it up.”

Regal Cinemas at The Landing officially opened Friday. But the theater was open Monday through Wednesday for discounted movies, popcorn and soft drinks. Proceeds during each of these days benefited a local charity. Thursday night was the theater’s Grand Opening Gala Event.

A small group of moviegoers line for tickets at the box office Wednesday afternoon. Inside, a few others wait at the concession stand for popcorn and soft drinks. Meanwhile, customers clutching half-full popcorn bags and empty Coke cups trickle out of the theater.

Robbie Arrington watches the scene. Arrington is Regal’s marketing manager for the west region.

“It’s been busy. But it’s not been slammed busy,” he says of Renton’s new theater.

He expects crowds to increase next weekend, the release date of “High School Musical 3: Senior Year.”

“That’s going to be huge,” Arrington says.

The party room at Regal Cinemas at The Landing is ready for that release. A “High School Musical” tablecloth, mock cake and cups cover the table.

Crowds should stay huge for “Bolt,” a Disney movie in Real D 3D (digital three-dimensional) coming out Nov. 21.

“That’s going to be our sort of ‘Wow’ holiday film,” Arrington says.

Crowds at Regal Cinemas at The Landing should also increase as The Landing’s empty stores fill. Regal is one of the only open businesses at its end of The Landing, on North 10th Place.

“I think a lot of people don’t know we’re open yet — there’s not much open in this part of the plaza,” Arrington says.

In front of the theater, a temporary sign directs the hungry to Red Robin. But that’s the only open business within sight. Across the plaza, an empty storefront awaits a tenant. Overhead, apartments rise.

But like the rest of The Landing, North 10th Place is readying for more business. In the courtyard outside the theater, a man is preparing for that business by polishing the glass of a new fireplace stoked with concrete logs.

Even with few nearby businesses open, Regal Cinemas at The Landing draws crowds simply with its looks. Rising above The Landing, the Regal crown-topped spire is visible approaching the theater from Northeast Park Drive.

Encircled with neon stripes of red, blue and yellow, the building’s outside looks not like a theater but a space station.

Inside is more neon — piping around the ceiling, around words advertising concessions, games and movies. Murals color the walls. The tile floors are striped, and the carpet is a swirl of shapes. Flat screen monitors are everywhere — there’s 10 above the concession stand, showing Coke cups filling with soda, popcorn popping, pizza and hot dogs. There’s even a flat screen flashing trailers and advertisements above the bathrooms.

“It’s about entertainment,” Arrington says of the lobby’s decoration. “It doesn’t have to be dull. Entertainment should start when you get out of your car. All the neon, the movie paraphernalia, the posters, should get you excited.”

The theaters should get you excited, too. Regal Cinemas at The Landing has 14 of them, ranging from about 100 to 350 seats. The smaller theaters have smaller screens. But none of the screens are small.

The screen in the 100-some-seat Theater 11 fills the far wall, as do the screens in the 350-seat theaters 8 and 9. To allow for bigger screens, Arrington says smaller theaters are now built shorter instead of narrower.

Several rows of little-kid faces gawk up at Shrek’s green face flickering across the screen in Theater 11. Down the hall in Theater 8, an older crowd watches Anne Hathaway and Steve Carrell flipping over red laser beams in “Get Smart.”

Both of these theaters have stadium seating, with two sections of chairs separated by railings and a wide, middle path. Both theaters also have thick-padded rocking chairs with movable armrests with cupholders. And plenty of legroom, especially in the rows designed for wheelchair users and the disabled.

Seen from the top level, Theater 9 is massive — a modern coliseum. Moviegoer heads speckle the upper deck, facing the guns and soldiers in “Iron Man.” One white head is barely visible far below in the lower deck.

Every movie in the 14 theaters is projected from two rooms. The projection rooms. The two long, narrow rooms are filled with equipment: three-tiered towers of platters, around which the films spin and feed into the projectors. The films rewind themselves, an improvement from earlier years. But films are still made of film. Ribbons of the stuff run from the platters to the projectors, a surprising sight in this digital age.

Arrington says those ribbons of film will disappear next year, when the studios switch to digital. Regal Cinemas at The Landing and other theaters will bring in new equipment when that conversion happens.

Arrington has helped manage more than 200 theater openings for Regal. All the theaters blend. But he says he likes the new Regal Cinemas at The Landing. The new Renton theater is the newest Regal design. That means exit doors on the side of each theater instead of down front by the screen, and easier employee access to storage spaces. The Renton theater has 60 part-time employees and 10 managers.

“I like it,” Arrington says of Renton’s new theater. “Everything keeps evolving. It’s fun to come in and see what changes.”

Arrington lives in Knoxville, Tenn. But he guesses the new Regal Cinemas at The Landing is the nicest theater around — certainly in Renton.

Regal’s other Renton theater, Regal East Valley 13, built in the mid 1990s, will now show second-run movies. Matinees will cost $3. Regal’s competitor, AMC, runs AMC Renton Village 8. But Arrington says that smaller, older theater is “not a competitor of this caliber.”

Suzanne Dale Estey says the lease for AMC Renton Village 8 is up in November 2009. Dale Estey is the City of Renton’s economic development director. She says the city hopes AMC Renton Village 8 remains a successful theater. But if not, the city would like the theater developed into something else.

“There’s only room for so many (movie theaters),” Dale Estey says. “But it’s a growing city, so maybe there’s room for three.”

Alaina and Chanel St. Clair plan to head back to The Landing for movies. The pair live in new condos at Gene Coulon Memorial Beach Park, so The Landing is much closer than Pacific Place.

Chanel enjoyed “Space Chimps,” the movie she and her mom saw Wednesday. Alaina doesn’t have much to say about the film Wednesday.

“It’s a movie about monkeys,” she says.

Emily Garland can be reached at emily.garland@rentonreporter.com or 425-255-3484, ext. 5052.

Check us out on the web at www.rentonreporter.com