Movie mogul: theater chain owner Robert Laemmle has taken family's film roots and love of cinema and turned it into one of the country's best-known art-house operations. (People).

IT'S opening day for "Frida" and from his office above the Royal Theatre in West Los Angeles, Robert Laemmle can glance out his window and see a line of customers for the 4:15 show spilling onto Colby Avenue from Santa Monica Boulevard. The story of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo is one of the year's mostly highly anticipated art house films and Laemmle is pleased with the initial response. Started by his father, this chain of art house theaters has grown from the then-single-screen Los Feliz Theatre in the late 1950s to nine theaters and 39 screens, including West Hollywood's Sunset Five, one of the nation's most successful alternative theater complexes. While overall growth has been choppy, Laemmle points out that the chain is more profitable than ever, in part because it has developed a new business -- as a booking agent for other theaters.

Question: Did you set out to be in the exhibition business?

Answer: No, not at all. I got my master's degree in finance from UCLA and when I graduated I went to work for a bank. My dad only had one theater at the time and it really didn't seem like there was a need for me to be in the business.

Q: So how did you end up in it?

A: I approached my dad with the idea that there was an opportunity for expansion to a second theater and that I would buy in on an ownership basis. I would have a minority interest in the Los Feliz Theatre, plus a minority interest in the theater we were going to develop that at that time was the Esquire in Pasadena. That was in the early 1960s.

Q: What's your relationship to Carl Laemmle, co-founder of Universal Studios?

A: My dad was a second cousin to Carl. My dad, Max, worked for Carl in Paris. He was involved in production and distribution in France. He left Carl's employ while he was in France, and then when we came to this country he went into exhibition in Los Angeles. There was no connection to Universal.

Q: When you say art house product, what does that mean?

A: Basically, international films and American independent films.

Q: You've had a fair amount of growth in the past few years.

A: We have nine theaters now with 39 screens. It's the largest the company has ever been. It's been slow and steady growth. In the past three years, we've opened 17 screens, which has been a huge increase for us.

Q: You don't seem to be in a great hurry to expand. What is your main business objective?

A: Doing a good job. Showing the best films under the best possible conditions that we can. During the past 12, 13 years we've spent a lot of money fixing up theaters and upgrading the presentation.

Q: Many years ago, you used to operate two theaters in Westwood but you lost your leases and moved out. Are you looking to get back into Westwood?

A: Yes. Westwood is an area where the one thing that is truly missing is a multiplex. And I think that type of multiplex should be an art house because the Brain and the Fox and the Avco do a good job with the mainstream Hollywood films but there is an entire community not being served.

Q: You recently started working as a booking agent for other theaters.

A: Yes. Newport Beach, for example, is not a theater that we own or operate. We provide a booking service for 18 screens around the country. We have the customer relationships for obtaining art-house product and we try to select the most appropriate film in a given location.

Q: Where do you see growth potential for your company? In operating more theaters or expanding the booking service?

A: There are growth possibilities in both areas. Los Angeles is an ever-expanding city. We try to expand into areas along the outskirts of L.A. and there are some areas now where I could see something happening. We don't rash and pursue it. If a developer brings a project to us, we consider it. There's been a project brewing in Claremont for seven or eight years.

Q: Your main art house competition is Landmark Theatres. How strong is that competition?

A: We compete for films very strongly. Sometimes they use their power by the fact that they can give a distributor a theater in New York, but they also want the film to play in their theater in Los Angeles. Sometimes a distributor wants the Sunset Five, in particular. If we give them the Sunset Five, they'll let us play the film at our other theaters.

Q: Do you also compete with mainstream theaters?

A: Some of the new complexes, because they have so many screens, they will sometimes have a screen available to play an art house film. That can hurt us quite a bit. We've suffered in Encino because (Pacific Theatres) built the Sherman Oaks Galleria complex, which has really attempted to show the more significant art house films.

Q: There's been a wave of bankruptcies and consolidation in the exhibition business. Philip Anschutz recently took over Regal Entertainment, Edwards Cinemas and United Artists. What's your take on the health of the industry?

A: Obviously there was a lot of mismanagement. They accumulated debt, which can create big problems. They then also built their new multiplexes right on top of some of their older theaters, so they were competing against themselves. And they had leases at those older theaters that still called for healthy rent payments. So what did Chapter 11 provide them? It provided them an easy out for basically stiffing a lot of property owners of these older theaters.

Q: Has consolidation made the industry stronger?

A: No, because some of the companies that bought the other companies are now saddled with the same problem, but they don't have the protection of Chapter 11 to close these theaters. There are still theaters Out there that probably should close.

Q: Any examples of those in Los Angeles?

A: The Grove is a phenomenally successful theater. Do the Beverly Center theaters need to be there any longer? And the Beverly Connection? In Hollywood you have the Arclight Theaters and the Chinese Theatre expansion - what does that mean for the Galaxy? You have similar situations all around Los Angeles. You expect that these theaters will end up closing. It's just a matter of time.

Q: How do you select the movies you exhibit?

A: I go to the Telluride Film Festival every year. That's my favorite festival. I ended up seeing "Frida" there. I saw probably another dozen films there we will play. Sometimes it's the distributor recommendation, or certain director or an actor. There's a variety of things.

Q: Do you see all the movies that play in your theaters?

A: Most, but not all of them. I see about 250 movies a year.

Q: You've seen thousands of films. What are your favorites?

A: It's difficult to narrow down, but I'd say "Battle of Algiers," Francois Truffaut's "Jules and Jim," "Annie Hall" "All That Jazz," and I love Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton.

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Robert Laemmle

Title: Owner

Organization: Laemmle Theatres

Born: 1935, Paris

Education: Bachelor's degree in business administration from Cal State Los Angeles, Master's degree in finance from UCLA.

Career Turning Point: While training to be a banker, temporarily ran family theater business when his parents took an extended trip.

Personal: Married, nine children and stepchildren, eight grandsons.

Hobbies: Plays basketball in recreation leagues.