What's the latest theatre to close or open you have heard about?

[Sam Chavez]

John Fithian has left the building .

[Geoff Jones]

Steve's suggestions for the Uptown make me wonder two things:

1) Before the pandemic shutdown, the Seattle Cinerama showed a mixture of new releases and classics and didn't seem to be beholden to the same sorts of release contracts that most cinemas are stuck with.They would sometimes show new releases for just a week, and never seemed to get stuck showing any duds. How were they able to get away with it?

2) Why doesn't the industry push for changes to the release contract structure? Why isn't John Fithian out there campaigning for new paradigms? Over the years, I've seen so many magnificent single-screen theaters go out of business, and in many cases, it seemed to be at least partially because of release contracts. (In the summer of 1993, the single-screen Continental was stuck playing So I Married an Ax Murderer for about 75 weeks.)

If the Uptown is beloved by customers for providing a "massive presentation," but is losing money because it gets stuck showing titles long after they stop drawing crowds (or stuck showing titles that aren't drawing crowds), the idea that it needs a "move-over" house to stick those titles in feels completely ass-backwards. It shouldn't be required to show those titles.

If theaters were allowed to book their screens in whatever way would draw the largest crowds, wouldn't that be good for the industry as a whole?

[Steve Guttag]

I tend to agree that non-profit organization is likely the only way for it to have a future. Any change that would change its front end would so change its character such as to render it non-special anymore. What drew people to that theatre was the sense of the massive presentation. Everything was bigger at the Uptown. The curtain that seemed to keep going and going and going. The balcony seating was also extremely popular.

I would dispute that the likes of AMC not knowing how to run a theatre like the Uptown means that others could not make a successful go of it. They are no litmus test.

What the Uptown really needs for a successful future must include a "move-over" house. Before the super-short release windows, the Uptown could play a movie a VERY long time (over a year in the case of Star Wars), typically months. The Uptown would outgross most ANY theatre on the titles it ran. Maybe not on the opening weekend where a multiplex, like The Egyptian in Arundel Mills could put a title on several screens...but over the run of the title, the Uptown would overtake them and others. However, for less performing movies, via its chain affiliation, it could move titles over to sites like the Wisconsin Ave Cinemas a short distance away and put the next title in. The Avalon has its own small theatre. The Senator in Baltimore has added two screens in addition to its historic one. The Uptown would need such an expansion to allow the historic theatre to thrive (that an movies people want to see...but that affects us all...let's hope that 2023's movie slate lives up to its potential).

But, if the plans cut up the current theatre, it will just be another facade.

[Ian Puffenberger]

The Return of the Uptown in DC?
Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...s-destination/

A rumor I’ve seen is that it’s being taken over by Meow Wolf, an immersive art exhibitor that’s most definitely not a cinema operator.

Sadly the only way it would ever be preserved is via a non-profit, and there are already two non-profit cinemas in the DC area that I know of (Avalon, AFI Silver). Or by a fan with millions in cash to burn, a la Paul Allen with the Seattle Cinerama. There was a community-based proposal to convert part of it into a restaurant and art gallery space and retain part of it as a cinema, but due to space constraints would likely have meant doing away with the huge screen and only preserving a cinema in part of the balcony. Or eliminating half or so of the floor level
seating and preserving the big screen, but with only maybe 200 recliners.

[Martin McCaffery]

The Return of the Uptown in DC?
Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...s-destination/

Opinion Give D.C.’s grand movie palace a Hollywood ending

Editorial Board The marquee of the Uptown Theater in 2001. (Dayna Smith for The Washington Post)
The District last year completed a report on the historic value of the Uptown Theater in Cleveland Park, calling the famous local institution “an excellent example of an Art Deco motion-picture palace with high historic integrity and remarkable longevity.”

Just not quite remarkable enough for cinéastes in and around Washington. The Uptown closed in March 2020, when AMC Theatres, the world’s largest movie chain, pulled out after a run of Pixar’s “Onward.” AMC provided no explanation for the move, though trends in the exhibitor industry didn’t leave too much to the imagination: Chains had long since moved to a multiplex model, the better to provide more options for moviegoers and, thus, fill more seats. The Uptown is a single-screen marvel that has captivated generations of Washingtonians.

“It would be wonderful if someone could make that theater viable financially,” said Donetta George, chair of the board of the Avalon Theatre Project, the group that keeps afloat its namesake two-screen movie house just up Connecticut Avenue from the Uptown.

Any change to the beloved Uptown, which was named a historic landmark last year, is bound to displease the faithful. As AMC’s withdrawal signaled, the theater’s model had sustainability problems. Everyone old enough remembers the glory days of the Uptown — the 1968 premiere of “2001: A Space Odyssey,” the 1993 premiere of “Jurassic Park,” its “Star Wars” coup of May 1977 (dubbed by The Post as “The Movie That Ate Cleveland Park”) and other high-profile moments. Less salient in all the nostalgia, however, is the quotidian reality of sparse audiences dwarfed by an outsize backdrop. In a 2018 oral history of the Uptown in the Washington City Paper, journalist Chris Klimek recalled going to a 10:30 p.m. screening of “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” then the top movie in the country. “I counted 11 people in the audience, about the same number I remembered counting when I’d bought a ticket for the 40th anniversary re-release of ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind.’”

More than three years into the idleness of the Uptown, what does a successful outcome look like for this cultural treasure? And what’s going on with it, anyway?

“I hate to see any movie theater close,” Ted Pedas told The Post’s Paul Schwartzman after AMC Theatres pulled out. “It’s in your blood. I love that theater.” Pedas and his brother, Jim Pedas, were the building’s owners but passed “much of their interest” to Ted Pedas’s children. Also on the Editorial Board’s agenda


1/5

To save the Uptown, the Pedas family spent many of the covid lockdown months considering its transformation at a time when movie theater operators weren’t looking to sign leases. “There was some exploration during the pandemic — what would it take to make it into a multi-screen” complex, said commercial real estate broker Bill Miller, who represents the Pedas family concern.

The answer to that question was: Way too much money. “It just — it wouldn’t pencil out,” said Miller.

Opened by Warner Bros. in 1936, the Uptown’s Depression-era architecture features descending floors, a cavern of open space and design anomalies delightful for hipster movie buffs — though anathema for anyone seeking to retrofit the place for a multiplex or other uses. The mezzanine, for instance, is a hodgepodge of slopes and step-ups that would complicate any attempt to ensure ADA compliance under a new occupant. Monthly rent for the building is around $30,000. In attempting to renovate the more than 18,000-square-foot structure, “you can get to $10 million in a second,” said Mr. Miller.

Facing the infeasibility of a multiplex renovation, the building’s owners last fall listed the property for lease. At least one of the resulting proposals laid out a plan to preserve the Uptown’s character. Emily Lenzner, who grew up in the neighborhood, drafted a blueprint for the Uptown Center for Arts & Film — a movie theater surrounded by a restaurant, entertainment space, a smaller theater space, a catering kitchen and other amenities, as DCist reported.

Ms. Lenzner’s solution is akin to what concerned citizens cooked up for the Avalon, which closed in 2001. They created a nonprofit organization to fund operations via donations and revenue from programming and other sources.

The Uptown’s owners considered Ms. Lenzner’s plan but informed her that it didn’t make the final cut. According to an email sent by Ms. Lenzner to her supporters and reported by PoPville in March, the owners indicated that they’d signed a “letter of intent with an ‘arts/theater group’ that they believe ‘will change the course of the Uptown and the neighborhood.’” Mr. Miller won’t disclose details of what’s to come but said that one of the uses for the space is in the “projected arts realm” and “something that you can’t do on your big-screen TV at your home.” He’s hoping that a deal will be announced this summer.

It’s unclear what group is poised to serve as the next custodian of the Uptown. What is clear is that in a town that hosts some of the country’s foremost cultural centers and associations — such as the Smithsonian, the Library of Congress, the Motion Picture Association, as well as deep-pocketed benefactors who might enjoy a legacy tied to something as prestigious as the Uptown — there’s little excuse for failure.

A win for the Uptown at this point is any sort of arts venue that attracts people. Many people, preferably: Cleveland Park, after all, has distinguished itself for vibrancy-killing NIMBY actions that have reduced it to also-ran status among D.C. neighborhoods. It could use some bustle.

[John Eickhof]

AAAAAAHHHH! great news! now if I can get to Seattle for a transplant, I can visit the big screen again! Last show I saw was when Paul ran How The West Was Won, years ago!

[Sam Chavez]

Best opening news I've heard in a long time. I've been going there since the '80's and stayed at a hotel in this hood ever since to make it easy to go there. Interestingly there is an issue with keeping the "Cinerama" name.

[Geoff Jones]

SIFF taking over the Cinerama is the best exhibition news I've heard in a very long time.

Prior to the shutdown, it was the only U.S. cinema (afaik*) that got everything right.

• Regular showings of new releases.
• Frequent showings of classics.
• All on an immersive 60+ foot wide screen (except Cinerama showings every few years, which were on the deeply curved 90' wide screen).
• Top-of-the-line audio and projection technology (both old and new).
• Comfortable seating with unobstucted sight-lines.
• Excellent auditorium acoustics.
• Proper screen masking.
• No pre-show ads.

And judging from the seating charts at the time, the 800-seat auditorium was regularly "full" if not actually sold-out.

Based on their press release, it sounds like they intend to operate the theater the way it was operated before, sans the "Cinerama" name. Fingers crossed!

* If another cinema is meeting those criteria, I'd love to hear about it.

[Jim Cassedy]

Well here’s some welcome news! Seattle International Film Festival has
acquired the Seattle Cinerama and plans to reopen it later this year. .

I hope the new owners flatten out that nasty curve they've got in their screen. ..

[Scotty Wright]

Well here’s some welcome news! Seattle International Film Festival has acquired the Seattle Cinerama and plans to reopen it later this year maintaining its 35mm and 70mm capabilities!

[Steve Guttag]

The 3rd location for Warehouse Cinemas, Rotunda (Baltimore, MD) has now opened. It is at the same location as the former Cine Bistro. There are 7-screens. Warehouse Cinemas change the exterior and did extensive lobby changes to be more consistent with their style of cinemas. The theatres themselves received minimal changes other than electric, heated, recliner seats. This is the first site for Warehouse Cinemas to have "stadium seating." As such, it does not feature any of their patented "SkyVue" screen systems.

This is just the 1st phase of their renovation plans but there is no ETA for the next phase.

https://rotunda.warehousecinemas.com/home/

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[Jesse Skeen]

In Davis, CA, where I worked for 9 years, the newer theater on G Street originally called "Signature Stadium 5" has abruptly closed having opened February 14th 1999. When I first saw the plans for it I really wanted to tell them "don't do it"- there were only 5 screens while other companies were opening places with 16, and each had fewer seats than the smallest at the Holiday Cinema, opened in 1989 and remaining open now. Additionally all screens were pitifully small and top-masked for scope making them even smaller, and policy was to have the masking go up for the stupid ad slides in between showings. An older single-screen theater (which is now a Raising Cane's Chicken) closed the day before this one opened- I didn't buy the argument that single-screens weren't viable but a 5-screener was. I felt this was a very bad move by the company and one of my main reasons for leaving in 2000 (they were then bought out by Regal a few years afterwards.)

No word on what will happen to the site now. Since the screens are the wrong ratio, I wouldn't want to buy it.

[William Kucharski]

PLEASE POST LINKS TO ANY AUCTIONS of CINEMA EQUIPMENT. THX.

Does it have to be THX or is any equipment OK?

[Martin McCaffery]

It appears the Eastdale Mall 8 Cinemas (Montgomery, AL) have closed again, as of 4/3/23. Comscore has them listed as Temporarily closed, but there they've been deleted from the GQT website, and their facebook page says they are closed. Their phone number rolls over to corporate.
They never did enough business to support themselves. The one time I went they had 1 person working the whole show, and she spent most of her time delivering nachos to her boyfriend in the theatre I was in.
Mostly they existed because the group that bought the mall also bought Quality Theaters. I assume the kept the theatre operating to appease the other tenants in the mall.

[Chris Haller]

Regal closed down Regal Greece Ridge Stadium 12 in early March over here in Rochester after rejecting the terms of the lease in hopes that the landlords would flinch and give them a better deal. It was part of that group of 39 closures that got announced in January.

It was a decent theater in its day, but its been largely neglected as cinema trends shifted towards premium theater formats and the Greece Ridge Mall has declined. I never had much to say about seeing movies there except that it felt moderately dated. I was sad to see it go, more for the loss of 12 screens in the region, and for the loss of a West Side movie theater.

Now it seems they're coming for Regal Henrietta Stadium 18 as well. They announced a sudden closure last Thursday for Sunday, April 16th. I suppose it brought the landlord back to the table, as they've staved off closing until Thursday, although they did tell all RCC and Regal Unlimited Club members an email saying it was closing on the 16th. If it goes, it will essentially declare Regal's exit from the Rochester region; they'd have one left in driving distance, though its attached to a mall that's 30 minutes away and outside of Monroe County.