Tower Theatre Operators To Take Over Broadway Film Centre

posted by Ross Melnick on September 16, 2002 at 11:02 am

SALT LAKE CITY, UT — The Salt Lake Film Society, which currently operates the historic Tower Theatre, has signed a lease to begin operating the Tower’s main rival, the six-screen Broadway Film Centre beginning November 8, 2002.

According to the Salt Lake Tribune, the 3 ½ year-lease will enable the Tower’s operators to expand their operations, something the group had been looking to do for some time. The additional screens will expand the quantity and quality of independent and foreign films currently available in SLC under the film society’s guidance.

The new arrangement will follow the end of the one year lease signed last October by Starship Consolidated Theatres which took over the Broadway Film Centre following its closure by Loews Cineplex as part of that company’s bankruptcy reorganization.

Following a tepid attempt at showing commercial fare, the Broadway switched its schedule in June and is now being operated as an art house cinema by the Rocky Mountain Film Society. That group will now look for another venue to program.

What this means for the future of the Tower Theatre is now anyone’s guess and certainly depends on whether the Salt Lake Film Society re-signs their lease. Built in 1926, the Tower is the oldest operating movie theater in the city.

(Thanks to Grant Smith for the update.)