Market Street Cinema
1077 Market Street,
San Francisco,
CA
94103
1077 Market Street,
San Francisco,
CA
94103
9 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 75 comments
Fun Fact - Camelot (1967) played the Coronet for 39 weeks
Both The Alamo (1960) and My Fair Lady (1964) opened 70mm reserved seat engagements at the the 2 Geary Blvd theaters, the Alexandria and Coronet respectively. My Fair Lady ran 50 weeks.
Jamey_monroe45: “The Exorcist“ first run played Northpoint.
THIS was the place to go for WB movies before video and multiplexes!
Camelot, Dirty Harry, Virginia Woolf, Daisy Clover, My Fair Lady, Sweet Charlotte, Fanny, The Alamo and many others!
Fun fact: The Exorcist and The Enforcer would’ve played here…
THE ENFORCER WAS FILMED BELOW THIS THEATRE AT THE BART TRACKS IN 1973!
True story! 🤩🤩🤩
Michael, thanks, I’ve heard of the Philly policy. I’ve been to El Capitan, but I didn’t remember its prior names.
Howard:
1) MW = “Man in the Wilderness” and it was only on opening day per the Philly policy back then of overlapping the outgoing movie’s final day with the incoming movie’s opening day. (There is a legend for the co-hit abbreviations at the beginning of the article’s theater listing on Page 2.)
2) No, it’s 6838 Hollywood Blvd. Currently known as El Capitan.
Michael, re Dirty Harry, Philadelphia’s Fox listing with MW. What’s MW? Also was Hollywood Loews the one at 6764 Hollywood Blvd?
Here’s my 50th anniversary retrospective on DIRTY HARRY, which includes a historian interview and state by state listing of hundreds of its first run theatrical bookings (including this one).
It was 50 years ago today that DIRTY HARRY premiered here. Here’s the link to a TV news report of the premiere event.
Hello-\
to cjwin- thanks for the reply. when I first visited S.F. the Spring of 1980 the St. Francis was showing double bills of studio films after they had exhausted their 1st runs wherever said runs may have been.
being a native New Yorker I find it fascinating that even when the Times Square area was in its as I put it “very colorful” period it didn’t effect the viability of the big 1st run movie theaters. a similar period for Market St. did the exact opposite.
bigjoe59- I can’t be certain, but my current best estimate would be that the last Market St. address to show “first run” films would likely have been the Saint Francis + Baronet, @ 965 Market St. I’d think that it would be more-likely there, than Market St. Cinema (definitely done by 1986), Strand, or Egyptian (now “Crazy Horse”). Of course, local contributer Mr. Tillmany probably would know best about that.
Hello From NYC-
to cjwin- I thank you for your previous replies. another question about moviegoing in San Francisco. for many many years many of the premiere 1st rum theaters in S.F. were on Market St.. but by my
first visit the Spring of 1980 not so much. my question- would you happen to know the last time one the grand old movie theaters on Market St. hosted the 1st run engagement of a big studio film?
it’s doubtful, bigjoe59: I’m pretty sure that when the one you just mentioned closed up, the local media reported it was the last one remaining in S.F. I also doubt that in this current economic environment, etc, that any would open up.
Hello-
at one time San Francisco had a number of gay porn theaters. this was certainly true over the 25 year period mentioned in my previous post. the most prominent being the Nob Hill Theater. with the recent closing of the Nob Hill are there any gay theaters left in San Francisco?
Hello from NYC-
I came out to San Francisco every Spring from 1980-2004. in my first trip the Spring of 1980 this was already an adult theater. I was wondering before this theater went adult what was the last studio film to open?
In the early 80’s the Market Street Cinema had great stage concerts of popular 80’s artists at the time. We went to one that had Devo, Oingo Boingo, and Romeo Void that was a great concert. Place was packed. Concerts there didn’t last long and the theater went to X rated movies with the marquee stating “balcony now open” Went inside to see the place and there was hardly anyone in there.
Please see this thread’s earlier comments from dingoman & terrywade as one reference on 1980-era special showings of some movies shown on 35mm/70mm film.
Hello from NYC-
in reference to cjwin’s post of 4/17/2017. it was stated roadshow films returned for a short period in the 80s before the theater went exclusively to adult films. the studios discontinued the roadshow policy after the Dec. 1972 opening of Man of La Mancha so what roadshow films in the 80s is cjwin referring to?
Enlargeable 1957 photo in Shorpy link. Click “view full size”.
https://www.shorpy.com/node/13522
1959 photo downloaded to photos.
Relaunched April 23, 1959 after a two-month, $250,000 revamp to the plans of Carl G. Moeller. The “all new” United Artists launched with “Some Like It Hot.” Ad in photos.
Reopened as Loew’s on October 15th, 1969. Another ad posted.
This became United Artists on March 28th, 1931. Grand opening ad in the photo section.
During demolition, during preparations to salvage the “Grauman’s Imperial Theater” stained glass window in the lobby, we went down into the under-stage basement several times, and saw the body outline on the floor, and there were dozens of bullet holes in the fire door at the opposite end of the basement room. we took photos of the room, but nothing extraordinary showed up in our images. With the noise of the Bobcats and backhoe above us, there was no real sense of creepiness, let alone terror. It would have been interesting to have been in the same space when the theatre was abandoned—before demolition began.
The theater as a strip club had several people die in it and was haunted. Paranormal investigators were terrified to go into the basement where the deaths occurred.