Reel Deal Theater
2551 Central Avenue,
Los Alamos,
NM
87544
2551 Central Avenue,
Los Alamos,
NM
87544
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The Reel Deal Theater opened in December of 2003.
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This is a 12/15/2003 article about the opening of the Reel Deal Theater.
“Reels Ready to Roll at 4-Screen Movie Theater.
Source: Albuquerque Journal
Byline: Wren Propp Journal Staff Writer
A long awaited, four-screen movie theater in Los Alamos is slated to open Wednesday.
The Reel Deal’s open doors — the theater is the brainchild of the Deal family — signal the end of a long drought for Los Alamos residents who wanted commercial, first-run movies nearby, said family patriarch William Deal.
“We’ve had an overwhelming expression of public support … It just shows how entertainment-starved Los Alamos has been,” said Deal.
Los Alamos has been without a commercial movie theater for several years. The Deal family plan an open house on Tuesday and a grand opening on Wednesday.
Los Alamos can expect the final film of “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, “Return of the King,” and perhaps “Mona Lisa Smile” starring Julia Roberts, on Wednesday, said Deal.
Getting the doors open to the project has been filled with bumps and lots of political roadblocks.
The family, including daughters Mary Ann Beard, Kate O'Donnell, and her husband, Jim, decided they wanted to build something fun, rather than yet another anonymous office building to be gobbled up by Los Alamos National Laboratory.
But their plans included sharing the parking lot of the family’s office building with the future theater.
No deal, city planners said. County law doesn’t allow office buildings and movie theaters to share parking.
City officials were also interested in a movie theater, but some who worked on a downtown master plan wanted a theater within the downtown zone.
The Deal family property was just outside the zone.
Supporters didn’t give up, however, and, in October 2002, the County Council agreed to change the county ordinance regarding shared parking. The family’s plan for the theater was later approved.
“It’s been an exciting year,” said Deal.
Because of their support, residents were given a chance to name the theater in a public contest. And appropriately, 15 of the 74 entries suggested calling it the Reel Deal. In a run-off drawing, the winner received a year’s free pass to the new theater; the others received a week’s worth of passes.
The theater has a total of 476 seats. The two larger theaters have 136 seats each; the smaller ones have 102 seats.
The family plans an open house 6:30-9:30 p.m. Tuesday. Refreshments, along with a sneak peek at the screens are planned.
Then on Wednesday, Los Alamos' movie-hungry masses can finally find some relief, Deal said.
“Our only fear is that it will be too crowded and people will be disappointed” if the shows are sold out, said Deal".
What a great Name is is still open?
Web site still works must still be open.
The Reel Deal Theatre was designed by Santa Fe architect Karen Marsh. The theater was built using ICFs (insulated concrete forms,) and a few photos of it can be seen on this page of the web site of Reward Wall Systems, the company that provided the forms.