Have a news tip for us?
Just email . Ideas for stories, links to interesting articles, and press releases are welcome.
Continental main screen stadium renovation
posted by
JoelWeide
on
August 29, 2008 at 7:45 am
DENVER, CO — Recently, Regal added stadium seating to the main large D-150 screen auditorium of the Continental Theatre in Denver. I am curious. Has anyone been there since the conversion? I am interested in your views and opinions about the conversion.
I was just wondering how the stadium concept fits into this type of auditorium. Did they ruin it? Also Regal does not list on their web site what particular movie is playing in that auditorium. (Go figure!)
Comments (10)
To the best of my knowledge, the renovation is still in process. It was expected to take a couple of months, and they only started a few weeks ago.
According to Fandango (where the Giant Screen showtimes are listed regularly), it looks like they are only using 9 screens at the moment.
I’m just as eager as you are to find out how it turns out. Hopefully it will be done in time for something like Quantum of Solace or Australia.
Cheers,
Jonesy
www.OnTheBigScreen.net
I hope they don’t take out the large curved D-150 screen like they have in all the other theatres they got from UA.
I’d guess that Twilight will the first in the new auditorium on November 21st.
Regal is the worst chain of them all. I’d expect the worst out of this.
United Artist was the worst chain ever! Now Regal has the UA mini plexes to have under there non showmanship wing. They both turn so many movie fans off. Go up high in a UA house and look at the years of dust on top of the surround speakers. Since Cinemark has taken over most Syufy ‘Century’ Theatres things have gotten worse at ‘Century’. At the semi new plex at Powell & Market Sts in downtown SF they have the bright work lights on when you watch the video adds before the film! The glare on your eyes is to much. I guess its good because the video pre show adds are all washed out. You can’t watch them because of the bright overhead vapor lights! It will be a miricle if UA/Regal keeps the D-150 screen. Don’t be surprised if they turn the lage curved screen Continental Theatre into 3 tini cinemas with small flat screens. It’s not just the sea ting they will change. It does not take two months to put in stadium seats. UA/Regal are in the real estate business not film presentation in this day and age. Go look at the empty lot in Seattle Wa where the UA D-150 curved screen Dome Theatre once stood. They may be building on the property now.
That’s really a shame. However, it’s not surprising that a lot of these multiplex cinemas that’re located right off the big highways here in the United States are so badly kept up. I still recall the last time I went to the (formerly Lowes) Assembly Square Multiplex Cinema (now AMC), in Somerville, MA, for a movie a little over a year ago, and the place had gone downhill; the place, including the restrooms, was none too clean. Moreover, there was always a big problem with people, especially teens, using and texting on their cellphones during the movie. I ignored it as best I could, but it was still a distraction, nonetheless. Most surprising, however, was the fact that the person who sold me a ticket, and a concession was super-nice and friendly—friendlier than they’d ever been. Now that I think back on that, I wonder if the woman was friendly because she knew it was probably her last day or week working there, because the cinema was going to close. Hmm..
Anyway, Somerville’s Assembly Square Lowes Multiplex Cinema was bought by AMC, who, for whatever reason(s), didn’t want to keep it, so the cinema is still standing, but it’s now closed. That cinema was part of Somerville’s Assembly Square Mall, where people could go shopping, go have something to eat, and then take in a movie, but I wonder if malls are going out of fashion these days.
Anyway, back to what I was saying, the reason I found out about the closing of the Assembly Square cinema is because I scanned the Arts/Movies section of our biggest, most prominent local newspaper one day, and found that cinema was no longer listed. I learned from another person in my building that AMC had bought it and didn’t want to keep the cinema, so it was closed. And so it goes.
The Totten Pond Cinema, in Waltham, which was built sometime during the 1970’s, and located just off of Route 128, and near Totten Pond Road, and Winter Street, also didn’t last long. I went in there once or twice—it was sort of creepy, and none too clean, either. It ended up closing shortly after it was built, in the early 1980’s.
I’m as frustrated as the next guy about the current state of cinema exhibition…
But there’s a lot of crazy speculation in this thread.
I was at the Continental in July (for a Back to the Future Flashback Screening) and there were custom posters on display about the renovation. The posters touted the preservation of the giant screen.
The Continental put on an outstanding show for Back to the Future in one of the smaller auditoriums, and also did a phenomenal job with Wall-E in the main house in June.
I’m guardedly optimistic that this renovation will be a good thing at best, neutral at worse.
Do far, they’ve kept the big screen operating while all the other giant screen theatres in Denver have been torn down. If they screw this up, I’ll be the loudest critic of them all. But for now, how about a little benefit-of-the-doubt? Save the hate for the places that actually ARE being screwed up.
Jonesy
www.OnTheBigScreen.net
Assembly Square Cinemas never had a good reputation. They were always too crowded, too rowdy, and too dirty. Obviously, when USA Cinemas went bankrupt, they stopped doing everything but emergency maintenance. And AMC was just running the lease out. There’s some talk about building a new cinema nearby in a couple of years.
I don’t think this is a problem with multiplexes off highways. Most theaters are now off highways. The idea with putting them on highways is they’re easier for more people to get to. It has more to do with how much money theater chains are willing to spend for upkeep. Some take more pride than others. And those that lease often do less than the chains that own their own theaters. If you read the reviews of AMC Cinemas, they’re a mixed bag.
Adding stadium seating does take awhile however. Back in 1999 when the Campbell 16 Cine in Springfield added stadium seating to ten auditoriums, that took a few months (I think from March to May) and the theatre used only six screens during that time. It’s more complex that you may think with the quantity.
I wonder if the corporate powers-to-be at AMC, Cinemark, Regal and other “candy merchants showing movies are aware of the fabulous Cinema Treasures forum of public comments?
They should be!!!