The latest movie theater news and updates

  • November 24, 2010

    AMC to shutter historic Uptown Cinemas in Seattle

    SEATTLE, WA — AMC will close another theater claiming that its continued operation is not economically viable, only this time it is the eighty-four-year-old Uptown on Seattle’s Queen Anne Avenue. Most recently operated as a triplex, the theater opened in 1926. The last day will be November 28.

    The brief announcement is at King5.com.

  • Harry Potter 7 Part 1 biggest IMAX release of all time

    According to MarketWatch , the first part of the final Harry Potter movie saga, The Deathly Hallows, was released in a record 356 IMAX theaters, in addition to the 4100+ standard and digital theaters showing the film, which opened at midnight last Friday with sellout performances across America. Part 2 will be released in digital 3D and in IMAX 3D next summer.

    Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1: The IMAX Experience has been digitally re-mastered into the unparalleled image and sound quality of The IMAX Experience® through proprietary IMAX DMR® technology. With crystal clear images, laser-aligned digital sound and theatre geometry that maximizes field of view, IMAX provides the world’s most immersive movie experience.

  • Update on former Odeon Cinema Hartlepool

    HARTLEPOOL, CLEVELAND, ENGLAND — Hartlepool Borough Council have now started compulsory purchase proceedings after running out of patience with the Odeon’s current owners. An advertisement in the Hartlepool Mail on 17th November refers to prospective partners approaching the council with regards to potential re-use of the Grade II listed building.

    He said: “Trying to get any kind of agreement out of them is very difficult. Their valuation of the building is also extremely unrealistic.

    “They are talking about £1m for the building, but we have had the building and the adjacent land valued at £60,000. That is a big difference.”

    More on this can be found in the following link from the Hartlepool Mail.

  • November 23, 2010

    70mm classics coming to Bell Lightbox in Toronto

    TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA — The winter line-up of films to be shown at the Toronto International Film Festival’s permanent Bell Lightbox center on King Street will include three classics that shall be presented in the splendor of 70mm, including a newly-struck print of “2001, A Space Odyssey.” The other 70mm events will include “Lawrence of Arabia” and “Playtime.”

    The season also includes an eclectic lineup of contemporary and classic films that will have exclusive engagements of at least one week at TIFF Bell Lightbox. Titles include Lucy Walker, Karen Harley & João Jardim’s Waste Land (2009); Jean-Luc Godard’s Film Socialisme (2010); Julie Taymor’s The Tempest (2010); Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) in 3-D, and a new 70mm print of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).

    The full press release about the showing of these films and others is here.

  • Cedar Lee Theatre in Cleveland Heights turns 85 on Dec.1

    CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, OH — On December 1, the Cedar Lee Theatre will celebrate its eighty-fifth birthday by showing the famous Charlie Chaplin film “The Gold Rush” which played at the theater when it opened in 1925. Although now operating as a six-plex, the lobby retains many of the original features. It is one of the last operating neighborhood theaters in the greater Cleveland area, and now presents primarily art and foreign films.

    There is more at NewsNet5.

  • Nine-screen theater opens near Cincinnati in Sycamore Township

    SYCAMORE TWP, OH — Theater Management Corporation opened its third cinema on November 19. The Kenwood Theatre at Kenwood Place now occupies space formerly used by two furniture stores; it has nine screens, digital projection and one 3D capable screen. The theaters occupy two levels of the converted structure. The refreshment menu includes sushi, gourmet cookies, beer wine, and cocktails, as well as more conventional fare.

    Theater Management had spent years looking for a site near the mall, managing principal Gary Goldman said earlier this year. The need for a theater in the area became particularly clear when the mall’s Showcase Cinemas closed in May 2009.

    “The trend has been in both Clifton and Mariemont that a great deal of our customers frequent the restaurants and shops in the area,” said Goldman, who manages and is an investor in all three theaters. “We needed to be in an area where there were options like that.”

    There is more at Cincinnati.com.

  • November 22, 2010

    AMC Pine Square 16 in Long Beach eyed for housing

    LONG BEACH, CA — With its lease expiring in 2012 and no new retail tenants offering to occupy the space as it is now, the AMC Pine Square 16 may be converted to housing and retail after renovations. Heralded as a magnet for renewed economic life for Pine Avenue when opened in 1992, the theater’s patronage has since declined with the opening of other theaters.

    The developer also wants to eliminate the escalator leading to the theater, convert the ground-floor, 543-square-foot box office into potential commercial space and improve the courtyard area.

    The remaining retail would continue to operate in the space surrounding the theater.

    There is more in the Press-Telegram.

  • AMC reopens the Essex Green in West Orange as Fork & Screen location; others coming soon

    WEST ORANGE, NJ — The AMC Essex Green reopened on November 17 as the fourth of AMC’s Fork & Screen locations. The remodeled theater now features four screening rooms billed as Cinema Suites with upscale dining and cocktail service, and five others for more casual dining, and the MacGuffins bar and lounge.

    AMC plans to open two more Fork and Screen operations in New Jersey, the AMC Bridgewater Commons 7 in Bridgewater on Nov. 22 and the AMC Menlo Park 12 in Edison on Dec. 15.

    The AMC Grapevine Mills 30 in Grapevine, Texas will also be and Fork & Screen location as of Dec. 8. There is more in the Sun Herald.

  • Vintage movie theater equipment wanted

    Looking for vintage movie theater equipment; projectors, sound equipment and more. Also will consider entire vintage movie theater.

  • November 19, 2010

    CineMiracle’s “Windjammer” at Warner Grand

    SAN PEDRO, CA – “Windjammer: The Voyage of the Christian Radich”
    Hi Def digital on the 50 foot screen, filmed in CineMiracle
    Sunday, November 21, 6 p.m. $10

    Warner Grand Theatre
    478 West 6th Street
    San Pedro, California
    310.548.7672

    See this exciting screening of the record of a training cruise of the full-rigged S/S Christian Radich from Oslo across the Atlantic through the Cariibbean to New York and back home again.

    Bob Jensen, Manteno, Illinois