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The latest movie theater news and updates
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May 15, 2009
Seeking General Manager for Northern California Cinema
Looking for a General Manager for California location. Please send resume and salary requests to .
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May 14, 2009
Old Town Warren begins to see changes
WICHITA, KS — Struggling to stay relevant in a competitive downtown, the Old Town Theatre undergoes some renovations.
Work has begun on a $1 million renovation of the Old Town Warren Theatre, creating what its owners believe is the first all-digital movie theater in Kansas.
When completed in late June, the Old Town Warren will be converted into a 7-auditorium digital multi-purpose facility offering everything from movies to Super Bowl showings and the latest in interactive gaming.
It’s a new, more focused business model that owner Bill Warren hopes will be profitable within two years.
Read the full story in the Wichita Eagle.
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Theatre organ undergoes revival
DAYTON, OH — After many years working to get it back in service, some dedicated fans are giving a historic organ a chance to shine again.
Just before King Wrecking Co. crews tore down Dayton’s RKO Keith’s Theatre in 1967, David Bowers and a couple of friends went there on a mission to save a precious artifact.
Bowers and his friends, Roy Haning and Neal White, found a 1922-vintage Wurlitzer Style 210 pipe organ, “a gem of an instrument,” in Bowers' estimation. Haning and White bought the organ and its nearly 1,000 pipes on the spot.
Four decades later, the RKO Keith’s Mighty Wurlitzer is being restored in Medford, Mass., for use in Medford’s Chevalier Theatre. If all goes as planned, it’ll be played for the first time since 1986 sometime next year.
Read more in the Dayton Daily News.
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Hollywood actor boycotts IMAX version of Star Trek at AMC
According to sources, Aziz Ansari, a movie actor best known for starring in NBC’s “Parks and Recreation”, spent an extra $5 to see an IMAX screening of “Star Trek” at a 16-screen Burbank theater owned by AMC. After watching with disbelief, he posted a blog online calling for moviegoers to boycott the small IMAX screens, which he calls “fake”.
Read more at the pitch.
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May 13, 2009
Fremont Street theater closes
LAS VEGAS, NV — With all of Las Vegas struggling, the Galaxy Neonopolis closed last week amid financial problems.
The silver screen will fade to black at downtown’s Fremont Street Experience, when Galaxy Theatres closes its Neonopolis multiplex following Thursday’s shows.
Galaxy managed the 11-screen theater for the troubled center’s owners, taking over in September 2006 from Crown Theatres, which opened the theater in May 2002.
Read more at the Las Vegas Review Journal.
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My career as a movie theater manager
Hi; My name is Jerry Littenberg. I have just found this wonderful web-site and I want to congratulate you for not letting the magnificent memories of these temples of cinema be forever lost. I have been a theater manager at about two dozen cinemas in my life, and all the information that I learned during that time I put at your disposal.
I started my career at the famous Roxy Theatre, NYC, while in high-school. I was assistant to Curtis Mees; featured writer for the trade publication Motion Picture Herald. Some of the theaters that I have managed are the Stanley Warner Beverly Hills; CA, the Warner Cinerama; NYC. In NJ; the Oritani in Hackensack and the Warner in Ridgewood, the Morris Hills Cinema in Parsippany for General Cinema, and for Loews the Meadows Six in Secaucus, the Wayne 8 and the Showboat 4 in Edgewater.
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New attitude for saving South Jersey theaters
The tide is turning for the mood of saving old theaters in South New Jersey.
South Jersey developers have found that old movie houses in disrepair can make great locations for new pharmacies. The iconic Harwan Theatre in Mount Ephraim became a Walgreen’s. The Century Theater in Audubon became an Eckerd Drug.
But now volunteer groups are trying to rescue some of the remaining theaters.
Neighbors Celebrating the Westmont is dedicated to saving the 1,300-seat Westmont Theatre, in Haddon Township, Camden County, where a young Steven Spielberg once sat mesmerized by the silver screen and Dustin Hoffman sat in disguise to gauge audience reaction to “Kramer vs. Kramer.”
Read more in the Philadelphia Daily News.
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May 12, 2009
Howell Theater to close
HOWELL, MI — After serving generations of moviegoers, the Howell Theater is closing down due to financial concerns.
The downtown Howell movie theater has provided entertainment for the city for more than 80 years, but the landmark becomes nothing but a memory as the theater closes its doors for good. If you’re near Howell, it’s your last chance to grab a box of popcorn, sit with the family and watch the big screen at Howell’s historical movie theater. Moviegoer David Chapman says it’s a shock to see the only theater in town go.
Read the full story at WLNS.
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Boston/Brockton (MA) movie house memories
As a former Bay Stater who grew up in Brockton and Boston (now a writer of books on films and a senior citizen), I have found some of your historical views of Boston and Brockton movie houses a bit askew. From about 1944 through the early 1970s, I collected newspaper movie ads from every major house in both cities — and I still have them (wonderful reference tools as well as nostalgia). In Brockton, there were four major movie houses (after the famous Strand Theatre fire of the early 1940) — not just the one described incorrectly — the Rialto-cum-E.M. Loew’s Center Theatre — in the downtown area on Main Street.
Earlier, before my time, there had been the majestic Brockton Opera House, said to be the first theatre in America to have electric lights (Thomas Edison, in fact, according to the Brockton Enterprise, made his way from Menlo Park to throw the switch himself). In Boston, during the forties through the sixties, at least, there the following houses, looking uptown on Washington Street from Stuart Street (I was a patron at one time or another of virtually every one of them): on the right, the Stuart Theatre (a third-run house), E.M. Loew’s Center Theatre, the Washington St. Olympia (that was the official marquee name, and it later became the Pilgrim), and the RKO Boston, a stage presentation-and-movie house that featured the big bands live. It later was the home of Cinerama movies and renamed Cinerama.
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Regal Entertainment CFO Miles to become CEO
Regal is promoting form within for its new CEO.
Movie theater chain Regal Entertainment Group said Wednesday that Chief Financial Officer Amy Miles will take over as chief executive from Mike Campbell, who will stay on as executive chairman.
Read more at MSN