The latest movie theater news and updates

  • November 6, 2008
    Openings

    Upscale theater opens in Redmond

    REDMOND, WA — Gold Class Cinema, formerly an old AMC theater, has been extensively remodeled into a luxury movie house with valet parking and a ticket price of $32, ($35 if you order online). It opened last Friday.

    The theater features seven screening rooms with no more than 40 seats each, all widely spaced with shared tables between them. Upscale handheld food is served with crab cakes going for $17, a New York strip-steak sandwich going for $19, and a bottle of wine going for between $30 and $695.

    5 comments
  • Closings

    Kerasotes closes two theaters in Rockford

    ROCKFORD, IL — The Rock River Valley will be without a first-run arts theater for the first time in decades as Kerasotes Theatres closes two of its smaller cinemas.

    The six-screen North Towne theater, which showed $1 movies, closed last week and the five-screen Colonial Village, which shows arthouse fare, closes this week.

    A Kerasotes spokesman declined to comment on why the chain was closing these theaters, however it operates a 16-screen theater in Rockford and a newer 14-screen theater in nearby Machesny Park. American Theater Corp. is also opening a dinner/movie complex at the Riverside Pavilion next year. However, all of these theaters will be showing first-run mainstream movies.

    Read more in the Rockford Star.

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  • Memories

    The status of ushers

    I’m curious about the status of ushers (and usherettes) in the golden age of movie palaces.

    I think I read in Ben Hall that only the best-looking, most pimple-free boys were sought for ushering jobs. But I don’t recall that he said anything else about it.

    Was this a high-status, sought-after job? Or was it more like working for McDonalds today?

    27 comments
  • November 5, 2008
    Closings

    Charlotte multiplex closes after one year

    CHARLOTTE, NC — One year after Red Carpet Cinemas reopened the Eastland Mall Cinema, it has closed.

    Red Carpet spent several weeks last year upgrading the theater with new seats and digital sound.

    However, some people said they weren’t surprised the theater failed. The theater was located on a lower level of the mall and was difficult to find.

    5 comments
  • Theaters

    Porn films burnt at 60-year-old drive-in

    JACKSONVILLE, FL — A congregation that bought an old drive-in theater found at least a hundred reels of X-rated movies and burnt them.

    Church members held a special ceremonial service last Sunday where they burned the decades-old porn, saying that they were making the unholy property holy. Firefighters oversaw the blaze.

    15 comments
  • Openings

    Former managers buy Ohio theater

    COSHOCTON, OH — The couple who managed the Hollywood Studios Movie Theater at the Downtowner Plaza for eight years has now become its owners.

    Jodi and Kim Lowe are renaming the three-screen multiplex Shelby Theaters after their daughter who passed away when she was only nine-days old.

    The theater closed last August due to declining profits because of the economy and because of a new stadium-style multiplex 20 miles away in nearby Zanesville.

    2 comments
  • November 4, 2008
    Industry

    Romanian moviegoing has fallen on hard times

    BUCHAREST, ROMANIA — Romanian movie theaters have fallen on hard times. In a country which use to have 300 cinemas, it now has just 70 mainly dilapidated theaters.

    This comes at a time when Romanian filmmakers are winning awards at festivals around the world.

    Many theaters are unheated, with poor sound systems installed in the 1960s, and uncomfortable seats. Romanians say going to the movies is not worth the trouble.

    2 comments
  • Theaters

    City pins hopes on cinema project

    PITTSFIELD, MA — The city has broken ground on the $13 million Beacon Cinema Project in an attempt to revitalize the downtown business area.

    The historic 90-year-old Kinnell-Kresge building will be converted into a six-screen cinema, with retail space, restaurants and offices.

    The project is a combination of public and private investment and backing from state and local government.

    6 comments
  • Theaters

    Utah theater switches movies

    SOUTH JORDAN, UT — The Megaplex Theatre at the District gave moviegoers more than they bargained for when it played the R-rated movie “Sex Drive” instead of the G-rated “High School Musical 3.”

    The theater switched one of the showings of “High School Musical 3: Senior Year” to a larger auditorium to accommodate more people, but forgot to switch the movie.

    “Sex Drive” includes nudity in its opening minutes and parents could not carry their children out of the hall fast enough.

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  • Industry

    So Tier/Central NY theaters?

    In further preparation for the THS reprint of Great American Movie Theaters, we’re planning a “ramble” to theaters in the Southern Tier and Central NY section of New York State in the next couple of weeks. Any suggestions? We plan to stop in Johnson City, Binghamton, Owego and possibly Cobleskill. (Not necessarily in that order.)

    Any other out of the way theaters, opera houses or cinemas that we should check out? Remember that they must have shown movies at some point in their history in order to qualify for consideration.

    Thanks for any help you all can give!

    Karen Colizzi Noonan, THS President
    Suzanne Leworthy, THS International Director

    4 comments