Regal Continental Stadium 10 & RPX

Having moved to Colorado in 1994 and not seeing a movie at this theater until 1996’s Independence Day, I never had the pleasure of seeing a movie in the original Continental. I regret not rushing out in 1994/95 and seeing a film before the remodel.

I want to thank Kevin Dennis for posting photos of before and during the big 1996 remodel.

Does anyone have any photos from inside the lobby?

I have seen some publicity photos of the OK city lobby but I am curious what the lobby of the Denver Continetal appeared in 1980s/1990s. I have recently become obsessed with the history of this theater and would be honored if anyone emailed me with documentation.

What I miss the most is how close everyone was. It really was like family. Yet I have been in contact with no one. It makes me so happy to see past employees checking on places where they were, and how much those places still mean to them… even if most of them are nothing more than a reminder.

Are the changes, for better, or worse? I don’t believe the changes really matter to me one way or the other. I am stuck in knowing that I was there in one of the best times of my life, and nothing could bring that back anyway. My first day was the day before we opened “Die Hard”, we had a few small sleepers after that… “The Mighty Quin”, and “She Devil”, before we opened “The Abyss”. Seeing the pictures on the link above, of the “Identical” Continental, gave me shivers. I received the etched glass Common Wealth logo from the Box Office, the day we were acquired by United Artists. We did wear Tux shirts, carried flashlights, and in a 917+3 Seat auditorium we HAD to seat people. The tickets were not computerized, and could be torn with one hand. I can still hear the sound of the ticket machine. We loved to tell stories of what the lobby looked like before the fire, and how the fire started (I believe that it originated from the janitors closet.) I don’t remember if our “Ghost” had a name, but I do remember telling stories of our ghost, and how he came to live there.

Mom and Dad managed a small theatre in a mall in Arvada off I-25 and what is now Thorton. When I returned to Denver for college I was also worked at several of the theatres in Denver. I was employed by the Continental, while under Common Wealth. I was then “Lent” out to various Denver Theatres from the Cooper5 to the Cooper7, and every Cooper between them. Yes even the Copper Twin. After getting to know several employees, union projectionists, Managers, and District Managers, I moved to CA and worked at a Fox theatre for 2 years. When I moved back, I worked again at the Continental, before opening the Greenwood Plaza 12 (as an assistant). After a few years there I transferred to The UA Corporate Offices. I moved back to CA and Managed the “Golden State” theatre (Complete with Pipe Organ), until UA sold it to become a historical landmark.

I would like to be found by those who I’ve come to miss. Those who remember me and those worked at the same theatres, around the same time. I would even like to hear from someone who has worked at “My” theatres before, or after, me.
You can e-mail me from the email on my profile by clicking my Username.

As part of their re-opening, they are showing a few past hits on the Giant Screen this week. Details here:

www.OnTheBigScreen.net

Jonesy

I had the opportunity to see how the big screen at the Continental is coming along last night.

First, the booth: The booth has been raised about 8 feet or so and is now very small in a tiny little room up a narrow flight of stairs with barely enough room for the projector, platter and sound rack. The old booth is still there, partially walled off to make room for the new booth and is now unused. The toilet is still in the old booth with the small privacy curtain which everyone loves. The old CP500 has been replaced with a CP650. The Norelco projector sits in the back room (which would have been the left booth), any hope of ever running 70mm in that house again is gone forever. The UA bar code automation has been replaced with a Strong CNA-150. The assistant manager was saying how he was glad to see the bar code automation go away because it would always shut down when the credits start. I wanted to tell him this was likely because it is generally a good idea to put a LIGHTS MID cue at the start of the credits instead of a SHOW END cue, but hey… that’s just me. No other equipment has changed… same old cassette deck from the single screen days is on top of the sound rack and the old Dolby mag pre-amp is still in there as well for some odd reason. The little room the booth is in now has a linoleum floor, just like the booth for the four new screens. Fortunately it does not contain Strong equipment like the four new screens do. Projector is still the 35mm Christie. They may have even went all out and changed the belts. Spare no expense!

The auditorium: The seats have been tiered off into four sections and the aisles are still on the side. As one would imagine, the incline is not tremendously steep. The seats are now your typical Regal-style seats with the moveable cupholder armrests, etc. They did a surprisingly decent job with the conversion, much better than I thought they’d do. However now it looks just like all other Regal auditoriums, only bigger. Not much uniqueness left to it. The curved screen is still there, but they got new curtains which they will rarely use. Supposedly the curtain motor is new as well (the old curtains really squeaked). It’ll be interesting to hear how this room sounds once the re-EQ is complete. They said they plan to use the curtains from time to time.

I was the projectionist at the Continental when it re-opened as a 6-plex, on loan from Greenwood Plaza 12. I built up the first movie to show during the re-opening… “Eraser” (assembled at Greenwood). I have some video from those days taken from my camcorder and some pics as well. THX was in auditoriums 1 and 6 only. They never bothered to renew the license so nothing is THX any more. The large screen was not capable of being certified for THX, didn’t meet the requirements. There is a silver screen in new a new auditorium, number 8 I believe, for digital 3D showings eventually. Don’t get any hopes up for 70mm since it is no longer capable of happening. Even if they did manage to install a Century JJ projector (the Norelco is obsolete and quite useless), the staff of this theater simply could not handle the task or responsibility of running 70mm. They can’t even handle 35mm without scratching the prints and getting them noticeably dirty. The Continental is just a typical multiplex run in the same fashion as others, unfortunately.

Thank you Jonesy!

From your description of the last 18 years of projection problems — between micro 35 MM images, and now projection so out of proportion that images are cropped enough that subtitles are a problem — it seems that stadium seating is the least of the Continental’s problems. This is the “outstanding job” Regal is doing with the Continental Theatre? It’s been a quarter century since the fire destroyed the original lenses, and this is the best that Regal can accomplish? The bar has been set quite low indeed. What a sad end to have this theater in these hands.

I’m also curious about the lenses…
Drive-in screens are flat… the original Continental screen was D-150 and curved, which is why it had specially ground lenses to accommodate the curvature. If they are now using old drive-in lenses, has the screen been re-configured at the Continental as a flat surface? Or is there major distortion and edge focus issues as such use would typically cause?

I just found out that they AREN’T showing their Flashback series on the big screen. I guess TDK is too big a draw right now. Bummer. :(

The Continental Theatre has been operating for at least 43 years (since around 1965) and though it became part of United Artists then Commonwealth in the late 70’s, at least a third of its life was spent as either one of the three independent Continental Theatres, or with Cooper/Highland Theaters (as of about 1972-3). One third is a pretty significant chunk of time, and it was through these years that the theater established itself in the community and set exhibition standards.

Then again, you may be right that most people are only familiar with the later stages of the building’s life. (After all, London has been around for centuries, though most people today never experienced a time when it didn’t have a McDonald’s.)

No doubt the Continental played Star Wars in 70MM, and even doing so nearly a decade after its release counts. But the fact that Cooper/Highland management decided to premiere the original at the Cooper instead of the Continental speaks to that fallow period in the theater’s history.

There have been times when, for whatever reason, the theater didn’t always use the D-150 lens — sometimes because of a film’s odd image ratio, sometimes because of screen or curtain problems. When that happened, and the full screen was not used, it did seem like a postage stamp on the wall. But when the full expanse of screen was employed (it was the third largest screen in a commercial theater when it opened, after all), the result was awesome. During the run of “Sound Of Music”, we’d send rookie ushers to seat late arrivers towards the front of the house — invariably they’d glance at the images of flying over the Alps in the opening sequence and get vertigo… stumbling over their feet to make their way up the aisle to the amusement of everyone. It was that enormous, filling the peripheral vision of those in the front rows.

Would a stadium seat help the presentation of a film in the Continental? Toss a coin. But it would negatively affect the audio dynamics of the auditorium… and it would certainly diminish the sense of grandeur and grace that are rarely available anywhere. Even in a temporal town like Los Angeles, the City Council and the audiences wouldn’t allow that sort of modification to their Cinerama Dome or Chinese Theater.

Sometimes it’s not what you do TO a theater, but what you do WITH it that determines its commercial value and protects the cultural history of the community. This effort, alas, is usually not the priority of large theater chains who don’t always have the time or attention to maximize a venue with anything other than a cookie cutter. Stadium seats weren’t integrated with the original design not because the technology was unavailable, but because it changes the experience aesthetics. That appreciation is subjective… and probably orchestrated by common contemporary experience.

It would be great to see some films on that big beautiful screen in 70mm again! Other cities in the US and around the world continue to show 70mm.

Sounds like a typical middle-management decision.

The only reason to renovate with stadium seating at the Continental is to compress the amount of space between the last row and the screen — allowing for more lobby area to accommodate additional snack sales.

Back in the 1970’s, when the film “Barry Lyndon” was about to be released, Stanley Kubrick sent out teams of theater inspectors to measure the distance between rows of seats. He understood that his film was quite long, and that the comfort of the audience in the theater would be key to their enjoyment of the film. His team approved of two theaters in Denver: the Century 21 on Colorado Blvd, and the Continental. At that time, Mann Theaters had more $$ for the film rental guarantees, and got the engagement. (Unless you were aware of the, um, “product split” that was going on at the time.) Today it would be difficult to imagine a filmmaker with either the clout or the interest to make such demands. And apparently, exhibitors lack the imagination to find ways of increasing revenue without destroying the atmosphere that brings audiences to theaters in the first place.

Unless we decide to be happy with our hi-def home flat screens, I suggest a campaign championed by AFI, the cultural departments of the city of Denver, or just a good old fashioned press event staged outside the Continental for the benefit of the local TV stations.

Ryan, Thanks for the update, And I agree with you. Hope the renovation gets cancelled.

I understand that the large auditorium will be closed for renovation in August, with a scheduled re-opening in November. The carpet and wall coverings will be updated, and the seating will be re-structured to become “stadium” seating somehow.

It is my understanding that the screen will not be altered in any way.

I don’t quite understand the need to change the seating. I'v never been in a theatre with better sight-lines or row spacing. Hopefully the changes will all be postive and minimal.