I agree once DLP systems began sprouting up at more newer theatres like AMC’s Tyson’s Corner and three systems over at National Amusement’s Cinema De Lux theatre (with stadium seating) I haven’t been back since. The Merrifield theatre chairs are hideous – loud and uncomfortable. Even their one DLP equipped auditorium was a total letdown, the surround sound always seemed set way too low, and a rather average size screen didn’t help immerse yourself into the film. I’m really kind of surprised that this theatre is still standing.
Landmark’s E Street has a DLP system, but I’m not sure if it’s 4K. There is a Sony 4K system over at the National Geographic Society auditorium.
I thought the Arclight system was a Sony 4K system. But according to a trade advertisement I saw the Arclight, Ziegfeld, the Fox theatre in Atlanta systems (as well as a few others) are NEC systems – are they 4k or 2K? What system is at Seattle’s Cinerama theatre, is that 4K?
what’s up with this theatre? I thought there was mention/rumour that it would reopen after the adjacent new apartments were completed as a complex for ‘live theatre’/touring productions like ‘Blue Man Group’.
a read a news story from last year that the theatre was running into some risk that they might be able to remain open. I guess that was solved – it’s too bad that the only time I go to this theatre, it’s for the annual Reel Affirmations Film Festival in the Fall. Whoever the booker is, needs to find a way to get more diverse live acts/bands to perform there.
a Landmark Theatre would be perfect for this location since DC is rather sparse on the foreign/indie film. I know the owner expressed interest that another chain reopen this theatre although I think Fannie Mae has dibs on the space.
Piddy, what’s your source of info on AMC not renewing it’s lease on the Uptown? It will be interesting to see if any major theatre chain will step up to the plate in keeping this Washington DC landmark open. If not, I would find it essential an organization like the Avalon’s ‘Avalon Theatre Project’ be created for the Uptown. One thing that is paramount for patron’s like myself, would be if the Uptown actually had digital projection. Theatres like the Ziegfeld, the Arclight, Seattle’s Cinerama have displayed that DLP can work on huge screens – for the Uptown not to be outfitted as such, would be counterintuitive in delivering the best digital projection can provide.
“Posted at 07:39 AM ET, 10/31/2006
The Tragedy of the Dying Movie Houses
The roster of Washington area movie theaters shut down in the last few years is already depressing: the Biograph, Key, Cerberus, Fine Arts, Janus, Visions, Inner Circle, Outer Circle, Cinema, Jenifer, MacArthur, Paris, Studio, Tenley, and West End theaters closed, most of them to make way for CVS drug stores or to sit empty for year after year.
Now add two more to the list of the lost: In the suburbs, one of the last of the second-run theaters, the Premier Cinemas at Jumpers in Pasadena in Anne Arundel County, shut its doors on Sunday, a victim of changing moviegoing habits and an inability to afford the new digital screening technology. And in the District, the Loews Wisconsin Avenue in upper Northwest is next to go, a victim of the merger between the Loews and AMC chains. Insiders say it will shut its doors at the end of November.
And while there’s no official word, projectionists and other local movie industry workers are hearing more and more gloomy rumors about the future of the region’s grandest remaining movie house, the Uptown in Cleveland Park. If its days are numbered too, that calls for a popular uprising even more vociferous than that which eventually saved the Avalon in Chevy Chase.
The culprits for all those losses: Home video, the multiplexing of American movie houses, the insatiable spread of CVS, and the decline of the second-run and repertory formats.
The replacements: The AFI Silver, the Landmark art houses on E Street and in Bethesda, and the Loews complex in Georgetown.
Net loss: Huge, especially in Dupont Circle, the Wisconsin Avenue corridor in upper Northwest, and Georgetown.
Moviegoing at the 4000 Wisconsin was never a spectacular experience; the place is among the better of the 1980s theaters, but that’s not saying much. The walls are too thin, the sound bleeds from one theater to the next, several of the boxes are way too small—but there are decent-sized screens and even advanced sound and projection systems in the two largest theaters in the multiplex. But this is a case of Loews wanting to push business to its new Georgetown complex and of the landlord, Fannie Mae, never having been all that thrilled about having the unwashed public wandering through its corporate headquarters, according to workers at the theater.
Can and should the Uptown be saved?"
The thought of The Uptown closing is and would be truly terrible loss for the city. If and when AMC closes the theatre I hope there is enough public/private support to continue this theatre as Chevy Chase did with the Avalon.
I agree once DLP systems began sprouting up at more newer theatres like AMC’s Tyson’s Corner and three systems over at National Amusement’s Cinema De Lux theatre (with stadium seating) I haven’t been back since. The Merrifield theatre chairs are hideous – loud and uncomfortable. Even their one DLP equipped auditorium was a total letdown, the surround sound always seemed set way too low, and a rather average size screen didn’t help immerse yourself into the film. I’m really kind of surprised that this theatre is still standing.
I thought I had read that Sony demo'ed it’s new 4K system for ‘The DaVinci Code’s run at the Dome.
wish the Uptown theatre had a DLP system… (sigh) guess I’ll catch it in digital over in Georgetown.
Landmark’s E Street has a DLP system, but I’m not sure if it’s 4K. There is a Sony 4K system over at the National Geographic Society auditorium.
I thought the Arclight system was a Sony 4K system. But according to a trade advertisement I saw the Arclight, Ziegfeld, the Fox theatre in Atlanta systems (as well as a few others) are NEC systems – are they 4k or 2K? What system is at Seattle’s Cinerama theatre, is that 4K?
what’s up with this theatre? I thought there was mention/rumour that it would reopen after the adjacent new apartments were completed as a complex for ‘live theatre’/touring productions like ‘Blue Man Group’.
a read a news story from last year that the theatre was running into some risk that they might be able to remain open. I guess that was solved – it’s too bad that the only time I go to this theatre, it’s for the annual Reel Affirmations Film Festival in the Fall. Whoever the booker is, needs to find a way to get more diverse live acts/bands to perform there.
a Landmark Theatre would be perfect for this location since DC is rather sparse on the foreign/indie film. I know the owner expressed interest that another chain reopen this theatre although I think Fannie Mae has dibs on the space.
as other members have noted, yes the Atlas Theatre has reopened but not as a film venue.
Piddy, what’s your source of info on AMC not renewing it’s lease on the Uptown? It will be interesting to see if any major theatre chain will step up to the plate in keeping this Washington DC landmark open. If not, I would find it essential an organization like the Avalon’s ‘Avalon Theatre Project’ be created for the Uptown. One thing that is paramount for patron’s like myself, would be if the Uptown actually had digital projection. Theatres like the Ziegfeld, the Arclight, Seattle’s Cinerama have displayed that DLP can work on huge screens – for the Uptown not to be outfitted as such, would be counterintuitive in delivering the best digital projection can provide.
according to Washington Post’s Marc Fisher:
“Posted at 07:39 AM ET, 10/31/2006
The Tragedy of the Dying Movie Houses
The roster of Washington area movie theaters shut down in the last few years is already depressing: the Biograph, Key, Cerberus, Fine Arts, Janus, Visions, Inner Circle, Outer Circle, Cinema, Jenifer, MacArthur, Paris, Studio, Tenley, and West End theaters closed, most of them to make way for CVS drug stores or to sit empty for year after year.
Now add two more to the list of the lost: In the suburbs, one of the last of the second-run theaters, the Premier Cinemas at Jumpers in Pasadena in Anne Arundel County, shut its doors on Sunday, a victim of changing moviegoing habits and an inability to afford the new digital screening technology. And in the District, the Loews Wisconsin Avenue in upper Northwest is next to go, a victim of the merger between the Loews and AMC chains. Insiders say it will shut its doors at the end of November.
And while there’s no official word, projectionists and other local movie industry workers are hearing more and more gloomy rumors about the future of the region’s grandest remaining movie house, the Uptown in Cleveland Park. If its days are numbered too, that calls for a popular uprising even more vociferous than that which eventually saved the Avalon in Chevy Chase.
The culprits for all those losses: Home video, the multiplexing of American movie houses, the insatiable spread of CVS, and the decline of the second-run and repertory formats.
The replacements: The AFI Silver, the Landmark art houses on E Street and in Bethesda, and the Loews complex in Georgetown.
Net loss: Huge, especially in Dupont Circle, the Wisconsin Avenue corridor in upper Northwest, and Georgetown.
Moviegoing at the 4000 Wisconsin was never a spectacular experience; the place is among the better of the 1980s theaters, but that’s not saying much. The walls are too thin, the sound bleeds from one theater to the next, several of the boxes are way too small—but there are decent-sized screens and even advanced sound and projection systems in the two largest theaters in the multiplex. But this is a case of Loews wanting to push business to its new Georgetown complex and of the landlord, Fannie Mae, never having been all that thrilled about having the unwashed public wandering through its corporate headquarters, according to workers at the theater.
Can and should the Uptown be saved?"
The thought of The Uptown closing is and would be truly terrible loss for the city. If and when AMC closes the theatre I hope there is enough public/private support to continue this theatre as Chevy Chase did with the Avalon.