An update to the remodel: The theatre now has 10 screens, but all are film. No digital cinema for the Continental yet. The 4 newest houses were outfitted with used projection equipment from the Regal warehouse. All 9 of the newer houses are now stadium seating, and unfortunately the next remodel will be to retrofit the original house to stadium seating. I can’t help but feel disappointed by this decision since, as Jonesy said, the large house has always had great sight-lines and is a wonderfully built auditorium. The current seat count in that house is 869 seats, expect that they will lose at least a couple hundred seats. Go see a film at the Continental before August! Hopefully, this renovation will get cancelled.
An update on the planned expansion of this theatre: There will be 4 new auditoriums added for a total of 10. The added houses from the 2005 expansion will be converted to stadium seating and the new 4 houses will be built as stadium seating. Because of the loss in seats with the conversion, the total seat count for 10 houses will be marginally greater than the current number of seats with 6. The plan is for the Continental to be all digital. The current 6 houses will be capable of 35mm and digital and it is unlikely that the new 4 houses will be equipped with any film projection equipment. The original giant auditorium will be mostly untouched. The 70 mm Norelco projector has gone unused for many years and may be removed for a digital projector. I do not know of any digital cinema projector capable of filling a curved screen of that size, but if it exists it will surely be very expensive. Hopefully cost cutting will not lead to a poor use of such a beautiful screen. This remodel has still not begun as of June 2007, but Regal plans to start “any day now”.
According to its owner, Eddie Maloof, the Serf Theater was built in 1937 from an empty lot. It was built by Eddie’s father and its name is actually an acronym for his four children: Sarah, Eddie, Richard, and Frida (S.E.R.F.). The theater has not run film for the public since the spring of 2005. The marquee lists a showing of “In Her Shoes” but it didn’t run.
The projection booth was converted from a changeover setup to a plattered projector about 20 years ago (though it’s hard to know for sure exactly when). One projector was dismantled to make room for the SPECO platters and both carbon-arc lamphouses were removed. The remaining Simplex XL projector head now runs with an Imperial Xenon lamphouse.
The seat counts near 800 are probably too high, but I would guess there are just under 700 seats. I have photos of the seats if you’d like to count them for yourselves.
An update to the remodel: The theatre now has 10 screens, but all are film. No digital cinema for the Continental yet. The 4 newest houses were outfitted with used projection equipment from the Regal warehouse. All 9 of the newer houses are now stadium seating, and unfortunately the next remodel will be to retrofit the original house to stadium seating. I can’t help but feel disappointed by this decision since, as Jonesy said, the large house has always had great sight-lines and is a wonderfully built auditorium. The current seat count in that house is 869 seats, expect that they will lose at least a couple hundred seats. Go see a film at the Continental before August! Hopefully, this renovation will get cancelled.
An update on the planned expansion of this theatre: There will be 4 new auditoriums added for a total of 10. The added houses from the 2005 expansion will be converted to stadium seating and the new 4 houses will be built as stadium seating. Because of the loss in seats with the conversion, the total seat count for 10 houses will be marginally greater than the current number of seats with 6. The plan is for the Continental to be all digital. The current 6 houses will be capable of 35mm and digital and it is unlikely that the new 4 houses will be equipped with any film projection equipment. The original giant auditorium will be mostly untouched. The 70 mm Norelco projector has gone unused for many years and may be removed for a digital projector. I do not know of any digital cinema projector capable of filling a curved screen of that size, but if it exists it will surely be very expensive. Hopefully cost cutting will not lead to a poor use of such a beautiful screen. This remodel has still not begun as of June 2007, but Regal plans to start “any day now”.
According to its owner, Eddie Maloof, the Serf Theater was built in 1937 from an empty lot. It was built by Eddie’s father and its name is actually an acronym for his four children: Sarah, Eddie, Richard, and Frida (S.E.R.F.). The theater has not run film for the public since the spring of 2005. The marquee lists a showing of “In Her Shoes” but it didn’t run.
The projection booth was converted from a changeover setup to a plattered projector about 20 years ago (though it’s hard to know for sure exactly when). One projector was dismantled to make room for the SPECO platters and both carbon-arc lamphouses were removed. The remaining Simplex XL projector head now runs with an Imperial Xenon lamphouse.
The seat counts near 800 are probably too high, but I would guess there are just under 700 seats. I have photos of the seats if you’d like to count them for yourselves.
The Serf remains closed until further notice.