Screens at the Continent
6360 Busch Boulevard,
Columbus,
OH
43329
6360 Busch Boulevard,
Columbus,
OH
43329
3 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 31 comments
Drove by a few weeks ago. Doesn’t appear to be open. A shame. I saw ET there in the early 80’s.
Screens at the Continent permanently closed in late 2021.
Closed: Website is not working and showtimes are not seen anywhere and its facebook page is wiped clean.
The Continent Cinemas was opened by mid-states theatres on December 19th, 1975, with four screens. Grand opening ad posted.
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AtCJz7ew6OKI3B-2kvJqaattpsqq?e=RP7jnF
Screens at the continent ownership changed on July 2015, and done lot of minor upgrades still plenty of things to do
Currently screening a mix of second run and Bollywood films.
The CONTINENT was where I saw RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK I think. They gave away a special small magazine like thing.
Theatre website indicates that 4 of the 8 screens now have digital projection.
the only reason it probably stays open is it is owned and operated by the management company leasing the property.. Probably an effort to make enough to pay the property taxes on the land. I am supprised that anyone re-opened that theater after 11 years being closed anyway.. It was definatly unique with the elevated booth and view of projection from the lobby, but at best it has always been a lackluster operation.
Ron N., according to their website they are running current sub-run releases. (4/2/2012)
I was at this theatre some time ago on a Saturday evening and it was absolutely empty except for the special event I was attending. I’m really surprised that it stays open.
Its a discount house with tickets ranges from$1.00 to 2.00. They may hardly have no money for maitenance.
Does this mean the theatre is closed and abandoned?
I stopped by recently to look around. Many of the posters are actually taped together pieces of copy paper and most of the neon is burnt out. The box office is filled with trash up to counter and there is still a decorated Christmas tree up in the concession stand.
Here are the screen counts for each theater Screen 1 Can Seat up to 238, Enjoy the Digital Sound Screen 2 Can Seat up to 252, Enjoy the Digital Sound Screen 3 Can Seat up to 406, Enjoy the DTS Sound Screen 4 Can Seat up to 154, Enjoy the Digital Sound Screen 5 Can Seat up to 154, Enjoy the Digital Sound Screen 6 Can Seat up to 64, Enjoy the Digital Sound Screen 7 Can Seat up to 165, Enjoy the Digital Sound Screen 8 Can Seat up to 187, Enjoy the DTS Sound
Ron, Screens at the Continent is still open.
At least the original 4 rooms did have center channel speakers behind the screen. If you drive behind the theatre, you can see the speaker boxes sticking out of the back wall.
The second theatre from the right was equipped for 3-D and magnetic sound. The third theatre from the right had 35mm magnetic sound and was later equipped for 70mm.
You are writing this in the past tense. Is the theatre no longer open?
The projectors of four of the screens sat on elevated platforms in the lobby. The film projected thru a small port windows which crossed over a common hallway entrance to the auditoriums. There were pedestals by each projector which were designed to emmulate the control panel on the starship “Enterprise”. They were just for show and served no usable function. The pictures were projected onto painted drywall. The sound system and speakers were usually consumer speakers mounted on the walls below the image.
The web site given above does not work. Should be http://www.screens8.net/ instead.
Same ugly page design as the newly reopened Cinema City 8 on the Far East Side. (thanks to Mark_L for noticing this)
I must correct the above statement. DAMNATION ALLEY came out AFTER Star Wars was released. Apologies for my mistake.
Back in the late 70’s and 80’s, there wasn’t even a glass wall for the booth area…4 of the projectors sat open in the lobby, where they picked up lots of dirt and smoke (smoking was legal in lobbies then). Those 4 rooms had some of the dirtiest prints imaginable. Also there was an open area between each pair of the original rooms, so bleed through from the next room was very bad….AND, the image was projected from the rear corner of the room, so the image was always somewhat out of focus.
In any event, this theatre played almost every available 70mm film, including Alien, The Rose, 2010, The Mission and many more. Remarkably, it did not play 70mm RETURN OF THE JEDI…no theatre in Columbus did.
It also played DAMNATION ALLEY in SOUND 360, which placed speakers on the side and back walls of the theatre. This was before the general release of STAR WARS and Dolby Stereo.
They always had the best movies and they always looked really bad. But, I saw a LOT of films there.
CORRECTION…. screens8.net is the correct site, the other one will eventually link you there.
Chuck
www.thescreensatthecontinent.com
is the current link to the theater.
Is this theatre still open? The web site no longer exists.
I can remember how cool it was because the projection booth was visible from a platform in the lobby with a long glass wall. been decades since I have been there the last I remember was the early 90’s when it was all boarded up, and looking at a wrecking ball with the whole continent complex.
Not sure how anyone expected to re-open this as a 1st run location with all the over screening by AMC and CINEMARK in the area. Supprised it didn’t make it as an art house because the DREXEL is all the way on the east side!
If I make it back up to columbus in the next year I will have to stop by and check it out.
This was called the Continent Cinemas in 1980, when it was part of the Mid States Theaters chain. At that time it had seven screens.