Cinemark Columbia Snowden and Screen X
9161 Commerce Center Drive,
Columbia,
MD
21046
9161 Commerce Center Drive,
Columbia,
MD
21046
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New name is Cinemark Columbia Snowden and ScreenX
Opening August 1, 2023 as a Cinemark:
Columbia, MD: Regal UA Snowden Square Closed, Reopening August 1 as Cinemark Location [Jul 27, 2023]
Last day as a Regal is July 26, 2023. Has been acquired by Cinemark which will relaunch.
article:
Found on Newspapers.com powered by Newspapers.com
December 19th, 1997 grand opening ad in the photo section.
Several auditoriums were closed for a few weeks and reopened this weekend with new power recliners. The rest of the auditoriums are now closed and are under construction for their recliner installations.
I saw The Jungle Book 2016 live-action adaptation here this past weekend in theatre 8, which is one of the largest auditoriums. I enjoyed the film and the cinema experience with the new recliners. Regal redesigned the auditorium with wider rows to accommodate the larger reclining seats — there is space to walk by seats even when fully reclined. Unlike Regal’s Laurel theatre, the seats do not have swivel tables attached to the armrests. Regal also added laminate wood flooring to the seating area and new aisle lighting. There are recliners in front of the screen as well but they don’t appear to have as much room between them. I’m sure those were installed to add more seating capacity. I doubt people would choose to sit in those seats unless a show was full. This weekend, the seats are first come first serve / open seating. According to Fandango, reserved seating for all shows will begin on Monday.
The sound was also better than before with more bass and better sound quality. The screen is large as before but there is no longer side masking. For films in flat ratio like “The Jungle Book” (2016), there are vertical black bars on the sides of the screen. Black levels were good and I didn’t notice the side pillarboxing during the film.
Presentations here are generally good in terms of projection, though the sound is almost always too quiet. Bass output during Pacific Rim was very underwhelming compared to subsequent viewings at other theatres. The largest auditoriums are a bit better but still too quiet for their size.
All auditoriums are full stadium seating with no lower floor seating (flat) section.
The smaller auditoriums are practically shoeboxes being much longer than they are wide, which means if you don’t sit near the front quarter of those auditoriums, the screens will look small. Leg room is cramped compared to the largest auditoriums.
The largest auditoriums have wider row spacing (more legroom) and wider screens with side masking.
According to the cinema locator on Barco’s website, two of the largest auditoriums (7 and 8) have their 2K DLP projectors installed. Auditorium 6 is also large but I’m assuming a Sony projector is installed for that house.
When the Snowden cinema opened, the stadium seating and brand new facility was an instant and massive success in Columbia, which had grown considerably since its inception in the late 1960s. It spelled quick doom for the Columbia Cinema III downtown, the original theater and for more than a decade the only theater in town, as well as the Palace 9, which had been open for about a decade when Snowden opened. But the Cinema III was very old and had no room to expand, and Palace 9 was in pretty rough shape and also had no way to expand. With Snowden’s state of the art trappings plus the ability to play absolutely everything those other twelve combined screens could brought an end to both of Columbia’s original cinemas, with III closing in 2000 and Palace 9 in 2001. Both have been demolished.
well that acquisition took forever.
This theater is now owned by Regal: View link