Camera 12 Cinemas
201 S. 2nd Street,
San Jose,
CA
95113
201 S. 2nd Street,
San Jose,
CA
95113
5 people
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The last mention of the theater in the San Francisco Examiner seems to be on January 16, 2000.
Did some more research on the theater. Looks like at one point, an “indoor amusement center” was planned for a section of the theater, but either never came to fruition, or opened, with information lost to the past.
UA actually said that they wanted to vacate the premises a handful of times, with September 1999 being an original date they planned to leave, but never did, due to unknown reasons.
However, in mid-January (15th or 17th) 2000, movie patrons arrived to the theater, only to be told that the theater was “experiencing technical difficulties, and was planned for a remodel”, as police vehicles surrounded the cinema, while movers ripped film projectors and seats out of the theater and shoved them into trailers.
After closing as the Camera 12 in September 2016, Urban Catalyst is currently gutting and restructuring the theater for office and retail, and a recent post from earlier this month suggests that a handful of equipment left behind by Camera Cinemas has been given to the nearby 3Below, which replaced the Camera 3 in 2018.
Actually, looks like it’s new use will also be for office space in the brick section, former home to the upper-level theaters (7-9 on the 2nd floor & 10-12 on the 3rd as the 12; dunno about the original theater numbers back when it was owned by UA).
Also, like I said in my comments from years ago, this theater opened on June 18th 2004, as shown on archives of the Camera Cinemas website on the Wayback Machine at the Internet Archive.
Looks like the property is being gutted for use as retail. There go the remodeling plans. While it does sadden me, it’s most likely the next logical step to do. https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/02/28/700-million-for-downtown-san-jose-starts-with-camera-12-office-retail-project/
The public never did support this former UA cinema. Most of the auditoriums are very small. Now downtown SJ only has 1 cinema left a dome Imax type. Time again for a new theatre player to get involved. Maya Theatres maybe? Turn It into a larger 8 plex with large curved screens and better seating and showmanship curtains. Have food and live entertainment also. Being that the greedy property owners were about to raise the rent now they will suffer with a closed cinema for many years without rent money coming in.
I meant that that version of the website that I looked at said it would open on that date, and versions after June 18th, said that it was opened.
I just looked at Internet Archives Wayback Machines camera cinemas website for May 2004 and it said that this opened on June 18th, 2004.
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This theater is again in severe financial straits, but the City of San Jose is trying to extend it a lifeline: View link
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I’m posting a little over a month after the above post. Does anyone happen to know whether the city was able to extend the lifeline mentioned?
Speaking as a taxpayer, I’m conflicted; I like the Camera Cinemas guys. OTOH, the City of San Jose’s Redevelopment Agency (RDA) contributed $4.6 million to the $11 million theater project when the UA tried to make a go of it. Then, when the Camera Cinemas took over, the RDA loaned -them- another $3.2 million, making a total of $7.8 million in taxpayer funds poured into a theater that, according to DKelley’s post above, “face[s] over 150 screens in direct competition within a 10 miles radius.”
I have to ask: am I missing something here? Or is the idea of pouring more taxpayer funds into a theater that’s been a money-losing proposition for more than a decade under two different owners as bad as it appears?
I also couldn’t help but notice that the Mercury News article made no mention of any RDA plans to perform a cost/benefit analysis so that the city has at least a vague idea of how much cash Camera 12 brings into the surrounding businesses. In other words: the RDA is simply -guessing- that Camera 12 serves as an “anchor” for the businesses in the area, but are either unable or unwilling to express the impact that Camera 12 has in terms of a dollar amount.
I know this is going to sound unkind, but: if the RDA is unable to quantify the financial impact that a business has, then how do they have any way of knowing what they are talking about? Ask yourself: wouldn’t a bank want to know this kind of information before extending -another- loan to someone who can’t pay back their original loan or make their rent?
This from a city that is running “a second consecutive budget deficit of more than $100 million.” Maybe it’s just me, but that sure doesn’t sound like a city that can afford to keep making poor financial decisions. ¬_¬
This theater is again in severe financial straits, but the City of San Jose is trying to extend it a lifeline: View link
This re-opens today as the Camera 12. Most of the grand opening features are first-run Hollywood product, one of the screens is showing arthouse product.
The Camera One is now closed. The Camera 3 is still open for the time being.
This is a truly stupid idea! Camera Cinemas is adding 12 screens to an already completely super-saturated marketplace. This theatre will face over 150 screens in direct competition within a 10 miles radius. Additionally, Camera lacks the finances to make this a truly state of the art theatre. Case in point is their Dolby Digital sound system plan—most “state of the art” cinemas these days spend the extra money for THX certification to tout that comment. I’m sure this Cinema will be very modern in comparison to its dumpy dirty Camera 3 just across the street, but a brand new Daewoo Hatchback still isn’t a Mercedes. This Daewoo will charge Mercedes prices, but not provide the amenties of AMC or Century, or the friendly feel of CineLux. Boo!
I find that last comment interesting, considering that Camera’s original intensions was to move into the Pavilion, but that deal had fallen through at that time(2002). Camera was then focusing on expanding the Camera 3 space into the Kinko’s next door to it(and adding two additional screens). The Camera One was to shut down in either event.
Camera has done a very good job with turning a long shuttered UA theater (the Pruneyard 3 in Campbell) into the Camera 7. I would love to see this suceed.
Construction has just begun on the tranformation of the United Artists Pavilion into the CAMERA 12 CINEMAS, opening in May 2004. The Camera One and Camera Three theatres will close when the 12 opens.
This fine example of steel and glass ultramodern hi-tech design is also known as the United Artists Theater complex, at Paseo de San Antonio in downtown San Jose at the VTA Light Rail stop by Starbuck’s coffee. Successful it was as architecture, but not as a commercial space, for some unknown reason (which many natives of San Jose believe was bad management) and now it sits empty and neglected, a sign of all that’s wrong with the City of San Jose’s downtown redevelopment plans. A similar theater in Burbank, for instance, does a thriving business. We hope it will be reoccupied as a multiplex theater by a major chain instead of being remodeled into something else, like a store.