AMC Kabuki 8

This opened on December 5th, 1986 as a cinema. Grand opening ad posted.

now the AMC Kabuki 8 again AMC has dropped this theater from the dine in brand https://www.amctheatres.com/movie-theatres/san-francisco/amc-kabuki-8

https://www.amctheatres.com/dolby https://www.amctheatres.com/prime hopefully one of these two get installed during the upgrade cycle that should be coming soon in 2018 or 2019. AMC is working to get all locations LEED complient or Energy star rated. the last remodel i was in had the paper towels replaced with the Dyson hand driers and signs explaining how the new restrooms were greener.

https://www.amctheatres.com/movie-theatres/san-francisco/amc-dine-in-kabuki-8 the DOJ trade off already happened they spun off the few that had to go so it’s back as a AMC. it also marked as a “Dine-In Express Pick-up” location so they have the full dine-in menu but you order it and pick it up at the booth and carry it in to the theater. the table may have to wait for a full renovation of the auditorums to add tables.

So AMC had to sell this theatre because of purchasing Loews, then they got it back as a result of purchasing Carmike. Is AMC selling a nearby theatre so they don’t have too much market share? If not, it was silly to make them sell this theatre in the first place.

I want to go visit and see if it’s actually become any more “Dine-In” than it was before as Sundance. I think it’s somewhat misleading to call it a “Dine In Theatre” when it’s not one devoted to full meal service.

Saw Midnight In Paris and The Dark Knight Rises here. Nice organic snack-bar and doesn’t show previews before the film (halleluah!), but they’re kind of jerks checking for IDs outside your theater AFTER one has purchased an alcoholic beverage there.

Photos of the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas can be seen on this page at the web site of ELS Architecture and Urban Design, the Berkeley firm that designed the renovation. D.Jamie Rusin was the principal architect for the project.

Previously, ELS has been involved in several restoration and adaptive reuse projects at historic theaters. The include the conversion of the Portland Theatre, Portland, Oregon, into the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall; the expansion and restoration of the California Theatre in San Jose; the restoration of the Fox Theatre in Oakland; and the expansion and restoration of the Grand Theatre at Tracy, California, for the Grand Theatre Center for the Arts.

When AMC acquired the former Japantown theater and made it a part of an eight-screen multiplex, it also acquired as part of the deal another operation called the Kabuki Hot Springs which was also a part of the original Japantown complex. It was a recreation of a traditional Japanese communal bath with the traditional amenities including the baths, massages, etc. (The exterior appears in the James Bond film “A View to a Kill” though the interior scene was probably filmed at Pinewood).

AMC actually gave it go although the idea of a Kansas City theater chain operating a business of this type was really laughable. The business was popular, and when it began to decline under AMC’s management, it was later sold off. It still exists today as the Kabuki Springs and Spa. There’s discussion of this odd little episode here: View link

The photo Chuck posted on 5/22/09 is NOT the Sundance Kabuki. The Kabuki was originally built by AMC and looks very much like a multiplex.

Seating capacities for the eight auditoriums are as follows (unless otherwise noted, the source of each number is the posted maximum occupancy sign outside each auditorium; counts include spaces for wheelchairs):
1 – 327 (downstairs), 182 (balcony) = 509 (summarized by online seating chart; downstairs count differs from posted occupancy of 305)
2 – 99
3 – 178
4 – 162
5 – 171
6 – 151
7 – 57 (manual count from online seating chart)
8 – 57 (manual count from online seating chart)
Total seats: 1384

The Sundance Kabuki officially opens Friday Dec 14th. Check out this link for the whole story on the transformation of SF’s first mutiplex to SF’s “greenist” theater.

View link