What's the latest theatre to close or open you have heard about?

[Mike Rivest]

Here's what happened in 2019
find out by clicking on "new cinemas in 2019"

[Martin Brooks]

Thanks for this. I didn't realize the Beekman (which was not the original Beekman, but the theater that used to be called the Loews One and Two) had closed. The New Plaza is only opened as a theater about once a month. It's run by a non-profit group which rents the auditorium from New York Institute of Technology, but it just suffered major damage due to a water main break and the non-profit that rents it is looking for another facility for it's 2-year anniversary event in which they were intending to show Cinema Paradiso.

[Jim Cassedy]

It looks like THE CLAY theater in San Francisco is closing (again!) - - This is the 2nd or 3rd time in a
decade or more I can recall reading about it's impending demise, but it always seems to have gotten
'saved' somehow at the last minute. This time however, seems to be "the final nail in the coffin"
(maybe?)
> I always thought The Clay would be a great place to hold a GUMBY Film Festival <

CLAY THEATER TO CLOSE?

One of San Francisco's last standing neighborhood movie houses, the Clay Theatre on upper Fillmore,
is reportedly screening its final film on Sunday, January 26 after 110 years in Pacific Heights.

The theater that has been best known in recent decades for midnight screenings of The Room and The
Rocky Horror Picture Show has repeatedly been in the news regarding its possible demise. But this time
it sounds definitive, and the staff was just informed of the closure on Thursday. Projectionist Michael Blythe
relayed the news on Facebook, saying he is "heartbroken" and adding, "It is a super hard situation for me
as I love the building so much, and untimely have little control of what is going to happen."

SFist is taking the news with some slight caution only because the theater has had a couple of closing
scares in the last decade. A full ten years ago, in August 2010, there was a notice posted in the box office
window announcing the cinema's closure, but it was apparently saved by activists who appealed to the landlord.
Back in 2016, the Clay announced that it was renovating and trying to add beer and wine sales, in an effort to stay
afloat. As of Friday afternoon, no one was answering the phone at the theater's box office to confirm the closure.

Since 1991, the Clay has been managed by the Landmark Theatres chain.

According to Blythe, the staff has been aware for years that the landlord had plans for the property, which may
or may not include razing the single-screen theater.

The Clay has some serious history with the midnight-movie set, having screened San Francisco's very first
midnight movie, John Waters' Pink Flamingos, in 1972. As the New Fillmore blog explains, Waters' muse Divine
attended a screening at the Clay in 1985, when the small theater, curiously, hosted the world premiere of the
Western spoof Lust in the Dust, in which he costarred with Cesar Romero and Tab Hunter. The movie later
became a cult classic.

Many of SF's historic single-screen movie houses have closed or been converted for another use in the last
couple decades. The Alhambra on Polk Street and the Metro on Union have both been transformed into gyms.

And while the Castro, Roxie, Presidio, Vogue, and Balboa theaters soldier on as independent houses, we lost the
Bridge Theatre on Geary back in 2013, and the long-shuttered Alexandria Theater in the Richmond was approved
in 2019 to become a private pool and recreation complex.

Blythe said that the final film to be screened at the Clay on the 26th has not been decided.

[Mike Rivest]

Clay theatre: April 10th, 1935 grand opening ad

Clay 1935 04 10.JPG

[Carl Martin]

you sure that's the grand opening? other sources say 1910.

[Martin McCaffery]

Appears to have opened as The Regent in 1910. So the above is probably the Grand Re-Opening under the new name.

[Mike Croaro]

I do not believe the Clay is profitable anymore. Whenever I go there, the crowds are VERY VERY sparse. Sadly, I have been expecting this for some time.

[Daniel Fredrickson]

A few months behind us now but Fairchild Cinemas opened the Southgate 10 in Kennewick, WA on 11/21/19 (https://www.bigscreen.com/j/Kennewic...-Now-Open/5740) and over in the Boise, ID area the Eagle Luxe Reel Theatre (11 screens) opened on 11/23/19 (https://idahobusinessreview.com/2019...pens-in-eagle/). The Boise-based Reel Theatre company is trying to break out of second-run into a luxury brand.

[Tim Androes]

Seattle's Cinerama closed abruptly this week "for renovations".

[Martin Brooks]

Seattle's Cinerama closed abruptly this week "for renovations".

This is what's on their website:
" WE'RE RENOVATING!

Cinerama fans! We’d like to let you know we are temporarily closing to renovate the theater.

Cinerama has been operating nearly nonstop for over five years and has had over a million guests through the doors. We will be making updates to keep Cinerama the most epic movie theater experience in Seattle.

We are excited to reopen later this year ahead of the year’s biggest films.

We’ll keep you updated on our progress via our social media channels. Stay tuned for more and can’t wait to see you back at Cinerama when we reopen.

[Bobby Henderson]

I didn't know about this until just recently, but ShowBiz Cinemas opened its first big theater outside Texas in the Oklahoma City area in December. The theater is on Edmond's North side in a new development just off I-35 at Covell Road. The theater has 10 screens, all of which feature recliner seating. The biggest theater, an "SDX" screen, features a screen 75 wide, 4K laser projection and Dolby Atmos surround sound. The theater has a 14 lane bowling alley with a lane side cafe, full bar and a video game arcade.

[Mike Rivest]

ShowBiz also opened a 10-screen complex with an SDX screen on November 1st in Homestead (Miami), Florida.

[Bobby Henderson]

That ShowBiz location is outside Texas as well. I wonder why they were claiming that theater in Edmond was the first outside Texas then. It looks like the Homestead, FL and Edmond, OK locations are both very similar in offerings. I just hope the implementation of Atmos is good.

[Mike Blakesley]

The Plaza Six cinema in Butte Montana is closing next week. This will leave the city of Butte, the fifth largest city in the state of Montana, with zero movie theaters.
AMC bought this plex from Carmike when they did their acquisition. My guess is, attendance has faltered in recent years due to the place being a dump. I've never attended a movie there, but have friends who did. Back in the film days, you NEVER wanted to get a print that had been at the Plaza... the film was guaranteed to be scratched and dirty. (I speak from experience on that one.)

Anyway, some enterprising chain is bound to come in and open a nice theater in Butte, if they're smart.

Here's the newspaper article about the closure from the Butte newspaper. (Don't blame me that most of the paragraphs are one sentence long, I'm not the author!)

AMC THEATERS LEAVING BUTTE

AMC Theatres is closing at the Butte Plaza Mall next week, leaving the city without a movie house for the first time since the silent film era.

AMC Theatres’ corporate office in Leawood, Kansas confirmed Wednesday that the theater’s final day of operations in Butte will be Thursday, Feb. 20.

In the spring of 2016, AMC Entertainment purchased the Butte complex from Carmike Cinemas.

Efforts were made to obtain more information about the upcoming closure, and if there are any potential buyers, but those efforts were unsuccessful.

Alana Ferko, Butte Plaza Mall manager, had no comment about the closure.

Others were disappointed by the news.

“That’s just really going to hurt the community,” said Jocelyn Dodge, president of the Mother Lode Theatre.

Dodge is not alone.

Butte Undersheriff George Skuletich and his wife, Mary Anne, take their grandchildren to the movies at least once a month.

“It’s a terrible thing,” Skuletich said. “Going to the movies was something you could do as a family.”

Nearly 50 years ago, the complex opened as the Plaza I and Plaza II.

A large advertisement ran in the Friday, June 12, 1970, Montana Standard, calling the complex “Montana’s Newest & Finest Theatres.”

It’s worth noting that one of the two movies first featured was “Paint Your Wagon,” which starred Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood. The musical comedy centered on a town that had done so much underground mining, it collapsed.

One of its first customers was Northey Tretheway, who remembers when it opened.

Tretheway and his wife, Kim, are avid moviegoers, and head to AMC about three times a month.

Tretheway is sorely disappointed to hear about the closure, and has nothing but praise for its local employees. “Their work has been tremendous,” he said.

As for AMC, Tretheway doesn’t think the company did their part.

“AMC didn’t provide the needed upgrades,” he said. “They left it languish.”

Joe Willauer, who heads the Butte Local Development Corp., was disappointed as well.

“It’s frustrating to lose a resource like that which provides year-round entertainment,” he said.

According to Stephanie Sorini, Butte Chamber of Commerce director, Butte’s Economic Development team continues to grow Butte by recruiting retail and other companies.

"The Chamber of Commerce is extremely sad to hear the news that our AMC theaters are closing," she said.

Although there are never any guarantees, Willauer, Sorini, and other officials will be working on this as well.

“Now that we have this news,” Willauer said, “we’ll be looking for opportunities to find a replacement.”

Hope springs eternal for Tretheway as well.

“Butte is big enough to sustain a movie house,” he said. “Someone or some organization will fill this void and they will do it the right way.”

Montana Standard article: https://mtstandard.com/news/local/up...df22d5ae0.html

[Marcel Birgelen]

Don't be surprised if they open a brand-new AMC theater within a year or two at a new location. Often those places are closed down, because the terms on the lease are bad and putting in the money to renovate a place with a bad reputation isn't seen as a worthwhile investment.