Castro Theatre

From a Dec 5, 2022 article:

“A fight over seats could define the future of an iconic San Francisco movie theater”

NPR article

Another Planet’s latest seating proposal - a motorized raked floor. This is from their website with a video of how the floor would be transformed from (orchestra) seating to no seating. There is also a push coming from the Save The Castro conservancy to landmark the interior. The exterior is already landmarked.

AnotherPlanet

Hoodline article from March 17 has some of the architectural plans for orchestra level seating removal that are larger and viewable at this link:

Hoodline

mOOse1111…the marquee looks the same today as the photo I posted on July 2, 2021 (“Happy 99th Birthday”) in the photo pages.

Walking by the Castro today I noticed that the marquee has not been restored - yet. The very faded and peeling paint are still there. The neon on the vertical blade though appears to have been repaired after a naked man climbed it last August and damaged it.

“Castro Theatre will still show movies, new operator Another Planet assures distraught film fanatics”.

“People are making assumptions that are unfounded,” he (Greg Perloff, CEO and founder of Another Planet) said on Thursday, Jan. 20. “What we have talked about is doing a little of everything. The intention is to have film and film festivals, along with music and comedy and lectures. Ultimately, the public will tell us what they want to see.”

Here is G. Allen Johnson’s SF Chronicle article on the changes coming to the Castro and the importance of the Castro Theater to film lovers and film makers as a special place for cinema.

Castro

At least one article says “rehabbing the marquee” Many now have electronic signage on the marquee rather than just letters.

The 35mm/70mm projectors at SF’s Castro Theatre will not be used much now that a deal has been signed for ‘Another Planet Entertainment’ to take over the management and booking at this famous SF movie palace. The Nasser family will still own the building. The Nasser’s are mainly under ‘Bay Properties’ in the real estate business. Look what they have done to the Royal Theatre on Polk St, turned the cinema property into condos same with the Alhambra Theatre on Polk ST now a gym. At least the Nasser family won’t be knocking the Castro Theatre down for apartments or condos in the Castro area. The ‘Planet’ people say they will remodel the theatre with added lobby and stage space? The only way they can enlarge the small lobby is to turn the rental stores out front to new drink bar set up spaces inside. That’s how they can afford to pay for all the long delayed fix up work by charging inflated money for booze. The same with the very small backstage, I don’t think they will spend the money knocking down the back wall parking lot and extending the stage for live events. Planet will probably put in a thrust stage and take out 8 rows of seats or maybe take out all the seats downstairs like they have done at the Fox Oakland Theatre they book in Oakland CA. The old bathrooms downstairs need a major up grade. Forget the days of paying $9 to see a classic movie or double bill in 35mm film on the giant Castro screen. Be ready to come up with big bucks to sit or stand for a live show. They say they will still show some movies but this never happened at the Fox Oakland. Planet says they will up grade the neon marquee but I bet this will be a junky LED video screen that will flash and glare all over Castro St. No more plastic marquee letters. A new sound system is also planned but I don’t think It will be a nice surround Dolby Atmos® or Meyers® system for movies. They will probably hang ugly rock/music speakers on the side stage ceiling like at the Fox Oakland? Forget the days of seeing a double bill, going to a matinee, the smell of fresh popcorn in the lobby and hearing a live pipe organ pre show before the noisy gold curtains opened. Thanks to the Nasser family for holding on as long as they could in keeping some sort of showmanship at their famous SF movie theatre. Looks like the Drafthouse ‘New Mission Theatre’ in SF not far away still shows 35mm/70mm films in the larger downstairs auditorium with curtains with my friend ‘Jim’ as a live projectionist on duty. They don’t have all the seats as the Castro has but a least they may get some film festivals or show classic movies on film or DCP video. We hope ‘Another Planet’ still keeps as promised the new giant pipe/electric organ that was to go in and many people donated money for? We wish the new managers well and hope they can bring back all the color lights that once lit up the inside along with other up grades, time will tell. We will miss seeing movies all the time at the Castro Theatre.

The Castro’s website shows that films are back starting with Nightmare Alley (2021) tonight and a free showing of Spielberg’s West Side Story Dec 12 among others this month.

Amen to that!!

Too bad the “Movie Theatre News” on the home page has been ignored for so long. So I will post this here since SF is one of the 7 cities and the Castro one of the theaters presenting Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma in 70mm in Dec/January.

70mm Roma

From a paywalled LA Times article:

“Cuarón shot “Roma” on the Alexa65 digital camera, mastering at 4K resolution. FotoKem, the only remaining 70mm print lab worldwide, handled the transfer from digital to film, as well as the production of 70mm film prints.”

Finally after all these years of bad used small box no volume surround speakers on the side walls from the Blumenfeld Alhambra Theatre in SF the Castro Theatre will be getting a new kick ass stereo surround system we hear to go also along with their new electronic/pipe organ.

The Castro theatre appeared on an episide of Mythbusters(season 2, episode 34).

I bookmarked this from SF.Curbed.com and meant to post it a couple of weeks ago on the 95th anniversary of the theatre’s opening. Alex Bevk’s great article on the history of the Castro and it’s evolution into the 21st century also has some photos throughout the years.