Movies could be be shown again at the State. The “ban” on movies that many theater companies place in the covenants are for first run product. This applies only to properties that the theater company actually own outright and not lease. Also please remember there are two things working in Harlequin’s favor if they wanted to show movies again:
Act 3 Theaters was only leasing the theater from the then building owner Henry McCleary.
The entity (Act 3 Theaters) that placed the “ban” no longer exists thus the “ban” no longer exists.
Many stage production groups are finding out that only stage plays don’t pay the bills. Some have found that also showing movies have really helped their bottom line. The Opera Pacifica group that’s restoring the Fox Theater in Centralia is going to be running movies and stage plays/operas. I will be installing 35mm projection/sound equipment for them.
You need to visit the wonderfully restored single screen Chehalis Theater in Chehalis, Washington. It’s a very successful first run movie theater with top-notch 35mm projection and sound. This was a dead neighborhood theater until Daryl Lund bought it and restored it. The pictures currently posted on this site and cinematour.com don’t show the latest upgrades to the Chehalis. The owner vows to stay with film projection as it’s been very reliable & economical.
In Centralia, Washington is the McMenamin’s Olympic Club Theater which is a “brew pub” (food and a movie) setup in a single screen historic building. They show second run 35mm movies and are also very successful. The McMenamin chain is well known and well run here in the Pacific Northwest. Check out www.mcmenamin.com for more information on their theaters (all single screens!).
“And from the movie theater operator’s perspective, the advantages of digital cinema over conventional film projection are tremendous!”
Will it lower ‘program’ rental costs? NO! Will it lower ticket prices? NO! Will it make the story or acting better? NO!
“And aside from overcoming high film dstribution costs. Unlike how it is with digital, film wears out.”
With proper handling film can last a long time. Many lost classic films have been saved thanks to someone finding a film print that had been squirreled away somewhere. Motion picture film standards have been in place for 100 years and those same standards are constant throughout the world. Video standards & formats change from minute-to-minute and standards are different in different countries.
“Not only that, but it can break suddenly, causing dark screen in the middle of a presentation.”
And the video server can lockup, skip, strobe the image, crash, or just plain die at anytime during a show.
“Furthermore, there’s very little that can be done to enhance the image that’s being projected from film.”
Keep the film clean, keep the projector clean, keep the booth clean, make sure the lamphouse has the proper wattage bulb, keep the reflector clean and adjusted properly, clean the lenses, clean the porthole glass, monitor the audio volume.
“With digital cinema, suddenly the projectionist has the power to increase or decrease color saturation, adjust the contrast, etc., to enable the customers to see the movie at its absolute best. In brief, the projectionist becomes part of the art making process in that sense.”
Oh great, now the ‘projectionist’ is a censor/editor. Now he/she/it can blur out things the projectionist thinks I would be offended seeing. Or the projectionist could cut out words I shouldn’t hear. Or the projectionist could ‘remove’ the cigarettes that the characters are smoking on screen.
There were two people that I know of who were also looking at purchasing the State theater for use as a movie theater at that time. One of them is a good friend of mine who owns & operates the restored single screen Chehalis Theater in Chehalis.
IMO, they should have stayed in the Washington Center since that was where all the stage groups were supposed to be.
The marquee at the State was already supposed to be restored when they reopened it, but soon the pidgeon problem returned. So now they need to ‘restore’ it again? The roof was replaced when they reopened the State. So now they need to ‘repair’ that too? Go back to the Washington Center where all the stage productions belong. Put movies back at the State.
It’s still a digital video presentation. Why would I as a customer go to your building to watch a video when I can watch videos at home? Film belongs in theaters and video belongs in your living room IMO.
“Film is a dying format”. That’s a bunch of b.s. Sounds like you’ve been listening to the digital video cinema marketing hype.
Eastman Kodak still is manufacturing millions of feet of motion picture film every year. Tens of thousands of theaters all over the world still use 35mm motion picture film every day and will continue to do so for many years to come.
“Filmed” in high definition? A video about the moviegoing experience.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d like to see something on this subject, but if they are going to do a feature on the moviegoing experience, then it should be shot of film and shown on film. Otherwise they might as well just put this stright to video.
In November 1981 there was a huge windstorm that blew down the left one-third of the screen. Theater closed and sat for several years before being torn down.
As I mentioned in the above post, the Daily World newspaper (Aberdeen, Wash.) had some interior photos in a story they did when the theater was torn down.
Jack Ondracek (owner/operator of the Rodeo drive-in Theater in Port Orchard, Wash) used to work at this theater. He can provide you with some more information.
The ticketing system and snack bar cash registers are now updated to modern touch screens and you can use credit/debit cards at this theater for food and tickets.
“American General Luxury Cinemas” is the wrong name entirely for the theater company that split the theater up in 1982. It was Tom Moyer’s “General American Theaters” (a.k.a. “Luxury Theatres”) from Portland, Oregon that operated the theater and did the work. They were bought out in 1990 by Act 3 Theaters and in 1998, Act 3 was bought by Regal Cinemas.
A quick phone call to Scott Hicks' American Cinema Equipment (www.cinequip.com) in Portland, Oregon could get you a package deal on all the used projection/sound equipment needed to operate this theater.
Yes the theater has opened. They just did an opera last weekend. Movies are scheduled to run on these dates: Dec 17-18, and Dec. 23-24, 2005.
Movies could be be shown again at the State. The “ban” on movies that many theater companies place in the covenants are for first run product. This applies only to properties that the theater company actually own outright and not lease. Also please remember there are two things working in Harlequin’s favor if they wanted to show movies again:
Act 3 Theaters was only leasing the theater from the then building owner Henry McCleary.
The entity (Act 3 Theaters) that placed the “ban” no longer exists thus the “ban” no longer exists.
Many stage production groups are finding out that only stage plays don’t pay the bills. Some have found that also showing movies have really helped their bottom line. The Opera Pacifica group that’s restoring the Fox Theater in Centralia is going to be running movies and stage plays/operas. I will be installing 35mm projection/sound equipment for them.
It would be helpful to know what kind of sound equipment you have now. Specifically we need to know makes and models of:
soundhead
audio processor/preamp
monitor amplifier
power amplifier
screen speaker(s)
surround speakers (if present)
You need to visit the wonderfully restored single screen Chehalis Theater in Chehalis, Washington. It’s a very successful first run movie theater with top-notch 35mm projection and sound. This was a dead neighborhood theater until Daryl Lund bought it and restored it. The pictures currently posted on this site and cinematour.com don’t show the latest upgrades to the Chehalis. The owner vows to stay with film projection as it’s been very reliable & economical.
In Centralia, Washington is the McMenamin’s Olympic Club Theater which is a “brew pub” (food and a movie) setup in a single screen historic building. They show second run 35mm movies and are also very successful. The McMenamin chain is well known and well run here in the Pacific Northwest. Check out www.mcmenamin.com for more information on their theaters (all single screens!).
“And from the movie theater operator’s perspective, the advantages of digital cinema over conventional film projection are tremendous!”
Will it lower ‘program’ rental costs? NO! Will it lower ticket prices? NO! Will it make the story or acting better? NO!
“And aside from overcoming high film dstribution costs. Unlike how it is with digital, film wears out.”
With proper handling film can last a long time. Many lost classic films have been saved thanks to someone finding a film print that had been squirreled away somewhere. Motion picture film standards have been in place for 100 years and those same standards are constant throughout the world. Video standards & formats change from minute-to-minute and standards are different in different countries.
“Not only that, but it can break suddenly, causing dark screen in the middle of a presentation.”
And the video server can lockup, skip, strobe the image, crash, or just plain die at anytime during a show.
“Furthermore, there’s very little that can be done to enhance the image that’s being projected from film.”
Keep the film clean, keep the projector clean, keep the booth clean, make sure the lamphouse has the proper wattage bulb, keep the reflector clean and adjusted properly, clean the lenses, clean the porthole glass, monitor the audio volume.
“With digital cinema, suddenly the projectionist has the power to increase or decrease color saturation, adjust the contrast, etc., to enable the customers to see the movie at its absolute best. In brief, the projectionist becomes part of the art making process in that sense.”
Oh great, now the ‘projectionist’ is a censor/editor. Now he/she/it can blur out things the projectionist thinks I would be offended seeing. Or the projectionist could cut out words I shouldn’t hear. Or the projectionist could ‘remove’ the cigarettes that the characters are smoking on screen.
Video in theaters——NO THANKS.
There were two people that I know of who were also looking at purchasing the State theater for use as a movie theater at that time. One of them is a good friend of mine who owns & operates the restored single screen Chehalis Theater in Chehalis.
IMO, they should have stayed in the Washington Center since that was where all the stage groups were supposed to be.
The marquee at the State was already supposed to be restored when they reopened it, but soon the pidgeon problem returned. So now they need to ‘restore’ it again? The roof was replaced when they reopened the State. So now they need to ‘repair’ that too? Go back to the Washington Center where all the stage productions belong. Put movies back at the State.
It’s still a digital video presentation. Why would I as a customer go to your building to watch a video when I can watch videos at home? Film belongs in theaters and video belongs in your living room IMO.
“Film is a dying format”. That’s a bunch of b.s. Sounds like you’ve been listening to the digital video cinema marketing hype.
Eastman Kodak still is manufacturing millions of feet of motion picture film every year. Tens of thousands of theaters all over the world still use 35mm motion picture film every day and will continue to do so for many years to come.
“Filmed” in high definition? A video about the moviegoing experience.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d like to see something on this subject, but if they are going to do a feature on the moviegoing experience, then it should be shot of film and shown on film. Otherwise they might as well just put this stright to video.
Hmm…. my 1953 theater guide shows the D&R and the Seventh Street theaters being operated by Evergreen, but not the Weir.
Some public domain films still have music contained within the soundtrack that are still under copyright protection.
I dunno, this sounds like a flaky idea to me.
In November 1981 there was a huge windstorm that blew down the left one-third of the screen. Theater closed and sat for several years before being torn down.
As I mentioned in the above post, the Daily World newspaper (Aberdeen, Wash.) had some interior photos in a story they did when the theater was torn down.
Too bad, it sure would have been a nice place. :(
Maybe we should work on buying the land the Harbor Drive-in Theater was on and rebuild it.
Jack Ondracek (owner/operator of the Rodeo drive-in Theater in Port Orchard, Wash) used to work at this theater. He can provide you with some more information.
How about pictures of the interior of this theater. Pictures of the inside of the projection booth would be nice, too.
Built by Tom Moyer’s portland, Oregon based Luxury Theatres circuit in the early 1980’s.
Is the theater being remodeled? I’m in Olympia and I’ve only seen the outside of your nice little theater. Any pictures of the interior?
It’s sad to see this nice little theater abandonded and neglected. Seems that nobody cares about this little treasure.
The ticketing system and snack bar cash registers are now updated to modern touch screens and you can use credit/debit cards at this theater for food and tickets.
I worked for Capitol Amusement and we had a couple of video arcade games in the theater during it’s last year of operation as a movie theater.
“American General Luxury Cinemas” is the wrong name entirely for the theater company that split the theater up in 1982. It was Tom Moyer’s “General American Theaters” (a.k.a. “Luxury Theatres”) from Portland, Oregon that operated the theater and did the work. They were bought out in 1990 by Act 3 Theaters and in 1998, Act 3 was bought by Regal Cinemas.
A quick phone call to Scott Hicks' American Cinema Equipment (www.cinequip.com) in Portland, Oregon could get you a package deal on all the used projection/sound equipment needed to operate this theater.
Don’t get rid of that boxoffice (a.k.a. ticket booth). It’s easy to refurbish and you’ll need it to sell tickets.
It makes your theater look cheap if you have to go inside the building to buy tickets so please keep the boxoffice in use!