Seattle Cinerama to reopen December 14 under new name

[jmowreader]

https://www.siff.net/cinema/cinema-venues/siff-cinema-downtown

Paul G. Allen bought the old Cinerama Theater in Seattle, one of the two cinemas in the world that can screen three-strip Cinerama films, in the 1990s. (Cinerama was an early widescreen process that was...well, a total pain in the ass to both make movies in and to present in a theater. It was shot with three cameras sitting side-by-side, and projected from three projectors onto a bowl-shaped screen.) After Mr. Allen died his beloved theater was closed.

The Seattle International Film Festival bought the theater recently, and will reopen it on December 14 as "SIFF Cinema Downtown" with a screening of the new movie "Wonka." SIFF says this is a temporary name and the public will be involved in choosing its permanent name. A lot of the money they used to buy it from the Paul G. Allen Foundation was obtained from the Paul G. Allen Estate...don't ask.

SIFF says the biggest part of doing this was renovating equipment that hadn't run for three years. The building didn't need much more than a good cleaning and covering up any instance of the Cinerama brand, which they didn't get when they bought it.

And yes, they will have chocolate popcorn at the concession stand.

[LonePirate]

1. Glad the new owners are local as I am surprised one of the big chains did not snap it up.