What is a movie theater in 2015? In fact, it is many things. The business of operating a movie theater is in a state of flux. Movie theaters are trying to reinvent themselves. Are they bars? Restaurants? Charitable organizations? Places for mommy meet ups? Corporate meet ups? Music venues? Portals to a performance thousands of miles away?
In case you don’t know where The Varsity Theater is, it is in the University District at 4329 University Way. It was previously owned by Landmark Theaters, but is now owned by Faraway Entertainment which also owns the Admiral Theater in West Seattle. Landmark has been shedding cinemas for a few years now. They have sold The Neptune, The Uptown and The Harvard Exit. The The Uptown in Queen Anne was also closed but it was not owned by Landmark. It is now operated by SIFF. Landmark currently owns The Guild 45 in Wallingford. Should we be worried?
I visited The Varsity Theater for an open house they scheduled to show off their refurbishment after changing ownership. The place appears to be a whole lot cleaner than I remember. The seats look comfortable. Their web site states: “We have completed the conversion from 35mm film to all digital cinema with digital surround sound.” They are still capable of showing 35mm and 16mm films in case you were wondering.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, The Varsity and The Guild 45 both have crying rooms if you’re a new parent and you still want to go to the movies. It’s a great resource that few know about. For old times sake, I asked if I could see the Crying Room at The Varsity. It looked just as spiffy as the rest of the cinema. If interested, you should call either cinema for more information.
I hadn’t realized that The Varsity has free parking after 6:00 pm and on weekends. See their web site for details.
Another trendy diversification of movie theaters is to show arts or sports events, and so too will The Varsity. On July 15th and July 22nd they will be showing live operas via satellite from The Metropolitan Opera in New York.
Can movie theaters be all of these different things? It will be interesting to see where the business lands in the next ten years. Meanwhile Meaningful Movies in Wallingford is bringing in a hundred people every Friday night, so maybe it is our definition of what a movie theater is that will change.
are you certain that the uptown was owned by landmark??? it was never part of the seven gables theatre chain (which was purchased by landmark i dunno how many years ago) which used to own and/or operate the seven gables, the egyptian, the harvard exit, the guild 45th, the varsity, the neptune, and i think the crest…landmark also had the metro which is now sundance…but i never remember the uptown being part of landmark.
Good catch. Apparently it was most recently operated by AMC: http://www.king5.com/story/news/2014/07/30/12896888/