Southcenter Theatre, one of dying breed, likely to close
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The Southcenter Theatre — one of the area's largest remaining single-screen movie houses — appears doomed.
The last 70-mm Cinerama-capable theater to be built in North America is to be demolished to make way for a new Bahama Breeze restaurant, according to a notice posted on the building.
No dates have been announced. Theater managers have been told not to comment, and the bankrupt New York-based parent company, Loews Cineplex Entertainment, won't respond to inquiries about Southcenter.
The only public confirmation the theater is about to go dark is the "Notice of Land Use Action," dated July 17 and posted outside the theater at 15700 Southcenter Parkway in Tukwila. Also posted: a "Notice of Anticipated Determination of Nonsignificance." The determination relates to environmental impact, but the meaning is broader for movie buffs.
"What a loss! This is the only Cinerama theater still functioning with its huge, curved screen on the West Coast," said Matt Lutthans, founder of the Cinerama Society of Seattle.
Built in 1970, the auditorium has 1,228 seats and a screen measuring 32 feet by 88 feet. Or, as Lutthans put it, "Not just the typical crackerbox movie experience." (The renovated downtown Seattle Cinerama has about 800 seats and for most films uses a screen that is only slightly curved.)
Like other local aficionados, Lutthans complained that mediocre films and poor maintenance at the Southcenter building have harmed the place. For example, Southcenter was an ideal venue for the grandeur of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" in 1981 but was later too often saddled with head-scratchers such as "Gone Fishin' " while big movies such as "The Phantom Menace" went to less spectacular local theaters in the Loews chain.
Industry sources say business is still healthy enough for Southcenter Theatre to operate in the black. Then why tear down the building?
It may just be a corporate business decision. Loews, like every other major theater chain, has fallen on financial hard times due to an overbuilding of theaters and several years of weak films.
"We're operating in Chapter 11," said Loews spokeswoman Mindy Tucker, who would speak only in general terms about the chain's 261 North American theaters. "We've closed a fair amount, but there's still a fair amount to go."
Loews has already closed the City Centre and the Totem Lake theaters.
Locally, the company also owns the Northgate Theatre, as well as the Meridian 16, Uptown, Oak Tree, Lewis and Clark, Factoria, Woodinville, Redmond Town Center, Kirkland Park Place and the Grand Cinemas in Lynnwood.
Mark Rahner can be reached at 206-464-8259 or mrahner@seattletimes.com.