The operators of Lamorinda's two landmark theatres are struggling to find a way to fund a required transition from film to digital projection.
Movie studios are abandoning the old 35mm film canisters in favor of digital projection for their new releases. Film buffs may prefer the old reel-to-reel projectors but theatre managers say they need to make the transition in order to get the latest movies, draw the crowds and stay competitive.
The problem? The digital projection equipment will cost a bunch of money the two theatres may not be able to come up with in time.
"We are still looking into fundraising, and we will have an official message soon -- in the next two weeks or so," Manager Beau Behan said Tuesday.
In the meantime, most of the major film studios have already stopped mailing out their latest blockbusters to smaller movie houses in favor of digital distribution methods that save them time and money. Small movie houses, like and the New Rheem Theatre, will need to make the switch to digital projection in order to get the latest crowd-pleasing movies and stay competitive -- and insiders say that bill is going to come due in a few months.
Theatre supporters say that's the problem: Orinda needs three digital projectors and Rheem would need four -- at a cost of about $60,000 each.
Zowie. Theatre lovers and local film buffs are biting their nails -- not over the latest plot twist in Mission Impossible -- but rather if the area's two theatres will be able to come up with enough movie moolah to keep the doors open and the lights on for years more to come.
Parcel tax? I'm kidding... I'm kidding
Fact is the overhead and code limits communities such as ours add to the process make even the crappy strip malls you loath, too expensive to develop unless you want to build out residential to higher densities. However, this would create a collective scream that could be heard from here to LA. I am afraid what you see already may be as good as it gets. The ROI just isn't here.
Show me the money......that's all that matters. Their time has passed. Buy some of the seats for your theatre room when they liquidate. I am going to WC to see Mission Impossible on the XD screen, theatre seating is awesome. HVAC works great. Doesn't smell like an old theatre. Can play video games with kids afterwards . Go out to dinner at 50 different places of my choosing. When I spend $60+ for a movie I want all of it. Our restrictive zoning and endless architectural review process has done what it was intended to do, kill the commercial development in this area. The only people who kind of get it around here are Lafayette and Walnut Creek.
I have to second CJ's post and paraphrase: Have some faith that downtown Orinda could become something better, with interesting updated architecture and more of the kinds of businesses you really want to patronize (like Noah's, Jamba Juice and Yogurt Shack, that many of us visit frequently, in Lafayette). Some amount of higher-density residential-above-retail would be a welcome addition here, IMO. And, to your point about identifying architecture, as a nearly-native Moragan who lived next to St Mary's, I would vote for SMC's Spanish colonial style chapel, front and center on the campus. It's not going anywhere, even as they expand. It's truly beautiful.
It never ceases to amaze me that people complain about how bad Moraga is (no retail... no entertainment) but then don't see there way to support the businesses that are here.
The Orinda Theater has a bit more pizazz and function. It is visible from the freeway and Bart. It is a uniting symbol for a town split in half by a freeway. By all means, fight for it.