Cinerama temporarily closes for renovations

Seattle’s Cinerama announced Tuesday it will be closed for renovations, promising to “reopen later this year ahead of the year’s biggest films.”

UPDATE: Cinerama is temporarily closing for renovations. pic.twitter.com/lRhNhsE7e2

— Seattle Cinerama (@SeattleCinerama) February 4, 2020

One of Seattle’s oldest movie theaters, Cinerama first opened in 1963, and became a local favorite for moviegoers to watch big-screen films. In the ’80s and ’90s, Cinerama entered a state of disrepair. Paul Allen’s Vulcan Inc. bought Cinerama in 1998 and financed a major renovation with a new sound and speaker system to create an immersive theater experience, reopening in 1999. More recently, the theater closed for renovations six years ago in 2014, which included state-of-the-art technologies, new seats, displays from Paul Allen’s personal movie collection, and updated concessions.

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The Seattle Times reported that this year’s round of renovations will include new carpet, general wear-and-tear fixes, and an updated menu.

Reports on social media started to surface on Twitter early Tuesday that members of the Cinerama staff may be out of a job while the theater is closed. This was later confirmed, and Vulcan’s representative gave the following statement to The Seattle Times: “We retained the necessary staff to complete the renovation. We were unable to retain concession staff, since we will be closed and unable to give staff hours over the next several months. While we don’t discuss employment terms publicly, we are working with impacted individuals to ease their transition.’

On a positive note for those with a sweet tooth: According to a Cinerama rep who spoke with Eater Seattle, the chocolate popcorn will be back.

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Cinerama encouraged fans to follow its social media channels for progress updates.