Uptown Theatre

rivjr

What do you mean by the Tivoli was doomed. Do you mean people stopped going to the theatres or they closed??

I think what he was saying about 300 stadium seats is that they were not stadium before the renovation.

Also I am sorry that II said it may be twinned. Someone bit my heard off. There are plenty of old houses that are chopped even now like the Pavillion in Brooklyn.

AMC will not twin the theater, they dont operate twins either. What they will do is operate it at what they think will generate the highest profit until the lease runs out. At that point they’ll either choose to leave or renew the lease. I do believe that this is the only single screener that they operate courtesy of the loews cineplex merger/buyout. The twinning of theaters is not the way things are done anymore. It’s brand new stadium complexes, and that’s what American Multi Cinema is building. They are just plain closing what they call non-strategic assets they’ve been doing that for the last 6 years.

The Uptown has equipment in it that is suitable for a theatre of this size. AMC does not know how to handle such a thing so they plan on installing equipment suitable for a mall type theatre. They think of the Dolby CP200 as too old…never mind that it has been upgraded and is up to date. They plan on replacing the stage speakers…never mind what they put in will not have the ability to fill the room…and…they are only planning on 3-screen channels…the Uptown has always used 5-channels behind the screen since 70mm was installed back in the 50s. The Left and Right speakers are 20-feet beyond the 1.85 image and would be covered by either the curtain or the masking (not acoustically transparent). Left-Center and Right-Center would diminish a 35mm Scope or 70mm show if the full screen width is used and once again the speakers are 20-feet inboard from the edge. Classic 70mm films have 5-screen channels too.

What it amounts to is not knowing what they are doing…but that seems to be just par for the course in the last couple of years. You can NOT treat a venue such as the Uptown like a common multiplex theatre. That is dumb as expecting a multiplex theatre to survive by only opening its largest house.

While there are improvements to be had in the Uptown’s sound, removing the Altec A-4s or the Dolby CP200 is not how to do it. Better to update the A4s with Manatary horns and carefully aim them. The A4 are absolutely the right speaker for the job in this venue. In fact, A2s would be nice.

How could they downgrade the sound system? If a system is already in place, why take the time and expense to install inferior equipment? Englighten us, please.

Its depressing to read all of this, but I already knew this place was going down hill for awhile. The interesting thing about all of this is that this movie theater still hosts world premieres and benefit screenings. They must hire a projectionist for that.

Its depressing to read all of this, but I already knew this place was going down hill for awhile. The interesting thing about all of this is that this movie theater still hosts world premieres and benefit screenings. They must hire a projectionist for that.

Static is caused by the air being too dry not too humid. Thats why booth installed humidifiers in the winter to try and help this problem. This has not been an issue much anyway since they improved the polyester film stock. With a single screen theater, a projectionist definitely CAN help with a print if there is a static issue.

Heat and humidity will bother the polyester film stock used by the studios today. It creates static, and the layers of film don’t peel apart easily and now and then more than one layer gets pulled into the brain causing a wrap – even with a professional projectionist hovering over it.

An item from today’s Washington Post:

Look! Up in the Sky, It’s … Nothing

The Uptown Theater and “Superman Returns ” battled more than Lex Luthor last week.
On opening day, the historic Cleveland Park theater blew a fuse before the show and sent disappointed matinee fans into the streets. On Saturday, the afternoon crowd was on the edge of its seats as Lois Lane , her young son and her boyfriend were trapped inside a sinking yacht … then the screen turned into a blob of yellow, and a voice in the dark said ominously, “Short delay … technical difficulties.” Turns out the film snapped in two; unhappy audience members got vouchers for another screening.

Same day, three hours later: The date-night crowd endured a 35-minute delay, an extended intermission to change reels, and an overheated auditorium.

An AMC spokeswoman says heat and humidity caused the film to warp, thus the problems. By Sunday, replacement reels had arrived to let “Superman” once again fly high.

Somehow I have to wonder if all these incidents were caused by heat and humidity or maybe the lack of professional projectionists at this theatre.

Well it has now been over a year since I worked the Uptown…I was one of the projectionists at the Uptown from 1988 until 2005. After college, I only worked Saturdays though. I can honestly say, we had the best show in town. What some projectionists think as a clean/sharp print woudn’t cut it at the Uptown. The screen is so big and curved, any damage just shows up more and scractches take on a curved appearance.

Focus was another issue. 35mm is too small a gauge for the Uptown’s screen. The relatively poorly made prints of today really don’t have a great focus to begin with..combine that with the small gauge and the deep curve screen, which taxes the depth of focus of the lens, and you have a very tricky arrangement. While I was there, focus was checked at least every 5-minutes to ensure it is at its best. Some films were just a demonstration of futility. CinemaScope films being the worst for the Uptown due to lenses adding the most to the image challenges.

70mm is the only format the Uptown should run. It is the only format that has the resolution, light throughput and the projection lens at the Uptown is designed for the curved screen. Yes, even 35mm blow-ups to 70mm would make (and have made) HUGE differences.

As for DLP…it is definately is not up to the task at the moment. The depth of focus is not up to the task, the resolution is not good enough either. While I know that Jodar posted above about the Crown (I was part of that installation team…at least on the original system), but you are comparing apples to oranges. Technicolor limited us to 40-foot wide screens for those installations so they WOULD look good and bright. While they are in many ways quite good, they are not really at the level that cinemas should be striving for. 35mm film has the capability to exceed even 2K DCinema. DCinema needs to try and meet/exceed 70mm capability and offer an improvement.

As for the Uptown’s sound…it suffers from lack of attention combined with being played with by the latest special show that comes to town. The equipment within the place is quite good and you won’t do much better just by replacing it (in fact you will most likely do worse). The Uptown’s sound systems is quite similar to the Senator’s in Baltimore, MD. Altec A-4 stage speakers, JBL subwoofers, Altec A-7 surrounds (12 of them), QSC amps, and the Dolby CP200 (upgraded). Probably the best the Uptown sounded was back when three of us tuned the room for a Paramount film with Al Matano…we had three analyzers going for the various zones throughout the room…one could really balance it out better than even with just a multiplexed mic system…and then critical listening was done by several people rather than taking just one person’s opinion. As some have discovered…the sound in a room that large can vary quite a bit…a bit tinny downstairs towards the screen (in the middle, particularly), and notably subdued in the balcony. Then again, many techs don’t realize there are two HF horn systems for each speaker to properly cover the Balcony and main section separately. The potential to have good sound there is indeed doable…just not every tech is up to the task nor has the time available (nor prior experience) to do it.

As to the projection at the Uptown…I left shortly after the platter went in. However, once the non-projectionists started to operate, the equipment damage as well as print damage had started. Shutters were damaged, among other things. They went through several prints of THE AVIATOR in the weeks after I departed. I still hear of continual print damage to this day (March 2006) though I do not have first hand knowledge of it anymore. Given the operating policy there…I can’t see how it could be any other way though.

The short-term answer there is not DCinema…it is 70mm with projectionists. When DCinema technology reaches the level of 70mm, then it will be time.

However, the sad thing that is also true for movies at the moment…they need to make something worth watching. Movies that have a number after the name or have the same name as a TV show just is not original thinking. Hollywood needs to start making good movies again and shooting them in 65mm as if they actually cared about the movie at the start.

Steve

I also attended King Kong this past weekend. The Uptown is not falling apart. Some armrests need repair in the balcony, but that’s all. I was told the landlord would show movies if AMC pulls out, and had shown them before. That makes the landlord the Pedas Brothers who had the Circle chain, selling the Chain (but apparently not the Uptown building) to Cineplex Odeon, which then merged into Loews, and is now merging into AMC.

What will save the Uptown for some time is PATRONAGE. From New York City to Washington, there’s not a greater moviehouse experience than the Uptown! The exterior is a great, and the auditorium’s huge 70 to
80 feet wide movie screen fantastic!

I also saw the restored Lawrence of Arabia, My Fair Lady, and Vertigo, and agree such experiences were wonderful. In the last few years, I also enjoyed restored or reissues of Raiders of the Lost Arc, 2001, and Alien, and new movies. In 1997, I enjoyed the Warner Bros 75th Anniv. films, and the big screen epics like The Wild Bunch and Blade Runner were terrific on the huge screen. And, I’ve been fortunate to see many other classics & new films there.

AFI isn’t going to takeover the Uptown. They have the Silver. The Avalon programs arthouse & classics in a historic moviehouse. The Uptown is too big for arthouse of fulltime classic. The asset is the enormous auditorum including balcony.

As to original decoration, it looks like the ceiling was gutted. My gut feeling is American Indian decoration on the walls is also gone, but I don’t know for sure. We found lots of decoration hidden in niches in the Boyd auditorium, but you could see those niches still present. Although the Uptown’s original decoration appears neat in photos, it was relatively modest. For full Art Deco spendlor, visit the Boyd in Philadelphia when it reopens in 2007,
www.FriendsOfTheBoyd.org

Again, patronize the Uptown if you like it. And, buy from the concession counter, because that’s how the operator profits, and profits keep the place open, and only profits will keep it open. Otherwise, it may end up being a giant retail store. Anybody really prefer the CVS in the (also John Zink designed) MacArthur?

The 10 AMC/Loews theatres mentioned above are not closing, they are going to be sold to other operators to prevent acusations of monopoly in certain markets. This was negotiated with the Justice Dept. and various state attorneys general in order to get approval of the merger. Don’t worry, they will still be around, just not operated by AMC or Loews anymore.