Everytime I go by this theater I wonder why no one has stepped up to the plate to buy this treasure and fix it up. It’s sad to see this theater neglected!
Well after all these months, nothing more has been done. The walls have indeed been braced with a criss-cross mesh of steel “I” beams, but still no roof. The building is just an empty shell and is now boarded up at the street level to keep people out. Nothing is being done at this theater right now. :(
The keys to the Capital Mall Cinemas building have been officially turned in to the mall office. The mall will now develop that space into a different use (partly storage and a couple of small shops I think).
Capital Mall Cinemas, like other leased theaters in shopping malls MUST pay the “mall fees” (fancy name for extortion) to the shopping mall company. These fees are something like 10 cents of each ticket sold, a monthy fee for “maintenance” of the common areas near the theater, and a monthly fee for “security”. All these fees are in addition to the $10,000 a month rent the theater has to pay AND the utilities, employees, insurance, and City of Olympia “Admission Tax” on each ticket sold (the City of Lacey has no such tax, BTW). I don’t see how this theater was able to stay open that long under those conditions.
The Capital Mall Cinemas are now history. I was just there today and the auditoriums are gutted, all projection & sound equipment gone, all snack bar equipment gone. It’s an empty shell now. All that’s left is the ‘Cinemas’ signs on the outside of the building.
Regal Cinemas seems to have a problem with keeping their theaters clean and free from smells. Evidently they don’t like to use bleach for cleaning.
Lacey Cinemas was built by Tom Moyer Theaters and Capital Mall Cinemas by Larry Moyer Theaters. BTW, I helped in the installation of the projection equipment at Lacey Cinemas when it first opened in 1979. I still do some work for Tom Moyer once in a while.
The new Martin Village theater is now open (complete with television commercials before each movie).
What do you mean these theaters weren’t being updated?
Lacey Cinemas: Complete remodeling of building in 1994 by Act 3 Theaters included new carpet, wall drapes, screens, screen masking, seats, completely new snack bar, additional sound-proofing, and digital sound in every auditorium. Recently all new carpeting was again installed as well as new wall drapes last year by Regal Cinemas. The number one house was THX approved, but it was never advertised as such.
Capital Mall:
Last year Regal Cinemas upgraded auditoriums 1 and 2 to DTS Digital sound. Act 3 Theaters extensively remodeled the theater in 1995.
Century Theaters has been talking about building a 16 plex at the mall for over two years. Talk Talk Talk. Now they say they’ll downscale to a 14 plex. More talk. The City of Olympia has yet to address the extreme traffic congestion & lack of vehicle capacity on the roads on the entire westside of Olympia where this theater
would be built. There is still talk of the Cafarro Company (owners of the Target Place shopping center (directly across the parking lot from where the Century Theater complex would be built) building an independently operated 12 plex theater (build-to-suit setup) which also has not materialized. Too many screens in our area. Overbuilding strikes again.
In another year the new Regal Martin Village 16 will be just as dirty, smelly, and sticky as their other theaters IMO.
The luxuries that must be provided at any movie theater:
The picture must be bright, steady, focused, and properly framed.
Sound must be clear and intelligible. Be it mono, stereo, or digital.
Sound should never be too loud or too quiet.
The show should start at the advertized time.
No more than two trailers should be shown.
Commercials should never be shown.
And this “standard” will be in effect for how long? Everyone talks about the ‘benefits’ to the studios, but the real workhorse of the industry is the exhibitor who gets shafted by the studios. Will this video projector lower the film rental cost? NO. Will this video projector lower ticket prices? NO.
I say forget about digital video projectors and stay home. At least at home you can skip the commercials and hit mute.
The Elma Theater is a nice theater, but it does need some fixing up and needs to show movies more often. The Lacey Cinemas and Capital Mall Cinemas in Olympia are set to close when Regal Cinemas opens up a brand spanking new 16 plex (all Stadium seating) in August here in Olympia. The South Shore 10 theater is a dump and is in a dump of a mall there in Aberdeen.
Theater is open and has been doing punk rock concerts on the expanded stage. The area newspaper, The Chronicle (Centralia, Wash.) just did a great story on this theater in their Saturday June 4, 2005 edition. The newspaper site is www.chrononline.com
This theater has many many upgrades and improvements recently:
New DTS Digital and Dolby Digital sound on all 3 screens. Yes that’s right it’s one one of a handfull of drive-ins to have digital sound and it’s fantastic!
3 new Simplex projectors
3 new 7,000 watt xenon lamphouses. Boy is the picture nice and bright!
All new commercial grade playground equipment.
All new kitchen equipment.
New field lighting.
New fences.
New boxoffice buildings.
Fully computerized boxoffice and snack bar. Credit cards accepted at both.
You owe it to yourself to see a movie at this GREAT theater!
The fire started when janitors left a 500 watt quartz halogen work light they were using too close to the wall drapes and they ignited. A sad end to a nice little neighborhood theater.
The original glass block and awning of the theater is still there. Go to the side street where the theater ’s original entrance was and you’ll see it. My late friend, Tex Taylor, got his first projectionist job from the projection union at this theater when he worked there in 1952.
This theater is located on the lower end of Whidbey Island (below the naval base). It’s about 20 miles south of the Oak Harbor Cinemas and Blue Fox Drive-in theater.
This is the theater that former Skyline Drive-in Theater (Shelton, Wash.) owner Fred Thibodeau operated. He was the last owner of this theater. He tells me that he had so many requests (in 1962) for him to build a drive-in theater that he went out and built the Skyline Drive-in. When it came time to open the drive-in, he closed the Blue Ox and moved all the projection & sound equipment over to the Skyline Drive-in. The Blue Ox was torn down in 1963.
Everytime I go by this theater I wonder why no one has stepped up to the plate to buy this treasure and fix it up. It’s sad to see this theater neglected!
Well after all these months, nothing more has been done. The walls have indeed been braced with a criss-cross mesh of steel “I” beams, but still no roof. The building is just an empty shell and is now boarded up at the street level to keep people out. Nothing is being done at this theater right now. :(
I understand the church still has this theater for sale.
The theater is now equipped with Dolby Digital sound for movies.
The typical “ban” on showing movies in this theater is for first run product. You can show classics and second run product without any problems.
So far you you have described most stuff except the projectors.
The keys to the Capital Mall Cinemas building have been officially turned in to the mall office. The mall will now develop that space into a different use (partly storage and a couple of small shops I think).
Capital Mall Cinemas, like other leased theaters in shopping malls MUST pay the “mall fees” (fancy name for extortion) to the shopping mall company. These fees are something like 10 cents of each ticket sold, a monthy fee for “maintenance” of the common areas near the theater, and a monthly fee for “security”. All these fees are in addition to the $10,000 a month rent the theater has to pay AND the utilities, employees, insurance, and City of Olympia “Admission Tax” on each ticket sold (the City of Lacey has no such tax, BTW). I don’t see how this theater was able to stay open that long under those conditions.
The Capital Mall Cinemas are now history. I was just there today and the auditoriums are gutted, all projection & sound equipment gone, all snack bar equipment gone. It’s an empty shell now. All that’s left is the ‘Cinemas’ signs on the outside of the building.
Regal Cinemas seems to have a problem with keeping their theaters clean and free from smells. Evidently they don’t like to use bleach for cleaning.
Lacey Cinemas was built by Tom Moyer Theaters and Capital Mall Cinemas by Larry Moyer Theaters. BTW, I helped in the installation of the projection equipment at Lacey Cinemas when it first opened in 1979. I still do some work for Tom Moyer once in a while.
The new Martin Village theater is now open (complete with television commercials before each movie).
Let’s see pictures of the projectors and your theater please. :)
What do you mean these theaters weren’t being updated?
Lacey Cinemas: Complete remodeling of building in 1994 by Act 3 Theaters included new carpet, wall drapes, screens, screen masking, seats, completely new snack bar, additional sound-proofing, and digital sound in every auditorium. Recently all new carpeting was again installed as well as new wall drapes last year by Regal Cinemas. The number one house was THX approved, but it was never advertised as such.
Capital Mall:
Last year Regal Cinemas upgraded auditoriums 1 and 2 to DTS Digital sound. Act 3 Theaters extensively remodeled the theater in 1995.
Century Theaters has been talking about building a 16 plex at the mall for over two years. Talk Talk Talk. Now they say they’ll downscale to a 14 plex. More talk. The City of Olympia has yet to address the extreme traffic congestion & lack of vehicle capacity on the roads on the entire westside of Olympia where this theater
would be built. There is still talk of the Cafarro Company (owners of the Target Place shopping center (directly across the parking lot from where the Century Theater complex would be built) building an independently operated 12 plex theater (build-to-suit setup) which also has not materialized. Too many screens in our area. Overbuilding strikes again.
In another year the new Regal Martin Village 16 will be just as dirty, smelly, and sticky as their other theaters IMO.
The luxuries that must be provided at any movie theater:
The picture must be bright, steady, focused, and properly framed.
Sound must be clear and intelligible. Be it mono, stereo, or digital.
Sound should never be too loud or too quiet.
The show should start at the advertized time.
No more than two trailers should be shown.
Commercials should never be shown.
Cy Young Industries
16201 W. 110th St.
Lenexa, Ks. 66219
1-800-729-2610 or (913) 438-1776
Fax: 913-888-1774
URL: www.cyyoungind.com
And this “standard” will be in effect for how long? Everyone talks about the ‘benefits’ to the studios, but the real workhorse of the industry is the exhibitor who gets shafted by the studios. Will this video projector lower the film rental cost? NO. Will this video projector lower ticket prices? NO.
I say forget about digital video projectors and stay home. At least at home you can skip the commercials and hit mute.
You want Sensible Cinema Software at (615) 799-6366 or www.sensible cinema.com
The Elma Theater is a nice theater, but it does need some fixing up and needs to show movies more often. The Lacey Cinemas and Capital Mall Cinemas in Olympia are set to close when Regal Cinemas opens up a brand spanking new 16 plex (all Stadium seating) in August here in Olympia. The South Shore 10 theater is a dump and is in a dump of a mall there in Aberdeen.
Theater is open and has been doing punk rock concerts on the expanded stage. The area newspaper, The Chronicle (Centralia, Wash.) just did a great story on this theater in their Saturday June 4, 2005 edition. The newspaper site is www.chrononline.com
This theater has many many upgrades and improvements recently:
New DTS Digital and Dolby Digital sound on all 3 screens. Yes that’s right it’s one one of a handfull of drive-ins to have digital sound and it’s fantastic!
3 new Simplex projectors
3 new 7,000 watt xenon lamphouses. Boy is the picture nice and bright!
All new commercial grade playground equipment.
All new kitchen equipment.
New field lighting.
New fences.
New boxoffice buildings.
Fully computerized boxoffice and snack bar. Credit cards accepted at both.
You owe it to yourself to see a movie at this GREAT theater!
Theater is now open occasionally for classic movies. Check out their website at www.operapacifica.org
The fire started when janitors left a 500 watt quartz halogen work light they were using too close to the wall drapes and they ignited. A sad end to a nice little neighborhood theater.
The original glass block and awning of the theater is still there. Go to the side street where the theater ’s original entrance was and you’ll see it. My late friend, Tex Taylor, got his first projectionist job from the projection union at this theater when he worked there in 1952.
This theater is located on the lower end of Whidbey Island (below the naval base). It’s about 20 miles south of the Oak Harbor Cinemas and Blue Fox Drive-in theater.
This is the theater that former Skyline Drive-in Theater (Shelton, Wash.) owner Fred Thibodeau operated. He was the last owner of this theater. He tells me that he had so many requests (in 1962) for him to build a drive-in theater that he went out and built the Skyline Drive-in. When it came time to open the drive-in, he closed the Blue Ox and moved all the projection & sound equipment over to the Skyline Drive-in. The Blue Ox was torn down in 1963.
I understand that the lighted poster cases outside the theater are now being restored & re-lit.
Nice little theater that’s well worth a visit. People will like it’s charm. :)