CLOSED as of 5/5/23 as part of Regal’s deserved bankruptcy. No telling what will happen to it now- too few screens and the 5 there are too small and the wrong ratio. It was a mistake to have built this in the first place.
Raising Cane’s chicken is now in this space. Restrooms are the only thing remaining the same. Eating area and kitchen are in what used to be the auditorium.
Opened in 1968 with The Graduate, Dolby Stereo installed for Annie, came close to closing in 1990 with Darkman but was spared and renovated, reopening in 1991 with Robin Hood Prince of Thieves. Greedy owners later kept the curtains open and stage lights off to show ugly advertising slides and most of the theater’s character was destroyed (curtains still closed and lights came up after the last show of the night), theater closed February 13 1999 with the Oscar reissue of Saving Private Ryan which moved to the Stadium 5 theater the next day for its grand opening.
Screen at Cinema 2 was rather small and in a weird 2:1 ratio for scope cropping the sides.
Wow, didn’t know Sacramento had such good taste in music back then, this was after they’d rejected Rock of the 80s on KPOP and had them go back to awful top 40.
The theater was triplexed in 1974- Uptown Saturday Night was the last movie to play in the full auditorium.
I ran film here briefly in 1993 mainly as a favor to someone, but felt bad doing it. The two lower theaters didn’t even have stereo, yet they were showing movies that weren’t played elsewhere. I’ve heard that recently they’ve had shows sell out, so they really ought to restore it back and add on more screens externally if needed. I won’t see movies here until that happens. It’s likely protected from being demolished in any case, but its current state is the next-worst thing.
Absolute worst theater I’ve ever been to- 2 theaters split into 6, all with mono sound though that was upgraded when Wallace took it over. Went with friends on July 4th 1988 to see “Big”, getting my mom to drive us as I thought it would be better than the twinned Varsity in Davis, boy was I wrong. Preview started with no sound, film stopped and we had missed the first few minutes after it re-started, lights came up in the middle also. We snuck into “Coming to America” afterwards and sound was also mono and rattly, also out of focus. Syufy closed it the week the newer Elk Grove theater opened and became a discount theater under Wallace.
Building is now called “Greater Grace Worship Center”- wondering what the inside looks like, if the auditoriums were un-divided and what’s in the projection booth now?
This theater was never twinned. I heard the screen was HUGE so porn must have been something to see there. Went by there around 1986-87 and it was second-run then (marquee had a double feature of Back to School and Ferris Bueller’s Day off which had been out for months). In 1990 they tried a re-opening but didn’t really go anywhere showing B-movies like Rockula, then it became a live theater for a while. While closed there was a fire and was demolished after that.
Cinema 150 was UA’s name for large theaters in the 60s, there was a similar one in San Jose. Other Cinema 150s had domes like the Centurys, one was in Seattle and another in Little Rock.
Opened on Friday, November 13th 1992 with Dracula, Under Siege, Passenger 57 and maybe 1 or 2 others, Dracula at least was on two screens. The two largest auditoriums had curtains, but those were taken out when UA joined the awful trend of showing pre-movie ads.
Theater was always poorly run- I saw Dracula the night it opened, it was the last showing of the night but there was an out of frame splice in the middle that not only had not been fixed but they didn’t even bother having someone go to the projector to fix the framing; someone had to go out and tell them to fix it. Never saw a perfect presentation there, you could almost depend on the film to be scratched or shown out of focus or misframed. Could have been a decent theater if it had been run properly, though the two smallest auditoriums were rather pathetic with center aisles where the best seats would have been. At least all screens were proper 2.35 with side masking.
In the end, this theater put itself out of business. A gym is rumored to be taking over the space, for now the two sliding gates seen in the picture are down.
Note about the older theater in the mall; when the two new auditoriums were added which had curtains, 70mm projection and Dolby Stereo, the original 4 auditoriums remained untouched with awful mono sound and fixed-ratio screens so movies were cropped either on the top and bottom or on the sides. The listings never even indicated which movie was playing in which auditorium, so I just stayed away altogether. The new theater was state of the art though it lacked 70mm; too bad they didn’t hire anyone competent to run it. (I had applied to work there before it opened but was not hired, their loss as I worked elsewhere as a film projectionist for many years.)
Such a sad story for these theaters. Century 22 was awkwardly split in half in 1973, only five years after it opened. Century 21 suffered the same fate in 1978. The two smaller domes were added on in 1974 and survived until their demolition, in 1994 the 8 smaller auditoriums were added. I laughed out loud when that ad above was printed- “It’s everything you’ve come to expect from Century Theatres and much more” meant that it would be run incompetently as in the past film presentation was lackluster with print damage being quite common. It would have been “Spectacularly Refurbished” had they properly restored the two large domes, but they did not and I never patronized the “new” complex. Quite often the free-standing 21 dome would play the same movie in both halves.
The wall dividing Century 21 was taken down prior to demolition in order for the dome to fall more easily, this was not done with 22 and the wall stuck up like a shark fin as the dome roof was taken down and then the wall was knocked down. If they had properly restored those two domes, I would have come to see every movie played there. As it is there are no theaters in Sacramento currently that I would want to patronize on a regular basis, if at all.
Absolute joke of a theater- all screens are 1.85 with NO MASKING, so the majority of movies are letterboxed. A huge insult to the two original Century domes which had huge wide screens and were the benchmark by which I’ve judged all other theaters. The largest auditorium shown in the above picture admittedly has a good-sized screen, but the wrong ratio and lack of masking ruins it.
There was a campaign to either save and restore the original domes or have a better theater than this built in their place, Cinemark failed to deliver either. The two domes had about 950 seats each, there are fewer seats across the 14 new theaters here, some having as few as 50. If just a few people show up, your showing will be crowded.
I will call this theater The Mistake as long as it operates. We deserved SO much better considering what was there before.
Both screens were upgraded to 70mm, but soon after the left auditorium was cut into 3. I couldn’t believe how small the screens were and the sound was mono, as soon as the movie started I walked out, got my money back and never returned.
Closed before the pandemic and never reopened. This mall used to be magical but is nearly dead now with many empty stores including Sears. Plans are to demolish the mall and build a more up to date ‘urban village’ type center.
What a joke- The Cinedomes were decent though quite scaled-down from the 1960s Century domes, one was cut in half in 1992 when they should have known better by then. Those were torn down for this place, with ALL native 1.85 screens with top-down masking for scope. They didn’t even have the house lights programmed right- some would just go straight on or off with no dimming, the side wall lights would be off pre-show and then come on as the trailers started. I’ve heard now they don’t even use the masking anymore so everything is letterboxed. This company doesn’t know what they’re doing.
CLOSED as of 5/5/23 as part of Regal’s deserved bankruptcy. No telling what will happen to it now- too few screens and the 5 there are too small and the wrong ratio. It was a mistake to have built this in the first place.
Raising Cane’s chicken is now in this space. Restrooms are the only thing remaining the same. Eating area and kitchen are in what used to be the auditorium.
Opened in 1968 with The Graduate, Dolby Stereo installed for Annie, came close to closing in 1990 with Darkman but was spared and renovated, reopening in 1991 with Robin Hood Prince of Thieves. Greedy owners later kept the curtains open and stage lights off to show ugly advertising slides and most of the theater’s character was destroyed (curtains still closed and lights came up after the last show of the night), theater closed February 13 1999 with the Oscar reissue of Saving Private Ryan which moved to the Stadium 5 theater the next day for its grand opening.
Screen at Cinema 2 was rather small and in a weird 2:1 ratio for scope cropping the sides.
A grand total of two 70mm prints were shown here- Geronimo and the reissue of Vertigo. Incompetent staff trashed the Vertigo print.
Wow, didn’t know Sacramento had such good taste in music back then, this was after they’d rejected Rock of the 80s on KPOP and had them go back to awful top 40.
The theater was triplexed in 1974- Uptown Saturday Night was the last movie to play in the full auditorium.
I ran film here briefly in 1993 mainly as a favor to someone, but felt bad doing it. The two lower theaters didn’t even have stereo, yet they were showing movies that weren’t played elsewhere. I’ve heard that recently they’ve had shows sell out, so they really ought to restore it back and add on more screens externally if needed. I won’t see movies here until that happens. It’s likely protected from being demolished in any case, but its current state is the next-worst thing.
Sad, wish that were still there. I won’t set foot in this theater until it’s properly restored back to its large auditorium.
What equipment was running there then? I had always meant to check it out. I heard they still have a 35mm projector now.
Absolute worst theater I’ve ever been to- 2 theaters split into 6, all with mono sound though that was upgraded when Wallace took it over. Went with friends on July 4th 1988 to see “Big”, getting my mom to drive us as I thought it would be better than the twinned Varsity in Davis, boy was I wrong. Preview started with no sound, film stopped and we had missed the first few minutes after it re-started, lights came up in the middle also. We snuck into “Coming to America” afterwards and sound was also mono and rattly, also out of focus. Syufy closed it the week the newer Elk Grove theater opened and became a discount theater under Wallace.
Building is now called “Greater Grace Worship Center”- wondering what the inside looks like, if the auditoriums were un-divided and what’s in the projection booth now?
The Safeway store has now been there longer than the theater was.
This theater was never twinned. I heard the screen was HUGE so porn must have been something to see there. Went by there around 1986-87 and it was second-run then (marquee had a double feature of Back to School and Ferris Bueller’s Day off which had been out for months). In 1990 they tried a re-opening but didn’t really go anywhere showing B-movies like Rockula, then it became a live theater for a while. While closed there was a fire and was demolished after that.
Cinema 150 was UA’s name for large theaters in the 60s, there was a similar one in San Jose. Other Cinema 150s had domes like the Centurys, one was in Seattle and another in Little Rock.
Golden Corral buffet now in its place.
“We chopped our largest screen into two shoeboxes- hooray!”
Wonder if they really had Sensurround there?
Opened on Friday, November 13th 1992 with Dracula, Under Siege, Passenger 57 and maybe 1 or 2 others, Dracula at least was on two screens. The two largest auditoriums had curtains, but those were taken out when UA joined the awful trend of showing pre-movie ads.
Theater was always poorly run- I saw Dracula the night it opened, it was the last showing of the night but there was an out of frame splice in the middle that not only had not been fixed but they didn’t even bother having someone go to the projector to fix the framing; someone had to go out and tell them to fix it. Never saw a perfect presentation there, you could almost depend on the film to be scratched or shown out of focus or misframed. Could have been a decent theater if it had been run properly, though the two smallest auditoriums were rather pathetic with center aisles where the best seats would have been. At least all screens were proper 2.35 with side masking.
In the end, this theater put itself out of business. A gym is rumored to be taking over the space, for now the two sliding gates seen in the picture are down.
Note about the older theater in the mall; when the two new auditoriums were added which had curtains, 70mm projection and Dolby Stereo, the original 4 auditoriums remained untouched with awful mono sound and fixed-ratio screens so movies were cropped either on the top and bottom or on the sides. The listings never even indicated which movie was playing in which auditorium, so I just stayed away altogether. The new theater was state of the art though it lacked 70mm; too bad they didn’t hire anyone competent to run it. (I had applied to work there before it opened but was not hired, their loss as I worked elsewhere as a film projectionist for many years.)
Such a sad story for these theaters. Century 22 was awkwardly split in half in 1973, only five years after it opened. Century 21 suffered the same fate in 1978. The two smaller domes were added on in 1974 and survived until their demolition, in 1994 the 8 smaller auditoriums were added. I laughed out loud when that ad above was printed- “It’s everything you’ve come to expect from Century Theatres and much more” meant that it would be run incompetently as in the past film presentation was lackluster with print damage being quite common. It would have been “Spectacularly Refurbished” had they properly restored the two large domes, but they did not and I never patronized the “new” complex. Quite often the free-standing 21 dome would play the same movie in both halves.
The wall dividing Century 21 was taken down prior to demolition in order for the dome to fall more easily, this was not done with 22 and the wall stuck up like a shark fin as the dome roof was taken down and then the wall was knocked down. If they had properly restored those two domes, I would have come to see every movie played there. As it is there are no theaters in Sacramento currently that I would want to patronize on a regular basis, if at all.
Absolute joke of a theater- all screens are 1.85 with NO MASKING, so the majority of movies are letterboxed. A huge insult to the two original Century domes which had huge wide screens and were the benchmark by which I’ve judged all other theaters. The largest auditorium shown in the above picture admittedly has a good-sized screen, but the wrong ratio and lack of masking ruins it.
There was a campaign to either save and restore the original domes or have a better theater than this built in their place, Cinemark failed to deliver either. The two domes had about 950 seats each, there are fewer seats across the 14 new theaters here, some having as few as 50. If just a few people show up, your showing will be crowded.
I will call this theater The Mistake as long as it operates. We deserved SO much better considering what was there before.
Both screens were upgraded to 70mm, but soon after the left auditorium was cut into 3. I couldn’t believe how small the screens were and the sound was mono, as soon as the movie started I walked out, got my money back and never returned.
Closed before the pandemic and never reopened. This mall used to be magical but is nearly dead now with many empty stores including Sears. Plans are to demolish the mall and build a more up to date ‘urban village’ type center.
What a joke- The Cinedomes were decent though quite scaled-down from the 1960s Century domes, one was cut in half in 1992 when they should have known better by then. Those were torn down for this place, with ALL native 1.85 screens with top-down masking for scope. They didn’t even have the house lights programmed right- some would just go straight on or off with no dimming, the side wall lights would be off pre-show and then come on as the trailers started. I’ve heard now they don’t even use the masking anymore so everything is letterboxed. This company doesn’t know what they’re doing.