Polaris Theatre
822 Bay Street,
Port Orchard,
WA
98366
822 Bay Street,
Port Orchard,
WA
98366
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Reopened as the Plaza Twin Cinema on April 11th, 1980. Grand opening ad posted.
The building is now the Polaris Theatre. A massive project is underway to restore it back to it’s original configuration of a single screen venue which also can host live events.
Any photos of the interior before it was split into two screens?
1942 photo as D&R Theatre added credit Puget Sound History Facebook page.
After about ten years of walking by here, while antique shopping. I finally made my way into a movie, Philomena. A charming little theater, playing mostly arthouse & sub-run films. They are still running film here. Seating is maxed out at 72 for the left side & 90 seats on the right. Decent snack bar & VIP memberships (matinee prices for evening shows) They also have pre-show announcements, information about the film and other upcoming movies.
This is the Big Weekend for movie fans in Port Orchard! DRAGONFLY CINEMA reopens today. Me and my lady are looking forward to seeing “WIN WIN” with Paul Giamatti, Amy Ryan, Bobby Cannavale. The other screen our friend Simon will be watching has “The Holy Grail”. Good start in bookings.
For the time being Dragonfly will operate FRI, SAT, SUN only with matinees on SAT & SUN. If you are in the area come on in and see what a good new owner and a couple dozen volunteers managed in the way of making this all theatre shine again.
Good News for Port Orchard fans of film!
The theater is reopening under new management. See their new and evolving website at http://dragonflycinema.com/
There was a town hall gathering of interested patrons on May 1st which brought out about 80 folks to discuss the future of the theater with its new owner. There is an Kitsap Sun article on that meeting here: http://bit.ly/l30foX
Far Away Entertainment closed this theater on Dec. 30, 2010: View link
The oasiscinemas.com is now retired and changed to www.farawayentertainment.com
They just took over the Admiral Twin Theater in west Seattle too.
It’s interesting to read the comments on that November 2007 newspaper story, especially the last one.
The rest of the theaters in this chain are at www.oasiscinemas.com
Here is an article and photos from November 2007:
http://tinyurl.com/2e922u
Here is its Web site: http://www.orchardtheater.com/
This theater has reopened! It’s now called The Orchard, and it will show a mix of first-run and independent films.
A guy named Jeff Brein of Far Away Productions is renovating the theater. It’s the eighth theater for Far Away. The company also owns the Lynwood Theatre, first opened in 1936, Bainbridge Cinemas and Olympic Cinemas in Kitsap County, Wash. Its other properties are in Oak Harbor, Anacortes and Ocean Shores.
Brein plans special events like classics nights, filmmaker showcases and fundraisers for local organizations. He said he’ll adjust offerings once he becomes more familiar with his audience.
A friend drove by this theater last week. The readerboard now says:
“reopening soon — movies return in November”
This theater is officially closed now. The reasons for the closure are nothing we haven’t heard before. Here is a story from The Bremerton Sun newspaper:
Port Orchard’s Plaza Twin theater closes after 25 years
By Travis Baker, Sun Staff
May 4, 2005
Caught in a squeeze between longer runs for films in first-run movie houses and increasingly early release of movies on DVD, the 25-year-old Plaza Twin theater in Port Orchard has closed.
Owner Bob Geiger closed it after the final showings of “The Aviator,” “Are We There Yet?” and “Hitch” a week ago.
The site had been a theater since 1923, Geiger said, run first by the Knights of Pythias who used the upstairs as a lodge hall, and then for years as the D&R.
Geiger was one of 13 city businessmen who formed the Port Orchard Improvement Corp. in 1980 to remodel the single screen theater, which had been closed for 18 years, into a twinplex. They opened in April of that year.
It never made money, he said. He took over as sole owner in the early 1990s. It has been drawing only between 50 and 100 moviegoers a week, he said.
It may not have screened its last movie, despite the closure. Geiger said he’ll be happy to rent it to groups and show a film if they wish.
“In California, they have a number of theaters with the same problems and they are having good success renting them out for special events,” he said.
He has been restoring the upstairs for three years since a live theater group moved out, he said. It was in sad shape after years of temporary renovations into sets for one play after another.
“We’ve had a lot of people come and want to rent it,” he said, “and we’re going to give that a try,
He is refinancing the building and hopes to have the upstairs ready for parties and special occasions later this year.
“The movie industry is a strange industry, a complete autocracy and monopoly,” he said, “and they do what they want to do and don’t care about anything else.” The box office is down nationwide, and “they won’t give us anything until it leaves the first-run theaters.”
Then the lucrative DVD releases are out in a few weeks.
He feels many new films “are made quickly without a lot of substance, but for some reason people want to own them.”
“It’s really been a big job keeping that thing going, I had an altruistic attitude that I didn’t want to have a flea market or boarded-up building. We tried to keep it up but the elements of the industry are shooting us down.”
I just noticed that this theater is “closed for repairs.”
Listed in the Film Daily Yearbook, 1941 as the Community Theatre with 350 seats. In the 1943 and 1950 editions of F.D.Y. it has been re-named the D & R Theatre with a seating capacity of 408 in 1950.