SIFF Cinema Downtown

2100 4th Avenue,
Seattle, WA 98121

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9-19-13 Cinerama screen for 70mm film festival

Seattle’s Martin Cinerama opened in 1963 using the original Cinerama 3-strip projection technique. But with a shift underway towards 70mm projection, the theatre was altered just a few months later, although the enormous, curved screen was kept. It had a capacity of 808 seats.

The 70mm Cinerama screenings lasted until 1969, when the theatre switched to more conventional 35mm projectors. Eventually Cineplex Odeon took over operations. By 1997, the theatre was struggling, and developers swooped in with plans to repurpose the theatre.

Very quickly, Seattle Cinerama lovers began a grassroots effort to save the theatre. A year later, Paul Allen (of Microsoft fame), bought the theatre for $3 million. Soon after, he orchestrated an immense restoration project that enhanced the theatre’s appearance and returned it to its roots—showing films in the Cinerama format.

Re-opened on April 23, 1999, the Seattle Cinerama Theater is now one of only three operating Cinerama theatres in the world. This beautifully restored shrine to Cinerama is now one of the most technologically advanced movie theatres ever erected. In the Fall of 2014 it was closed for remodelling, reopening in November 2014 with a reduced seating capacity of 570.

After philanthropist Paul Allen’s death in 2018, in early-February 2020, it was closed for ‘refurbishment’ but in May 2020 it was announced that it would be closed for the “foreseeable future” and may not reopen, so the future of one of the world’s greatest single screen showcases is again uncertain.

On May 11, 2023, it was announced that the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) had taken over the building and it reopened on December 14, 2023, renamed SIFF Cinema Downtown. The reopening movie was Timothee Chalamet in “Wonka”.

Contributed by Ross Melnick

Recent comments (view all 272 comments)

Comfortably Cool
Comfortably Cool on March 9, 2024 at 12:46 pm

Here’s a link to recent article on current Seattle cinemas. Click here

Mike Tiano
Mike Tiano on April 12, 2024 at 10:47 pm

When SIFF acquired the Seattle Cinerama there were unanswered questions. After some effort I was able to get answers about those previously undisclosed details WRT the theater’s new incarnation, including the story behind the loss of the Cinerama name.

Read my article here

Mark Boszko
Mark Boszko on April 13, 2024 at 8:51 am

Thank you so much, Mike, for researching that, and linking the article. Good to finally know the reason behind losing the name.

rivest266
rivest266 on April 13, 2024 at 11:50 am

Reopened April 23rd, 1999 by Paul Allen and General Cinema. Ad posted.

Redwards1
Redwards1 on April 14, 2024 at 9:58 am

Good to learn SIFF has determined the curved screen, one of the last to be manufactured to original Cinerama specifications, and projectors are intact and functional. Also that is true of the 70mm projectors. What about the lenses used on the 70mm projectors that were custom built to fill the curved screen with an undistorted image? A number of these lenses of various lengths were on sale at the Arclight bookshop during a previous Cinerama Festival in Los Angeles. I assume they came from dozens of theaters where deep curved screens were removed.

JackCoursey
JackCoursey on January 30, 2025 at 7:38 pm

Can the SIFF use the 3 projectors format or does that infringe on the Cinerama trademark? Can they show Cinerama at all? I loved seeing films like Lawrence of Aradia, 2001 and other classics made for the giant curved screen there.

HowardBHaas
HowardBHaas on January 31, 2025 at 1:19 pm

Jack, Lawrence of Arabia was actually not made for a curved screen, and is not Cinerama. 2001 was made for a curved screen. Just because the theater can’t keep the name does not mean they can’t show the films in Cinerama.

Redwards1
Redwards1 on February 1, 2025 at 9:14 am

Lawrence of Arabia was filmed in Panavision 70 with an image ratio of 1:2.1, identical to Todd-AO which originally used a deep curved screen. It was shown on deep curved screens in Minneapolis and Seattle in its original 70mm print and in Boston on the first flat screen Todd-AO 20th Century Fox had introduced with Can-Can, which was also shown on a Cinerama screen in Minneapolis. Flat screens are considerably less expensive to install and quickly eliminated the deep curved screens. There was a considerable variation in presentation of 70mm films, with degraded clarity when films photographed in 35mm were blown up to 70mm prints. Cinerama itself confused the public by using its name on single projector 70mm conventional films which had nothing to do with putting the audience “in the picture”. Stanley Kramer publicly stated the Cinerama 70mm single camera single projector process was “not Cinerama” when it premiered at the LA Cinerama Dome.

Mike Tiano
Mike Tiano on February 1, 2025 at 9:59 am

In any event, as I noted in my article in an earlier post SIFF can use the Cinerama process and at that time they were equipped to do it, no reason to believe that they aren’t. The only two three-camera dramatic narrative films were “The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm” and “How the West was Won”. All the rest were short travelogues. Any other films advertised as being in Cinerama was in the single projector process as mentioned above.

JackCoursey
JackCoursey on February 2, 2025 at 6:10 pm

Thank you, gentlemen, Todd-AO is just what I was thinking about! Todd-AO is basically a film format, not a Cinerama which is both a physical and film format. Is that about right?

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