Colonial Theatre
163 High Street,
Belfast,
ME
4915
163 High Street,
Belfast,
ME
4915
2 people
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previously operated by: Graphic Theaters Circuit
Functions: Movies
Styles: Art Deco
Nearby Theaters
No theaters found within 30 miles
The Colonial Theatre opened on April 12, 1912, the same day the Titanic set sail. It was closed on September 19, 2022. The building was ‘For Sale’. New owners took over and it re-opened on November 17, 2023.
Contributed by
Michael Hurley
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Recent comments (view all 16 comments)
Uploaded the enhanced street view image of the theatre. What’s with the elephant on the left?
1931 photo added courtesy of AmeriCar The Beautiful Facebook page.
The Theatre Historical Society on-line archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Colonial; it’s Card # 342. But no one filled out the form so there is no info, only an undated exterior photo.
The theater will be closing September 19, 2022, and is for sale:
Belfast, ME: Colonial Theatre Showing Free Movies Before Closing September 19 [Sep 12, 2022]
Belfast, ME: Colonial Theatre Closing September 19, 2022, For Sale [Sep 12, 2022]
The owners are really sweet people. After 27 years decided to retire. They had been trying to sell it since 2015. They said business has been very good right up until 2020 theaters had to shut down. They opened again and seem to be doing well the community very supportive. Hopefully somebody will buy the theater in the near future. It be a shame for her to continue to sit empty. Buildings don’t do well without having people inside them especially theaters. Hopefully the current owners are going into the theater and maintaining and making sure that everything is still working properly. Keep any kind of damage from not happening
Some good news with pictures here
NOW FOR SALE: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/07/12/arts/historic-maine-movie-theater-remains-shuttered-search-new-owner-continues/?event=event25&fbclid=IwAR2IYfGRQb0b-5W82dc3EK0ZLbwdrva_TuJUWXxV7pCDm-NYzyFLQG1sVPg
New owners have purchased this theatre and it reopens with movies on Friday, November 17, 2023. It will operate as a non-profit managed and owned by the Hawthorne Theatre & Arts Collaborative. Movies and other arts events are in the programming mix.
Current functions are first-run, independent, and classic films, as well as special events and performing arts.
Eric Smoodin, in “Regarding Frank Capra: Audience, Celebrity, and American Film Studies, 1930-1960” (Duke University Press 2004, p. 40) writes about the local promotional campaign for Frank Capra’s 1931 film “Dirigible”:
“(E)xhibitors developed some interesting advertising campaigns for Capra’s film. In Maynard, Massachusetts, Burt Coghlan mounted a model dirigible on an Austin automobile and had it driven through town by two men dressed in aviator outfits. Marshall Quint, from the Colonia (sic) Theater in Belfast, Maine, also used an automobile, but had his driver dress as a clown, and tied-in the entire stunt with a sale at a used-car dealership.”