AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center

Operated by the American Film Institute, the AFI Silver Theatre is a film house and education and cultural center. Arthouse films, classics, and film festivals are presented in the historic theatre that opened 1938 and in the two auditoriums that opened in 2003. The AFI Silver is near the Silver Spring stop of Metro’s Red line. Silver Spring is a suburb of Washington, D.C.

The Silver Theatre opened September 15, 1938, with 1,100 seats and “Four Daughters” starring John Garfield and Claude Rains. The Silver was built by a local movie theatre operator W.S. Wilcox, but quickly turned over to Warner Bros. The theatre was designed by fame theatre architect John Eberson, one of his later classics. The historic building has a nautical theme including its mast like vertical sign and imitation portholes. When seen from above, the building mimics the lines of a ship. Eberson designed it to give moviegoers the feeling they are entering a cruise ship. The movie screen was designed to appear as if it were floating in front of the auditorium.

In 1984, objecting to the preservation of the theatre, its owners demolished some of the façade including the vertical neon tower and tile mosaics. As demolition crews punched holes in the brick façade in August 1984, frantic Silver Spring residents rushed to the theatre to plead that demolition be halted. A ‘stop work’ order from Montgomery County saved the theatre from demolition at that time. The infamous, deliberate vandalism of the theatre by its owners became a rallying call to those who cherished it. K-B Theatres closed the Silver Theatre in 1985. Boarded up, its fate was uncertain. The Silver Theatre was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

Richard Striner, a founder and former president of the Art Deco Society of Washington led a 19 year campaign to save the theatre. In 1998, Montgomery County began negotiations with the American Film Institute to reopen the theatre. The AFI were previously based at Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center since 1975. Renovations by Washington DC based architectural firm Gensler & Associates began at the Silver Theatre in 2001. The five year construction project cost twenty million dollars and was totally funded by Montgomery County. County executive Douglas M. Duncan led the charge to fund the theatre’s rehabilitation. The AFI Silver is the flagship (pun intended) of a one million public & private rejuvenation of the downtown Silver Spring.

The historic Silver Theatre was ‘rehabilitated’ rather than replicated, because it isn’t an exact replica as it was. The original blueprints were discovered, and reviewed, along with vintage photographs. When built, the theatre had 60 colors in the interior. The reincarnation has 40 colors including the blues, yellows, reds and deep browns typical of 1930’s Art Moderne. Peacocks and shells can be seen on the wall decor. A new larger screen was placed in front of the original smaller screen. The original carpet was replicated.

The rehabilitation project features 32,000 square feet of new construction housing two new stadium theatres, a film-based retail kiosk, office and meeting space, as well as reception and exhibit areas.

The AFI Silver reopened April 4, 2003 with a gala including a screening of the restored classic “The Oxbow Incident” and actor/director Clint Eastwood receiving the AFI Silver Legacy Award. With photographs of its façade and auditoriums, the AFI Silver Theatre is depicted in the 2004 book ‘Cinema Treasures, A New Look at Classic Movie Theaters’.

As of 2007, historic Auditorium 1 has 400 seats in its raked auditorium, an electric organ to accompany silent films, projection equipment that includes 70mm projectors, and a very large movie screen that is 41 feet wide and 18 feet tall. Auditorium 2 has 200 seats, stadium seated, and a very large movie screen that is 37' x 19'. Auditorium 3 has 75 seats, stadium seating, and a 27' x 14' screen. All auditoriums have digital surround sound, are THX certified, and have curtains to open and close before the movie.

Concessions that can be enjoyed in the café or auditoriums include beer and wine, in addition to food and other drinks.

Recent comments (view all 378 comments)

JodarMovieFan on July 3, 2019 at 7:08 pm

Too late for me, rl. I wanted to catch at least one of the films but couldn’t. Oh well. Maybe they’ll have the films again prior to the Dec opening of the ‘last’ Star Wars film.

Looking at the current summer programming roster, nothing really worth seeing. With 35 yr and 25 yr and older retrospectives, I can think of many good films from ‘94 and '84 they could have that are worth experiencing on the big screen here.

JodarMovieFan on October 1, 2019 at 12:36 pm

Joker is opening here Thu in 70mm. Its a rarity to have the AFI run a more commercial movie here with the 20 screen & Imax Lite Regal just around the corner. With so much bad news reported these days, I don’t know about a dark film and judging from the trailer, a dark character study and probably an acting (insert award title) nomination for sure.

JodarMovieFan on December 30, 2021 at 7:32 pm

Licorice is opening 1/1 in 70mm but with one measly 6:15 pm 70mm showing. Rest of the shows are DP.As of this writing, no other 70mm showings. Very strange.

Mikeoaklandpark on December 31, 2021 at 9:56 am

I find the marquee very interesting

MSC77 on December 31, 2021 at 11:17 am

Here’s the link to an article on 70mm presentations in the Washington, DC region which has been updated to include AFI Silver’s 70mm screenings.

Obviously the piece will need to be further revised to account for the upcoming “Licorice Pizza” run. Let us know, please, if you believe additional omissions or corrections are needed.

HowardBHaas on December 31, 2021 at 11:53 am

I added my photo of the 2014 70mm leaflet which does not mention L of A or West Side Story. The theater closed in March 2020 due to Covid, for the rest of the year.

Giles on May 22, 2025 at 2:52 pm

I have a friend who works at the Silver and I said to him, last December that it was really disheartening to hear audience members complain about the conditions of the seats in auditoriums 2 and 3 during the EU Film Showcase, I was almost apologizing as if I was an employee there. So my friend explained to me that its Montgomery county’s building board to ok such an upgrade and repairs, and they thought it’d be approved,finalized, and repaired this year.

JodarMovieFan on September 6, 2025 at 10:48 pm

I finally made the time to visit here after many years (pre-pandemic? 2018/19 no!) to try to catch the 70mm bookings of ‘High Noon’ and ‘2001.’ Honestly, I was hoping to see the former as it was supposedly a ‘new’ print. For whatever reason or no reason, I missed them both and ended up seeing ‘Roses’ in #3. I’m thinking this is the first time I’ve seen a movie in the smallest of the 3 auditoriums. I know I’ve commented on its size before and was grateful to have avoided it since this place reopened 2x years ago. Projection and sound was as it should be and that’s very good. I did hear a whirring motorized sound at show time, thinking to myself.. ‘CURTAIN’ but didn’t see anything noticeably move. I’m guessing the masking mechanism kicked in but could see noticeable gaps at the bottom. Seats were comfy and not torn but I sat in front so I couldn’t see the ones in the back.

A few days ago, I caught ‘Megalopolis’, Francis Ford Coppola’s big $120M self financed movie from a year ago. AFI was showcasing a Coppola film retrospective for his AFI Lifetime Achievement Award. I had heard about the movie last year and its preferred showcasing at IMAX theaters but don’t recall if it ever made it to our market at all as it was another flop. Online booking is great and I wasn’t charged a service fee!

Gratefully and fittingly, it was in #1, the big auditorium and it was a visual and aural treat. The surrounds were great as well as one shocking violent scene when Caeser was shot. I believe the ones in my row collectively reacted with shock. It wasn’t as visceral as the gunshot scene in 2004’s Paris Hilton movie ‘House of Wax’ but moving enough. Not being a history buff, the Roman/modern day setting mostly went over my head although a lot of the audience just loved it in parts clapping at the end. I was thinking to myself this ‘One From the Heart Deux’ (another of his self financed visually looking but financially unsuccessful films from ‘82).

Since I arrived as the movie was starting, I couldn’t survey the auditorium for the bad seats. The one I sat in the back did lack support from wear and my lower back paid for it although the movie did lose some degree of interest ½ way through.

The box office still sports a THX certified sticker but neither 1 or 3 played the trailer. Being 2025, I’ve seen and heard the newer sound trailers and as I’ve said before, the venue should show off the venue sound capabilities to remind patrons why they should come and experience movies instead of watching them at home.

Memo to self and other future patrons. Don’t park on the streets or risk getting a $40 parking ticket as validation is only one hour. :)

JodarMovieFan on September 29, 2025 at 6:31 pm

I had the privilege of catching the area’s 70mm booking of Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” in #1. For a Sunday matinee, the place wasn’t filled compared to “Megalopolis”, however, I think that was a one time showing at the AFI. Pre-show trailer sound varied from what was mono and stereo during one preview to mono again. No 70mm trailer. Maybe they don’t exist in usable form to splice it into the start of the movie. However, how much does it cost to make a modern day 70mm and sound format trailer and show off the THX certification to new audiences not familiar with the film/sound formats? And this is AFI for pete’s sake. I thought I noticed some picture flicker in the beginning scenes. Some small picture cropping at the bottom. No film spots or other noticeable film artifacts at all up to the end credits. For the X number of shows prior, the print was either handled extremely well, or maybe this was digital. Ambient sounds throughout were subtle. I’m just thinking to myself, why 70mm, other than just to show and appreciate the format in this day of digital. I’ll have to see it again in digital to compare. :)

Cast was great. Sean Penn did get noticeable laughs and audience appreciation. I couldn’t get over the intentional or unintentional resemblance to Gen. Petreus. After the movie, I thought I recognized the actress Teyana Taylor and sure enough she was the crazy teen Mom in the Madea family movie with the ‘tude screaming BYRONNNNENNENEN! :)

Paid $18 or so for a $12 roast beef cold sandwich that the young lady said was served warm. The large soda was ok at $6. Thankfully, no stomach issues. :)

I happened to read that there’s a new 70mm print of Close Encounters supervised by none other than Steven Spielberg, himself. I’m going to suggest to AFI to try to book that here maybe in a sci-fi festival of sorts. Its not fair NYC and LA get it only. :P

ridethectrain on October 27, 2025 at 4:43 pm

Please rename theatre AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center as per website.

Seating Capacity:

Theatre 1 400 70MM/35MM

Theatre 2 200 35MM

Theatre 3 75