Opera Plaza Cinema
601 Van Ness Avenue,
San Francisco,
CA
94102
601 Van Ness Avenue,
San Francisco,
CA
94102
7 people
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Please update, total seats 185 Screen 1 74 Screen 2 68 Screen 3 25 Screen 4 18 Source: Landmark rsvp ticketing webpage
FROM LANDMARK THEATRES WEBSITE: Renovations include new state-of-the-art auditoriums with large screens, luxury recliners and rockers. A new greatly expanded concession stand will allow for upgraded food and beverage service, including the introduction of beer and wine in the coming months. New digital signage and a fresh interior design are among the remodel features.
“Landmark’s Opera Plaza Cinema, whose future was uncertain to due to the pandemic and which a property owner at one point wanted to convert into office space, is set to reopen Friday, Nov. 19, with a couple of San Francisco classics and some new art house fare on its screens.”
The SF Chronicle story here: OperaPlaza
https://www.sfchronicle.com/local-politics/article/Nonprofit-swooping-in-to-save-SF-neighborhood-15032769.php#photo-18986125
The SF Neighborhood Theatre Foundation, which owns the Vogue and leases the Balboa, has secured a ten year lease at the Opera Plaza. $1.2M in updates will be undertaken, funded by local philanthropists. The theatre is not expected to close entirely during this work, which includes unspecified interior upgrades and improved signage. Long term disruptive construction along Van Ness will conclude next year and it is hoped this theatre will take advantage of renewed interest in the neighborhood. Landmark will remain the operator. Great news from the SFNTF! I appreciate the convenient of this intimate theatre, but it has gotten really threadbare, so I look forward to the renovation.
That grand opening add is such a lie. There is nothing magnificent about this theatre. While it has its charm, it may be one of the worst places to see a movie in northern California. That being said, I love it for what it is.
November 16th, 1984 grand opening ad in the photo section.
A change of use application has been filed with the SF Planning Dept to convert the Opera Plaza into retail space:
Opera Plaza
Exterior and lobby photos from July 2015.
If they’re still running 35mm, then I assume the Opera Plaza’s days are numbered.
Caught one of the final theatrical showings of All Is Lost here on Thanksgiving evening – tiny room, but that didn’t matter once the show began. And I was thrown for a minute when I realized we were watching an actual 35mm print – scratches, dust and all – and not a digital presentation. That is old school!
I love this theater. It is a definite throwback to the 80’s with the neons and the reflective ceiling. The popcorn is always fresh and the bathrooms always clean. The movies they show are mostly foreign and independent films, as they are part of the Landmark chain. They usually get movies that have been playing for a little while at the Embarcadero Center Cinema or the Clay, which means that they will undoubtedly be getting the films that are doing better. While the screens are not very large, the projection and sound is always top notch and the small auditoriums make it seem like an exclusive movie event put on just for you. A very nice movie theater experience. I hope this theater stays open for many years to come!
The Landmark Opera Plaza has a marquee out front on Van Ness but they don’t change the wording ever. Says the same thing every day. You don’t know what’s playing. Probably don’t want to pay the help with a ladder to post the new films playing in the tiny cinemas. Just like Century, Brendan and Regal many theatres don’t bother changing the marquee these days. Maybe If they did some advertising out front people will stop in.
I’ve posted information and photos from a recent visit here.
I caught at least three films here in my visits to the city: Ted Kotcheff’s Joshua Then and Now in July, 1986; a revival of the 1937 Polish/Yiddish film by Michal Waszynski The Dybbuk on November 11, 1989, and the Hungarian Whooping Cough, directed by Péter Gárdos, on August 2, 1990. I remember the theatre as being functional, the screening rooms small, the programming incomparable. Every decent-sized city in America should have an Opera Plaza Cinema. So if the description calls it “an unsung art-house,” I am singing it.
What’s also amazing that this theatre is still going after 20 years is that the screens in the 4 theatres are not much bigger than todays TV sets and they don’t have any upgraded sound.
Just for the record: the Opera Plaza Cinemas opened on November 16, 1984, so this year, 2004, marks their twentieth anniversary,
no small achievement considering the multiplexes up the street,
and the competitive state of the market
Opera Plaza is NOT the best place but they are the last chance to see some of the bigee underdogs before disappearing completely from SF. I was fortunate to have seen a FEW flicks here both Margaret Cho’s concert films Im The One That i Want & Notorious C.H.O.