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Topic: Regal Continental

Monte L Fullmer
Film God

Posts: 8367
From: Nampa, Idaho, USA
Registered: Nov 2004

posted 09-30-2009 03:43 AM

The "COOPER" - the most exclusive Cinerama house - was that a part of the old Cooper-Hyland chain which then evolved into Commonwealth,which was soaked up by UA, then into the REG banner?

(Dang, that was a small genealogy lesson here..)

Heard many-a-stories about the COOPER as with the Continental.. being the two greatest theatres to see a good presentation in the Denver area ...

(MANN's Tamarack was far behind all of this ...)

..course, we can't forget Aladdin Theatre, C-H's flagship palace..!

-Monte

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 09-30-2009 04:01 AM

The Cooper was one of the few real Cinerama houses in the country. I think Commonwealth did own it for a while and then United Artists. I remember seeing Spaceballs in 70mm there as well as a 70mm blowup of the world's most favorite movie, Cliffhanger. It was bulldozed long, long ago because the city needed a new Barnes and Noble, by god. I don't think you mean the Mann Tamarac. I think you mean the Mann Century 21. That was the 3rd single screen big house in Denver. It was the first in the state with Dolby Digital. The building still exists, but it is a shoddy Ultimate Electronics. I'm sure everyone appreciates that store much more than the Century 21. In fact, I bet the employees of the Century 21 would have been super-giddy over the thought that their building would eventually become something legendary like Ultimate Electronics.

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Jesse Skeen
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1517
From: Sacramento, CA
Registered: Aug 2000

posted 09-30-2009 04:54 AM

Guess they don't use those curtains anymore, since the pre-show is so much more important.

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Geoff Jones
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 579
From: Broomfield, CO, USA
Registered: Feb 2006

posted 09-30-2009 01:48 PM

quote: Randy Bowden
So how does the continental measure up against say the Harkins Cinecapri in terms of screen size and picture quality?

The Continental's GIANT SCREEN is 78' wide, according to former manager Rich Vincent.

According to the daily ad in the Denver Post, the CineCapri is the "largest screen in Colorado."

According to the managers I spoke with, the actual size is a confidential proprietary secret.

According to a 2004 press release, the Northfield CineCapri is 70 feet wide.

To my eye, it looks smaller than the Continental's GIANT SCREEN.

quote:
The Cooper... was bulldozed... because the city needed a new Barnes and Noble... Mann Century 21... is a shoddy Ultimate Electronics.

quote: Joe Redifer
The GIANT SCREEN auditorium really isn't that great presentation-wise.

Yes. It's terrible. Atrocious. Hopefully they will tear it down soon and put in a Pei Wei and we can eat bad Chinese and then go elsewwhere to watch movies on 20 and 30 foot screens. Or just stay home.

quote: Jesse Skeen
Guess they don't use those curtains anymore, since the pre-show is so much more important.

Nope, and it's a shame. I'm told they are functional.

Watching them open up on that GIANT SCREEN was an awesome experience. But not as awesome as a Pei Wei would be.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 09-30-2009 02:11 PM

The Harkins screen is definitely smaller than the Continental. The Harkins seems not much bigger than most other theaters in town. The "large screen" auditorium itself is really small. Harkins uses their ugly yellow curtains (the color their interior decorator chose reminds me of vomit).

Jesse, you are right, the pre show is much more important than the curtains. When I opened the Continental when it was rejuvenated as a 6-plex, we used the curtains. We'd also run a slide show. The curtains would close two minutes before the movie started. They squeaked really loud as they traveled, too! They replaced the curtains when they did the stadium seating.

Geoff, you seem to be ONLY impressed by size, nothing else. Who cares if the image is dim, who cares if much of the image is cropped away, missing and distorted due to the curve, right? The Century 21 was more more impressive presentation-wise, especially in the sound department. It was stupid to build the screen as a super-curved D150. To my knowledge they never even ran a proper D150 feature there. Geoff, I am not saying that the Continental is atrocious, I am saying that it could be much, much better. Regal made it even worse. It's not the same.

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Vern Dias
Film Handler

Posts: 28
From: AllenTX USA
Registered: Apr 2009

posted 09-30-2009 02:24 PM

quote: Joe Redifer
I think Commonwealth did own it for a while

Yes, they did, along with the Cooper in Minneapolis MN. I worked at both during Commonwealth's tenure along with Commonwealth's Village up in Boulder CO that also had a fairly deeply curved screen and a pretty short throw. All three were fun houses to work in.

Vern

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Geoff Jones
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 579
From: Broomfield, CO, USA
Registered: Feb 2006

posted 09-30-2009 03:11 PM

The films I've seen there over the past year or so haven't seemed dim to me.

I saw District 9 there and didn't have any trouble with the framing of the subtitles, nor the "headroom", though I don't deny that the framing isn't perfect.

I wish the Continental were better. I wish all theatres were better. Most are pretty lousy, especially in Denver, as you have said yourself.

I loved the Cooper and Century 21 too. I saw 70MM screenings of Cliffhanger, 2001, Far & Away, Last Crusade and probably a few others at those two houses. I cry a little bit every day over their loss.

Yeah, I think size is pretty important. When I see 30 foot tall dinosaurs or spaceships or boobies or whatever, it knocks my socks off. I'm glad it's still around, and if a film is playing on the GIANT SCREEN, I won't see it anywhere else.

[Smile]

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Mark Lensenmayer
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1605
From: Upper Arlington, OH
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 09-30-2009 03:28 PM

Regarding the CineCapri Screen size:

quote: Geoff Jones
According to the managers I spoke with, the actual size is a confidential proprietary secret.

Aren't there any ceiling tiles to count? I've only been in one theatre that did not use standard width ceiling tiles. Gets me an accurate screen size every time. Divide the scope width by 2.35 and you get a reasonably accurate screen height.

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David Stambaugh
Film God

Posts: 4021
From: Eugene, Oregon
Registered: Jan 2002

posted 09-30-2009 04:06 PM

quote: Geoff Jones
Hopefully they will tear it down soon and put in a Pei Wei

Is that anything like Wei Wei, a name which I am not making up? It was faux-Asian restaurant in a mall food court here. Lasted about 6 months. Between the name and the bad food, it was doomed from the day they signed the lease.

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Geoff Jones
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 579
From: Broomfield, CO, USA
Registered: Feb 2006

posted 09-30-2009 04:30 PM

Heh - yeah. I think I actually mean to say "P.F. Chang's," but same difference.

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Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 09-30-2009 08:43 PM

Harkins advertises their Dallas Cine Capri as the largest screen too...but its not. There are half a dozen other screens in town that are larger.

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Paul Linfesty
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1383
From: Bakersfield, CA, USA
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 09-30-2009 10:05 PM

quote:
..course, we can't forget Aladdin Theatre, C-H's flagship palace..!

The Aladdin was a Fox Intermountain Theatre, at least as far back as Fantasia (shown here in Fantasound). It became a mostly roadshow house starting with the 70mm Todd-AO engagement of South Pacific (the Tabor ran the first two Todd-AO films). Then the Aladdin went with the rest of the chain to National General, and ended up a Mann Theatre in 1973.

quote: Joe Redifer
It was stupid to build the screen as a super-curved D150. To my knowledge they never even ran a proper D150 feature there.

The opening attraction at the Continental was the D-150 Reserved-seat attraction of THE BIBLE...IN THE BEGINNING. The ads stated that it was filmed and presented in D-150.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 09-30-2009 10:51 PM

Someone really needs to out Harkins Theaters for false advertising. I wonder if a call to a local TV or radio station would be in order.

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Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster

Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99

posted 10-01-2009 01:11 PM

We have a guy on Channel 2 here in SLC that does just that... Dick Gephart...have a problem with something,some buisness or product.... he'll get it all set straight.. er else...it'll be all over channel 2.

Mark

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 10-01-2009 09:31 PM

Using the ceiling tiles as a judge from pictures I took personally, the Harkins Northfield 18 Cine-Capri screen can be no larger than 64-feet wide or so. Unfortunately I don't have any high resolution pics to be 100% sure. If it is bigger than 64 feet, it isn't much bigger at all. I'm sure Harkins measures without the masking, just like they deceptively list every woofer, tweeter, etc as its own individual speaker.

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