SF's Castro Theatre Renovated Reopening Date

[Terry Monohan]

After being closed for almost two long years a date has been set for the grand re opening of San Francisco's grand movie palace the Castro Theatre. Feb 10 2026 will be big night for this closed up former popular cinema.

A big thanks to the 'Nasser' family plus the new lease folks at 'Another Planet Entertainment'. APE runs the Fox Oakland Theatre in downtown Oakland CA and many other venues around the SF Bay Area.

Over $41 million has been spent so far on the remodel, they ran $20 million over budget. No longer will you see a movie for $8. With many of the new bookings being touring live stage type events with mostly no seating on the main floor, standing room only. Portable moving seats will be put in for events like films and seated type shows. The loge upstairs area will have seating. Ticket and drink prices will be high. Someone has to pay for the neglected theatres big remodel work .

So many improvements will be in place when the Castro Theatre re opens in 2026. Watch for a new kick ass stereo surround system, multi color lighting for the stage and auditorium, a huge electric/pipe organ, new movie screen, curtains, AC/heat, new DCP projection, new rugs, flat floor bar set ups downstairs, upstair lobby bar counters, new bathrooms, new boxoffice area, re painted ceiling and art on the side walls., a new green room/ dressing room addition in a backstage new building add on plus a refurbished painted neon marquee plus blade flashing sign restored.

The best improvement for me will be the cleaning and re painting of the ceiling dome tent. After years of nicotine/smoke build up It was so dirty you could not see any detail. The paint in many places had chipped away. The deco chandelier on the ceiling has been cleaned of years of dirt and dust. I have been told by some of my electrition friends working on the project that the new huge deco light will have multi LED lights for a different color look like It had multi color light bulbs many years ago. Let's hope they have a dim blue/purple or green look when a show is going on and switch to a red/orange intermission/walk in effect. From the image of my photos enclosed It looks like they attached a few white work lights to the main deco chandelier, I won't know till I see the whole thing lit. It would be a shame If they just had boring white lights on all the time that so many former theatres use these days. Under the balconey they had three or four deco glass lights, I hope they have put in multi color LED's in those also when they put them back in. The small downstairs lobby also had some larger deco ceiling lights, they need some color effect lights also.

It will be intersting If they bring back a popcrn machine. The old refreshment lobby counter is no longer. Booze and wine will now be seved at many multi bar set up's all around the theatre for the new party people coming into the Castro Theatre. Parking in the surroundig Castro area will be a mess. While they say they will still show 35mm/70mm films and video 4K DCP movies they won't be the main attraction on the Castro's neon marquee


Again a big 'THANKS' to the Nassers who have kept the place going all these years. They could have turned the classic theatre into a disco/nightclub set up, rock climbing gym, bowling alley, church services, antique shops or so many other rental type business's. Worst they could have torn the place down for condos or a parking lot like so many former movie theatres have met their fate.

Please try to give the Castro Theatre SF your support when they open in Feb of 2026. Hope they make It in time, work is still being done. Many movie people don't like the idea that the seats have been removed downstairs and they won't be showing that many movies anymore but at least the theatre will still be with us for a new San Francisco generation to enjoy like It or not.

See you at the Castro in 2026 Mr Showmanship Terry

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[Frank Angel]

Thanks for the pictures, Terry. Would love to see the place after the renovation is completed. And yes, cinephiles will of course be very unhappy that movie presentation will become the bastard child as opposed to being the favorite son at this MOVIE palace, but the economics for single screen operations is a very hard row to hoe. The Lowes Kings here in Brooklyn also had a spectacular and meticulous restoration (right down to having rugs woven in the exact same pattern as the original) but here too, it turned out that the sumptuously restored theatre has been destine to operate with, alas, no movie presentation at all.

While you can lament the fact that movies will be rare at the Castro -- that is if the statement "they say they will still show 35mm/70mm films and video 4K DCP movies" is actually true and not just a throw-away line to quell the inevitable PR negativity from movie lovers who knew the Castro back in the day. There was that same kind of hopeful talk when they resurrected The Kings, but to my knowledge, nary a flickering moving image has yet to fall on a movie screen in that great lady since the doors reopened nearly 10 years ago.

[Ryan Gallagher]

That is very interesting, especially on the blowing the budget aspect. We have a somewhat similar (though not as extensive) renno in the pipeline, and the timeline and budget targets are pretty optimistic in my opinion. We are not re-grading our house for open floor plan, staying with theatrical seating. Our blade was restored as a separate project several years ago, so that helps shave some money.

I used to have a 1st meal tradition when visiting SF, and it was a high end mac&cheese restaurant in the Castro. Unfortunately it is no longer there.

At minimum I hope they do a seasonal film series, host festivals, and special film events. It is pretty tough with studio scheduling demands for mixed use spaces like ours to position ourselves for 1st run engagements. But I could see 70mm 1st run being a thing if they wanted to accommodate.

Can't wait to see the grand opening pictures!

[Ryan Gallagher]

The flex space seating arrangement is in a historic venue definitely a "choice". For better or worse. My hope would be seats deployed is the "default" configuration, and they only pull them for special GA standing concerts... this would make booking film in schedule gaps a much more economical option. We can get into and out of our film setup in 10min with 4 people on the adjacent calls while full crew is present. If it involved full auditorium seating each time no doubt the crew is going to demand it be a separate call (and inevitably internally billed to the film event, which more often would not have budget for such things).