Editorial: Return of Larkspur Landing theater is a good sign for Marin
The movie theater in Larkspur Landing is bucking a trend.
While cinemas are being shuttered in Marin and across the nation, a new owner is reopening the old Century Larkspur Landing theater under a new marquee: Larkspur Landing Cinema.
The new owner, Petaluma-based Cinema West Inc., is not new to the Marin movie market.
It runs the Fairfax Theater and ran the Tiburon Playhouse for 30 years.
The moviehouse industry, however, has faced a double whammy – box office losses during three years of social-distancing limits and increased competition from streaming where movie lovers can watch first-run flicks at home. Add to that corporations that are trimming their holdings in the wake of the pandemic.
Some theaters used the down time to invest in upgrades, such as adding luxury seating.
Cinema West’s president Dave Corkill has done that and more after signing a long-term lease with Syufy Enterprises, the San Rafael-based theater chain owner. Cinemark, which for years ran the theater, closed its doors in September.
After the theater was shuttered, city officials began to eye the 1.5-acre site for housing to meet its state housing quota.
Reviving the theater has already been heartily welcomed by Larkspur Chamber of Commerce’s leadership, which recognizes the importance of the theater as a draw for nearby restaurants.
“This is going to be really great for the city,” chamber vice president Audrey Shapiro told the IJ.
Reopening the Larkspur Landing theater also comes in the wake of the closure of Cinema One in Corte Madera, for many years a local landmark for movie-goers.
In Novato, longstanding hope to rebuild the downtown theater foundered and sank.
Just last month, theater giant Cinemark announced it is closing its Century San Francisco Centre 9 and XD movie complex at San Francisco’s Westfield mall.
Across the bridge, though, Cinema West’s investment centers on the bet that the storyline for theaters portrays a more promising rebound than some industry giants foresee.
The large crowds that have been drawn to theaters recently to see such hits as “Barbie,” “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” and “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning (Part One)” reflect that promise.
For those movie-goers there’s a big difference between going to a theater and watching a film on a giant screen with booming surround sound and viewing that movie at home, sitting on the sofa.
Going to the movies is an event.
Marin has seen the ups and downs of the movie theater business. We’ve seen openings, closings and reopenings. We’ve seen single screens give way to multi-screen theaters.
The Rafael and the Lark were closed for many years, but reopened as community-supported independent repertory venues.
Still, some closed for good.
Cinema West’s investment at Larkspur Landing is a sign that it’s too early to write “The End” on the history of local movie theaters.