How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Castro Theatre Again | KQED

"Plus, I never minded the run-down look of the Castro. While it was hard to argue with restoring the ceiling, upgrading the sound, fixing the roof and adding ADA compliance, was it a fair trade-off for losing around-the-clock film programming? The whole thing felt like someone walking into Tommy's Joynt and saying, "Nice place, good potential. But let's take all this garbage off the walls and repaint it. And say, why don't we put in a matcha bar?""

"I was glad to learn that the projection booth retains both a 35mm and 70mm film projector, along with a new digital 4K BARCO projector. The screen is 36 feet by 25 feet, similar in size to the old one. There's a new sound system, and in the classic movie-palace style, the speakers sit behind the screen. There's a bar at the back of the auditorium for concerts, but it's fully removable and will be absent for film screenings. Film booking is done in-house, and festivals like Berlin & Beyond, the SF Silent Film Festival and Frameline are all returning."

"The seats are ugly. There's no other way to say it. The point of so much debate, anger and town halls, the new seats aren't folding chairs per se, but they still look like seats at a school assembly, with toothpick legs. They're on six-inch risers with improved sight lines, and they're padded and have cup holders, but if AMC installed these seats at their theaters they'd go out of business immediately."

The Castro theater received ceiling restoration, sound upgrades, roof repairs, and ADA improvements while retaining classic speaker placement behind the screen. The projection booth keeps both 35mm and 70mm film projectors alongside a new digital 4K BARCO projector, and the 36-by-25-foot screen remains. A removable back-auditorium bar will serve concerts but will be absent for film screenings. Film booking is handled in-house and festivals such as Berlin & Beyond, the SF Silent Film Festival and Frameline will return. Early programming skews queer to serve local communities, and the new padded seats with cup holders draw criticism for an institutional appearance.

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