The Hollywood Theater in Dormont, Pennsylvania opened its doors again on May 4, 2011 after having closed in May 2010. The nonprofit group Friends of the Hollywood Theater is operating the theater and they are hoping to host film festivals, concerts, and other events in addition to showing movies.

The Pittsburgh-area theater opened to the public on Thursday, May 4, 2011 with a showing of The New Metropolis, a documentary about the first suburbs in America.

According to the theater's web site, the Hollywood Theater first opened its doors as a bowling alley in 1924, but was converted to a movie theater in 1933. The theater closed in 1998, and was re-opened in 2006 after some renovations, which included reducing the seat count to 300 to make the seating more comfortable for audiences. The theater closed again in 2008, and it was re-opened in August 2009, only to close again in May 2010.

Shortly after its opening, the theater closed temporarily during the first week of June so that some filming of The Perks of Being a Wallflower, directed by local native Stephen Chbosky and starring Emma Watson and Paul Rudd, could be done at the theater.

Here's hoping that the Friends of the Hollywood Theater can succeed where others have failed, and that the public embraces this community theater!

Related News Coverage

• Dormont's Hollywood Theater a set for movie scene -- Pittsburgh Post Gazette
• Lights back on at Hollywood Theater of Dormont -- Pittsburgh Post Gazette
• Dormont's Hollywood Theater slated to reopen -- Pittsburgh Post Gazette
• Nonprofit plays role in Dormont movie theater's reopening -- Pittsburgh Tribune-Review