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- Pacific Film Archive
Berkeley, CA - Regal UA Berkeley
Berkeley, CA - Rialto Cinemas Elmwood
Berkeley, CA - AMC Bay Street 16
Emeryville, CA

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Theater Closings Articles
Hopes for saving the former Regal UA Berkeley in Berkeley, California are dimming with the announcement of plans for a housing project that would replace all but the facade of the 1932 movie theater.
Located on Shattuck Avenue and Bancroft Way, the historic movie theater originally opened September 16, 1932 as the United Artists Berkeley with one auditorium seating 1,800 people. Built in the Art Deco style of the time, the theater was eventually converted to two, five, and then seven screens. According to reports, much of the original treatments still exists behind the surface layer of those remodeling projects. United Artists was purchased by Regal Cinemas in 2002 and the combination of Regal, United Artists, and Edwards Theatres became known as the Regal Entertainment Group. Cineworld acquired Regal Entertainment Group in 2017.
When Cineworld filed for bankruptcy in September 2022, it began closing many locations around the country. The closure of the Berkeley location was announced in January 2023, when Regal listed 39 locations that would be closing around the country. The theater closed on March 1, 2023.
As commonly happens when historic downtown movie theaters close and plans begin popping up about demolishing them, people organize efforts to try to save them. Earlier this year, a group called Save Berkeley’s United Artists Theater formed to do just that. Key to that struggle was likely going to be getting the theater declared a historic landmark, which failed when the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission turned down the request for landmark status.
The building's owner, Panoramic Interests, is planning a 22-story housing project it is calling CITYSPACE® 2274 Shattuck. It will have 299 studios, 4-bedroom, and 5-bedroom units.
KPIX, the CBS affiliate in San Francisco, published a video recently about the plans:
Plans are announced all the time for properties, and not all of them come to fruition. That means that there might still be hope for the Regal UA Berkeley, but sooner or later, something is going to happen, and it most likely won't be the reopening of this historic movie theater.
Unless that magically happens somehow, moviegoers in the area will need to continue visiting one of the other nearby theaters, including the Pacific Film Archive and the Rialto Cinemas Elmwood in Berkeley, and the AMC Bay Street 16 in Emeryville.
Save Your Local Theater Before It Closes
Let this serve as a lesson to us all. If you enjoy a movie theater, don't just look at it and admire it from afar. Go see movies there. Buy their concessions, and enjoy it. Your business is critical to its survival, and even if it closes some day, you will have lots of memories of seeing movies there.
Related News Articles
- New Berkeley housing could be located at beloved theater location (Video) -- KPIX [Dec 11, 2024]
- Theater building eyed for housing is not a landmark, commission decides -- Berkleyside [Feb 2, 2024]
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- Pacific Film Archive
Berkeley, CA - Regal UA Berkeley
Berkeley, CA - Rialto Cinemas Elmwood
Berkeley, CA - AMC Bay Street 16
Emeryville, CA

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