Update: Rumored Neptune buyer
More tragic Seattle movie theater news: Apparently the Neptune is closing.
Crestfallen over hearing that my neighborhood theater AMC’s Queen Anne Uptown is going under this weekend, I dashed out to pay my respects by catching a matinee of Woody Allen’s You Will Meet a Tall, Dark Stranger. I loved the flick, but what I didn’t love was the bad news I received right outside.
A guy who works there said that the Uptown employees, one of whom has worked there for 26 years, are all in shock. Apparently the CEO of AMC lives in the neighborhood and the Uptown was his favorite in the collection. There was talk of turning it into a 21-and-over theater with drinks and everyone felt good about that, then suddenly it was announced that it was to be closed.
I offered that maybe Landmark would take over, but the guy told me that wasn’t likely since they are closing the beloved Neptune!
How much bad news can a Seattle cinephile take in one day?
He went on to say that since the Uptown’s lease is paid up until 2016, unless some other arrangement is made, this beautiful 84-year-old theater will probably be shuttered until then.
He and I are both holding out hope that Paul Allen can step in.
He said that Uptown employees will be placed at Big Box Theaters, but he’s not sure they’ll be happy there. I told him I’d see him at Pacific Place, but I’m really heartbroken over this.
“I can’t believe they couldn’t wait until after Thanksgiving,” he said.
I agreed.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Synde, Amy DeZellar. Amy DeZellar said: More Bad News for Classic Seattle Theaters. Please RT http://amydezellar.com/2010/11/22/seattle-landmark-neptune-theater-closing/ [...]
[...] told that in addition to Seattle’s Neptune closing, Landmark intends to close 30 theaters nationwide. I don’t know which theaters or the [...]
The University District has become such an undesirable place to walk that I’m surprised than any business can thrive there.
Michael,
Your snooty attitude is appalling. The U-district is one of the best neighborhoods in Seattle. It’s what makes this city alive with culture. If you have a negative attitude about something, that is what you will experience. Law of attraction. Maybe you should go live in a sterile gated community and shop at the mall. The fall of the Neptune is very sad indeed.
I’m in Victoria, and now I wish I could’ve seen the Neptune inside, a city can’t buy old stuff like this once it’s gone so maybe someone will step in to save it. Victoria lost a couple of decent ones here just from what I remember as a kid (the old Capitol was one, now a multiplex of large tv rooms). We still have The Royal.
As for the U district; you have a lot more poor and sometimes desperate people on the street everywhere these days.
I hope Neptune Music can stay afloat as it is a great place for vintage vinyl…
I agree- The U-District is fantastic!
I am so sorry the Uptown is closing. It’s a great lose for the neighborhood, but describing it as beautiful is very innacurate. It has no architectural significance and has been allowed to fall into a shabby state. As far as the Neptune is concerned, rumors are just that, and encouraging them is a bit irresponsible.
@David, Something doesn’t have to have architectural significance to be beautiful, but for me it’s the marquee and also its place in the flow of the street. I would say the same of the Mecca. I’m actually not posting about some of the rumors that are coming through. The ones I’ve mentioned are coming from people who work in the industry.
Amy, I see in another post you are going to stop posting rumors. Too bad you didn’t think about that before irresponsibly and incorrectly posting that Landmark was closing 30 theaters. Some usher in the lobby of the Uptown and a SIFF board member do not count as “industry”. You lamented AMC not having the decency to wait until after Thanksgiving, however you had no issues with posting questionable rumors that could cause a lot of distress for people that work at those theaters.
@1:18 I think it’s important to get the word out so that all possible steps can be taken to save these theaters before it’s too late. I see your point, but I’ve had people from these theaters thank me for the original posts.
SIGH Speaking as a decades-long Seattle cinephile myself… (though I usually call myself a movie geek)…
I’ve lived in Seattle all my life. OK, grew up in Bellevue, but as soon as I could operate a car, I spent all the time in Seattle I could. Come to think of it, I did that pretty much from age 14 on anyway, just bitched and moaned until someone gave me a ride just to shut me up. I’ve been going to the Neptune for over 25 years (I’m 42 so you don’t need to do math).
I have so many happy memories of it, only 1 or 2 bad, an those were due to people, not the theater or film itself. Mostly before it was refurbished and sort of switched to having the Varsity be the the theater where they had a different movie only play a movie for a couple nights in a row. My husband told me tonight, and I’m so sad about what a f**king shame it is for not only us but everyone else that I’m not even crying, just sitting here really really depressed. I’m still really sad about the Uptown for the same reason-lots of great memories. IN 1990 when My husband was still my boyfriend, we went on so many dates there, He told me he loved me him for the first time after we saw Edward Scissorhands there and had to wait till the credits were over because we were crying openly.
The Neptune, though? I grew up in the 80s,and my friends from high school and I, our little posse, would get a ride into Seattle or take the bus, wander around the Ave all night (this was before it got so scary around there that you needed pepper spray after dark, for what seemed like entire weeks, until it turned midnight and it was Rocky Horror time. We also saw plenty of rock and roll movies there (I’m not being sarcastic- Quadrophenia, Rock and Roll High School, Ziggy Stardust the movie, if those aren’t rock and roll, I don’t know what is). We’d snatch up the new schedule the SECOND it got put out, pore through it, circle stuff-I take that back, we didn’t need to circle anything. I had a HUGE crush/obsession with David Bowie and needed no reminding when the “newly uncensored” version of The Man Who Fell to Earth was showing. I remember before a showing of The Hunger started at a solo trip to the Neptune in the mid-80s, they somehow legally showed the David Bowie/Mick Jagger rendition of Dancing in the Streets” video and the audience (consisting of at least 98% fellow David Bowie fans) ROARED through the whole thing, especially when they both cheerfully kept trying to upstage the other (David Bowie won, if you ask me-damn, he’s one fine-looking, sexy man and the video holds up to this day).
In the mid-90s when the docmentary Twist! was showing there, I decided I was going to learn to dance at least as well as the white dancers (I’m not delusional as to what I can learn some things aren’t gonna happen no matter how much practice I get) in the movie-it took me lots of practice, but I can finally do every dance movie in the movie with style, if I do say so myself, and that’s thanks to the Neptune for showing it first.
After I lot my mom very suddenly a month before her March birthday (which we’d always celebrated by seeing a movie with my husband, or after I got out of cubicle jobs and had more freedom, just me if my husband had to work) and was a (barely)walking trainwreck, my husband knew I really, really needed to be distracted on my first birthday in decades later and took me to see the Korean monster movie the Host at the Neptune. I was having PTSD-blackouts, though I didn’t know it at the time, and there were gaps in my memory (as there were all of my memory since we found her remains) of the movie, but every minute I was in there I forgot it was the first of many sad,long March 17ths without my Mom (and on the bright side, after I bought a copy and re-watched the Host, there were several large surprises in store I had no memory of whatsoever)! I’ve since gotten very,very into the director and searched for and saw everything he’s done, and not one of his movies has ever let me down. I wouldn’t have discovered June-Ho Bong –and the actor Kang-Ho Song if it wasn’t for that Neptune showing.
When I waited for MONTHS for Machete opened(actually, years, since the first showed the trailer when Grindhouse opened at the Cinerama, it was playing at the Neptune. I tried to talk my husband into seeing it there (to his credit, as far as when knew then, we didn’t know the Uptown OR the Neptune was going anywhere) because I wanted a fun, live crowd in a packed house for the best movie-going experience. We saw it (to a half-full theater, but there were still a few, um, vocal audience members besides me) and I planned on seeing it at the Neptune with a friend or two, but it wasn’t there long enough. I really, really wish now that I had, because I’d LOVE that to be my final movie-going experience there.
Paul Allen PLEASE step in, I can’t tell you what keeping the Cinerama going meant to me (and I don’t think I’m alone here).I guess I will try to keep myself posted for a possible last-weekend celebration, even though I’m so bummed out right now by the closing of BOTH it’ll probably just quietly fizzle out like the Uptown-I suspect SOMEone knew how upset and furious people were going to be and did it quietly mid-week when no-one was looking. Amy, drop me a line if you need help with anything (as long as it doesn’t involve spending money) letter-writing, whatever. Or maybe just a big hug. >:-(
-Deirdre,
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[...] circulating for several days about the theater’s fate, following a conversation documented by blogger Amy DeZellar last week. News of the Neptune’s closure comes just hours after the historic Uptown Theater [...]
The Neptune lost its cinephilic edge a few years back when it started screening all Hollywood fare. It was anything but an art house over the last few years.
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