For the final time, Regal Cinemas employees will tonight pour corn kernels into McDonald Theatre’s glass popcorn popper, set nachos in the three-tiered heating tray and project a film on the wide screen.
Regal Cinemas, which has recently experienced financial troubles, has cut the theater loose. The last movie showing will be tonight at 9:55 p.m.; the last film: Cast Away.
Since the closure was announced earlier this week, the theater has experienced a boom in business, according to theater General Manager Elizabeth Becker.
“It’s amazing how many people are upset this isn’t going to be a theater anymore,” she said.
It is still uncertain if Eugene’s most ornate theater will find its way back into business, though there is already one prospect.
Ray Sewell, owner of the nearby Chez Ray’s restaurant, said he is considering leasing the theater and turning it into a venue for live performances. Sewell said he plans to decide within 60 days whether to make the investment.
“We’re exploring using it for live performances, concerts, plays and vaudevilles,” he said.
Sewell said the 900-seat theater would fill a much-needed niche in Eugene for a medium-sized venue, one that could attract acts that couldn’t fill the Hult Center but are too popular for the city’s smaller stages.
“We could get what’s left of the Grateful Dead, or B.B. King-type performers or Robert Cray,” he said.
Sewell said he foresees using the theater in conjunction with his own cafe and stage, as well as with a blues club he’s considering opening on the block.
“There might be a time when a person could roam between three venues and see on video screens what’s happening on the other stages,” he said. “The loss of this theater would be the return of the theater. It was originally constructed as a vaudeville theater.”
The 75-year-old McDonald Theatre was originally the city’s grand theater. It is a Eugene historic landmark and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Its exotic design, high ceilings and spacious lobby are emblematic of the colorful architecture of the Roaring ’20s.
Regal Cinemas has operated the theater since 1993 and runs two other Eugene theaters, including Cinema World 8 near the Valley River Center and Movieland 6 in West Eugene.
Regal has been rapidly expanding during the past few years but has recently experienced financial trouble and has racked up significant debt.
Michael Lamont, owner of the Bijou Art Cinema, said he recalled the McDonald Theatre’s recent effort to change operation with a new strategy.
“A year or so ago, they toyed with the idea of showing mature, arty-type of films,” Lamont said.But that strategy was unsuccessful.
“(The McDonald Theatre) was identified as an under-performing location and was targeted for closure,” Regal spokesman Dick Westerling said. “The industry is over-screened as a whole, and as a part of our reconstruction, we’re reviewing theaters on a case-by-case and market-by-market basis.”
Eugene’s other Regal theaters have been performing relatively well and aren’t likely to close in the near future, Westerling said.