RIVERDALE — The Cinedome 70 movie theaters, 1481 W. Riverdale Road — Weber County's equivalent of Salt Lake's former "Century" theaters — closed last week in what may or may not be a permanent shutdown.
Surprisingly, it wasn't the theater's national chain operator, the financially troubled Loews Cineplex Entertainment Corp., that closed the twin movie screens. Rather, it was the building's owners, the Tullis/Hansen families.
Nancy Tullis, one of the Cinedome's original owners since it opened in 1970, said the family owners closed the theater on Feb. 5 to avoid being pulled into any bankruptcy situation that Loews may initiate.
"We're currently negotiating with some folks who would like to take over the theaters," she said.
Tullis declined to name the possible new theater operators but said everything she's read about Loews indicates it is only a matter of time before it begins closing Utah theaters.
Reports of Loews' financial problems surfaced last month. The company operates more than 2,900 movie screens in the United States and Canada.
Loews spokeswoman Mindy Tucker said Monday the company is still evaluating its future and no closures in Utah or elsewhere have been finalized.
Tullis said she terminated the family's contract with Loews four years early but felt that was important to have plenty of time to find a new independent operator. However, she admits the outlook isn't good.
"Movie theaters are a troubled industry these days," she said. "And the Cinedome is so unique it may be impossible to operate it successfully."
The Cinedome consists of two twin 795-seat theaters and in today's megascreen movie market, that means the Riverdale theater is from another era.
Today, new movie screens rarely exceed 500 seats each. For example, the 13-screen Tinseltown USA in Ogden has 3,200 total seats, but the largest screen only seats 290. At Layton's seven-screen Tinseltown USA, 425 seats is the largest.
"It would be very sad for me if we had to close," Tullis said.
Her family opened the theaters on May 15, 1970, by playing "Airport" and "Patton." The theater had an organ, with live music played in its lobby, and many Ogden area moviegoers watched the first three "Star Wars" movies in its spacious domes, luxury theaters of its day.
"It was fashioned after the Century-theater style," Tullis said. "These were the first theaters in Utah to have a form of stadium seating."
When the Cinedome came on the scene, the Wilshire Theater — torn down late last year — was just a year old ,and otherwise Ogden only had the Orpheum and Egyptian theaters.
Despite the death of Darrell and Ray Hansen, two of the original owners, in a 1975 airplane crash, the family continued to run the the theater for 10 more years. It leased the screens to Plitt Theaters in 1985. The family also used to own the former Riverdale Drive-in but sold that property for an apartment development in 1985.
E-MAIL: lynn@desnews.com