It’s for real: Hollywood Theaters shutting down

It’s official: Hollywood Theaters will close for a month and may ultimately shut down its Saipan operations altogether.

This was confirmed in an e-mail yesterday by Oregon-based Wallace Theatres Corp. vice president for marketing Heather Wright.

In the e-mail, Wright said that Hollywood Theaters will discontinue operations for 30 days after the last showing this evening and then re-evaluate whether it’s economically feasible to continue.

She said the island’s bad economy and rising operational costs led to Wallace Theatres temporarily halting operations at the seven-theater Hollywood Theaters.

“Unfortunately, Saipan’s lackluster economy has resulted in low attendance levels and many operating expenses have significantly increased over the last year. We are closing the doors for one month and will review the financial situation again before coming to a long-term decision,” she wrote.

Rumors of the CNMI’s lone cinema complex shutting down spread like wildfire early this week but wasn’t confirmed until Wright’s statement.

In a telephone interview with the Saipan Tribune last Tuesday, Hollywood Theater general manager William Santos was noncommittal when asked about rumors relating to the establishment’s closing. However when he was asked why Hollywood Theater doesn’t have an entry for its movie schedules beginning Friday—either on its website or through telephone—and whether the seven-stadium venue would be open on April 18 and beyond, Santos said, “I have not issued a schedule for Friday…we are not open for Friday.” He also replied “no” when asked if the establishment would be open for the rest of April.

Even staff at Hollywood Theater remain tight-lipped about the company’s plans as queries about Friday’s schedule were quickly refereed to Santos.

Saipan Tribune also browsed through Hollywood Theater-Saipan Megaplex’s website and found that it only has entries up to Thursday, April 17, where it abruptly ends. It, however, has a posting beginning May 16, 2008, when The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince of Caspian is scheduled for showing.

Hollywood Theater-Saipan Megaplex, located next to Price Costco, opened with much fanfare in Sept. 8, 1999.

During its first week of operation, the venue showed Deep Blue Sea, Haunting, Iron Giant, Mystery Men, Bowfinger, American Pie, Thomas Crown, and Miss Kristina Moran.

Currently showing at Hollywood Theater are Leatherheads, Nim’s Island, Superhero Movie, Drillbit Taylor, Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!, Never Back Down, 10,000 B.C., College Road Trip, and Definitely, Maybe.