Chabot Spectator

Issue date: 2/8/07 Section: The Scene

Media Credit: Daniel, Alexis

Do you remember all the times you would go to the theater, sit down, and watch a movie? Now your viewing pleasure is about to change, but how you may ask? How will my theater experience begin to change?

To begin with, the price of a ticket has now gone up. A ticket now costs $10 which is more than half of what you would pay to rent a DVD. What caused this sudden change? Well it happened like this.

The Century Theaters that you are so familiar going to, no longer exist. A company named Cinemark has recently bought out Century Theaters. Cinemark now owns all Centaury Theaters, not just the ones in the Bay Area.

According to Armando Gutierrez, an assistant manager at the Bay Fair Century Theaters, "Some of the changes that you can expect at the newly bought theaters are that there will be commercials before the movie. Century had a strict policy that there would be no commercials before the movie, but Cinemark prefers them. That is going to be the biggest change."

Another assistant manager named Aries Pascual said, "Two Plasma TVs will be put up in the lobby, and the Century sign will be changed with the Cinemark name."

Little by little the changes are being made, and again the price of a ticket has already gone up.

Not only will the name change, but the way the employees dress will also change; everyone will begin to wear clothes that bear the Cinemark name.

Cinemark is also building a new theater in downtown Hayward, where the old Albertsons used to be on Foothill Boulevard. The biggest problem Cinemark may have there is parking, which is going to cause a lot of traffic, when it does open up, especially on Friday nights.

For those of you who go to the Newark area to watch a movie, Cinemark will be closing some theaters there as well. The theaters that are currently in Newark, Cinedome 8 and Cinedome 7, will begin to close down. Those theaters will officially be closed when the new Cinemark Theater is completed.

Where will the new theater be? Gutierrez said, "There are two that are going to be closed in Newark, and they are going to begin a new one at New Park Mall." Just like the Bayfair Mall, you can now go, shop, and when you feel like you want to watch a movie, you can go directly to the new theater and see what you want.

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