Originally the Avalon didn’t have 2 screens. So, why couldn’t a thoughtful renovation of the Uptown yield several screens and a larger cafe? It has the great advantage over the Avalon of being metro accessible.

Karen Davis
Connecticut Ave.

- from previous message -
Realistically the Uptown is no longer viable as a movie theatre: it's been forlorn for years, and actually is depressing to go to a movie there. (Reminds me of the emptiness of an Edward Hopper-ish painting, a dead Sunday afternoon in smallville.) Even a popular movie doesn't draw large crowds anymore, and the Uptown is too big and noisy for all but superhero movies. (AMC theatres tend to show splashy loud movies not appealing to most adults en masse.) Even when Star Wars was the feature, there weren't many kids after the first showings, and I never saw one person buying tickets for Birds of Paradise. A friend and I went to 1917, and we had to "select" a seat first-- a futile gesture because no touch screen -- the theatre was pretty empty, the seat letters/numbers couldn't be read in the dim light, and the idea of pre-selecting a seat thus ludicrous -- we knew then the end was in sight for the Uptown! It was like being in a Coen brothers satire.
The Avalon is much better; offers more variety of shows, more interesting films, has the cafe. I recently saw a documentary there, and the main theatre was crowded. [snip]