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- Century Arden 14 and XD
Sacramento, CA - Century Stadium 14
Sacramento, CA - Esquire IMAX Theatre
Sacramento, CA - Regal UA Arden Fair
Sacramento, CA
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The Century Arden 14 and XD in Sacramento, California opened to the public today (December 1, 2016), according to a press release issued recently by parent company Cinemark USA, Inc. which operates theaters under the Cinemark, Century Theatres, CineArts, Tinseltown, and Rave Cinemas brands across the country.
The new theater is located in the new Howe 'Bout Arden shopping center at 1590 Ethan Way, which was the location of the Century Stadium 14, a mid-century modern facility known for its domes. That theater closed in January.
“This will be Cinemark's seventh Century Theatre in the area and our first new-build in the Sacramento market in almost fifteen years,” said Mark Zoradi, Cinemark’s Chief Executive Officer. “With amenities like our Cinemark XD auditorium, comfortable Luxury Lounger seating and enhanced concession offerings, the Century Arden 14 and XD Theatre will quickly become recognized as the preferred entertainment destination for all of Sacramento County and beyond.”
The press release details the following amenities at the Century Arden 14 and XD:
- Cinemark’s Luxury Loungers that are electric-powered, plush, oversized recliners with footrests
- A state-of-the-art viewing environment with wall-to-wall screens in all auditoriums
- A Cinemark XD auditorium.
- 4K digital projection powered by Barco projectors; RealD 3D capability in several auditoriums
- Enhanced sound systems
- A cafeteria-style concession stand featuring popcorn, Coca-Cola fountain drinks and favorite candy brands plus chicken tenders with wedge fries, pretzel bites and hot dogs
- A Café serving Dreyer's Ice-Cream and Starbucks beverages as well as beer, wine and frozen drinks
- Reserved seating
The theater's most direct competition will be from the UA Arden Fair 6, which is just across Arden Way to the northeast. The theater's XD auditorium will likely be going up against the Esquire IMAX Theatre downtown.
Showtimes and Tickets
To see what's playing and when at the Century Arden 14 and XD, head over to their Showtimes page, where you can purchase tickets in advance.
Source: Cinemark USA, Inc. Press Release
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- Century Arden 14 and XD
Sacramento, CA - Century Stadium 14
Sacramento, CA - Esquire IMAX Theatre
Sacramento, CA - Regal UA Arden Fair
Sacramento, CA
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This is an open letter to everyone involved with the new Century Arden 14 theater, including those at Cinemark, SyWest Development, and the press which publicized its grand opening:
As you may know, I spoke out against the construction of this theater several times after its plans were revealed, including an online petition, two appearances on local TV news, an article in the Sacramento Bee and appearing at City of Sacramento Planning Commission meetings where it was discussed and ultimately approved. My main concern was that it was intended to replace the iconic Century 21 and 22 dome theaters, but I felt that it hardly did justice to what those two theaters were when they were brand-new. Having attended many of my first movies at the similar domes in San Jose, they set the benchmark for how I judge an experience at any theater- despite the two Sacramento domes foolishly being split in half in the 70s (the two main ones in San Jose never were), I had hoped for years that they would ultimately be restored back to their original glory. As it was determined by Cinemark that it was more cost-effective to demolish them and build a brand-new theater, I could not argue too much with that but I did severely object to its design based on diagrams and drawings I had seen. Being a huge fan of movies and theaters (working in the business myself for ten years including a short stint at the older Century Complex, which I did not stay at very long as I found it too heartbreaking to be around the crudely-split domes) I would love to have a theater in this area that I could be confident in attending at least on a weekly basis regardless of what movies were showing; so far NONE in the area have met that standard although a fully restored Century 21 and 22 certainly would have.
I know some of you are sick of hearing from me by now, but despite my strong opposition to this theater’s construction I vowed that I would attend a showing there and give it a fair chance once it opened. Having done so on its first day open to the public, I hope that you will read my impressions of it:
I’ll start with the positives first. I saw “Arrival” in the “XD” auditorium, and was pleasantly surprised by the overall size of the theater and screen. It is quite spacious and comparable at least to the two smaller domes in the old complex, although of course it lacks their unique shape with its rather plain square design. Additionally, the size of the screen itself appears comparable to those of the larger (un-split) domes, which exceeded my expectations. I even saw good reason for the reduced seating capacity, as the installed seats are of significantly higher quality than any other theater seats I have seen and given plenty of space so that patrons can enter and exit their seats without disturbing those remaining seated. (The low seating capacity will still likely prevent this theater from EVER hosting any sort of gala premiere event, as there simply won’t be room for more than a handful of people.)
That said however, I will NOT be returning to this theater again, and while I admit that it could have turned out far worse than it did I will forever refer to it as “The Mistake”, as I mentioned at several of the meetings and even on a TV appearance. The reason is one that I had brought to the forefront in my online petition as well as at a number of meetings: All 14 of the screens in this new theater are natively 1.85 ratio. This means right away that movies in the 2.35 “scope” format (roughly 95% of the big tentpole releases intended to pack theaters) appear SMALLER on these screens, rather than larger and wider as they were intended. The older Century domes were designed with widescreen movies in mind (the very first in San Jose was even built for 3-projector Cinerama), with screens that commanded the audience’s entire field of vision and made these movies appear larger than life, many of which are still in my mind decades later. It was alarming when many theaters built since the late 1990s had native 1.85 screens showing scope movies in a smaller area with