After more than 20 years Northgate Movies closes

By Dave Frank

Appeal Staff Writer

Northgate Movies 10, also called Hollywood Theaters, has closed.

"We regret to inform (you) that we have closed the theater," a recorded message for both the theater and the theater's business office said Friday. "We would like to thank everybody for their patronage over the years."

Representatives for the company that owns the theater, Portland, Ore.-based Hollywood Theaters, could not be reached Friday afternoon.

The theater, 2571 N. Carson St., opened in August 1980 and was considered the best theater in the city at the time.

Northgate went on to make major improvements in the middle to late 1990s. In 1996, it added six screens and updated some of its sound systems. In 1998, it put stadium seating in front of four screens.

It was the only theater in Carson City for several years until the Galaxy Fandango Theater, the first all-digital multiplex in Northern Nevada, opened in August.

Customers had complained over the past few years that Northgate was poorly maintained.

A May 2006 health department inspection written in response to a complaint found: "Floor covered in debris. Cabinets covered in soda residue. Slurpy residue in cabinet tracks. Opening under service cabinet filled with popcorn debris."

Northgate became a $1 theater in October.

"The latest developments in the Carson City marketplace have resulted in an over-screening of motion pictures being released on the national release date," said Heather Wright, a Hollywood Theaters representative, in an Oct. 11 e-mail. "We see an opportunity in the Carson City area to bring recently released major films to the community at a greatly reduced price."

Ronni Hannaman, the executive director of the Carson City Chamber of Commerce, predicted in August after the Galaxy opened that Northgate "is going to be going away very soon."

• Contact reporter Dave Frank at dfrank@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1212.