Cinerama To Remain Closed Indefinitely

SEATTLE, WA — Seattle's iconic Cinerama theater will remain closed through the foreseeable future, due to losses incurred amidst the coronavirus pandemic.

In a statement posted to Twitter Thursday, management said the COVID-19 outbreak had had a "devastating effect" on businesses like theirs that rely on public gatherings, and that they had canceled the theater's ongoing renovation and planned to remain closed indefinitely.

Cinerama first closed its doors in February for a major renovation of their kitchen, laying off all their staff in the process. No timeline for the renovations was ever released, but Vulcan had estimated it would take several months and that the theater would be able to reopen by late 2020.

As The Seattle Times reports, Cinerama's closure is tied to a major shake up within their parent company Vulcan Inc, which announced Wednesday it was closing its Arts + Entertainment division by the end of the year. The division is responsible for Cinerama's management. The move also reportedly puts future Seattle Art Fairs into jeopardy and indefinitely closes two Vulcan-owned museums: the Flying Heritage & Combat Armor Museum and Living Computers: Museum + Labs. The Museum of Pop Culture, which had at one point been run by Vulcan, has since gone independent and will not be affected.

Cinerama first opened their doors in 1963. After falling into disrepair it was bought by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's company Vulcan in the late 1990s.