United Artists Twin Peaks Mall

What I saw here: Where the Wild Things Are, October 2009.

As of today I'm shifting the focus of my blog from being primarily film-centric to being both film- and theater-centric, with an emphasis on the latter. In some ways, I've felt that seeing all these movies was simply an excuse to go into as many different movie theaters as possible.

In that spirit, I'm kicking off the new year with a post about what I think is the oldest existing movie theater along the Front Range north of Denver. The theater itself a multiplex of the Regal chain, and is inside the ancient but still operating Twin Peaks Mall in Longmont.

I was there over a year ago after returning to Colorado from being away for year. It was one of the first places I visited as part of an ongoing project of visiting all the movie theaters in this area. Until last year, I'd never been inside, even though I'd driven by it countless times on the route between Fort Collins and Boulder. It was always a pleasant sight to see back in the old days, because it meant you were almost at the turnoff onto the highway.

At the time the theater lobby and the coridors down to the auditoriums were festooned with all the promos for the upcoming Alice in Wonderland movie. It was almost like going into a cave, passing under the hanging banners. It was quite a tickling experience.

Yesterday I stopped to take this photograph while I was at a coffee shop on the other side of the street. I wasn't quite in the mood for a movie, but I crossed the street and the parking lot, and entered by the south end of the mall.

The place is nearly deserted, but I've come to learn to love such types of aging shopping centers as I've traveled around the country in recent years. The fact that the cinema is still operating inside is a good sign for the future.

Still there was a poignancy about seeing such a structure nearly vacant. I walked over the ancient tiles in the floor of the mall, in patterns of green, blue, and gold, and wondered about the decades of folk who had walked on it. Now most of the stores inside are empty. Yet there is life. People hang out there, even in a nearly empty food court, as if it's a town square. I chatted with the young woman at the ear piercing pagoda. She told me that the holidays had been fairly good.

There's a small cluster of still-operating mall-type businesses on the south end, including a few chain clothing stores. There's even a stage theater company there (link)---quite a surprise.