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The UC Theater’s dead. Long live the theater. 

The marquee that once called crowds to Felinni flicks and Cannes Film Festival champions is empty. The flowers that fans left taped to the box office window after the theater’s last show on Thursday have died. 

While local folk mourn the loss of the 83-year-old arts and oddity cinema – including nearby eatery owners whose patrons often came downtown for a UC Theater show – others are germinating ideas for the theater’s reuse.  

And they’re pointing to the city’s deep pockets to fund the venture. 

Meanwhile, the movie theater business is not booming. A recent Wall Street Journal article cites the “cinema business meltdown,” and the glut of movie screens. Silver Screen Cinemas, which own the Landmarks Theaters – the owner of the former UC Theater – and United Artists Cinemas are among movie-house businesses to file for bankruptcy. 

There’s plenty of competition for the theater, with some 25 screens in or near downtown Berkeley, said local developer Patrick Kennedy, who points out that the theater’s single screen makes it a dinosaur. 

In the Elmwood area, the merchants got together a number of years ago, and saved the small Elmwood Theater. But the area around the UC Theater isn’t strong enough economically to support a Business Improvement District, such as was formed in the Elmwood to save the theater, according to one city insider who asked that his name be withheld. 

There are other possibilities – one is transforming the theater into a combination restaurant-theater, better known as a “cinema-grill,” Kennedy said. At the Parkway Theater in Oakland, people, with kids in tow, watch films seated on funky couches and armchairs, eat the pizza they’ve ordered and enjoy the flicks. 

Kennedy has a number of other ideas to reuse the theater. He’s like to see it as the new home of the Berkeley Symphony. Symphony spokesperson Catherine Barken-Henwood said the theater’s bad acoustics would make that a not-so-good idea. 

But Kennedy’s not dissuaded. “I think it could be a focal point for (Berkeley’s) arts revival,” he said. 

Other possibilities Kennedy’s thinking about and talking to others about is transforming the huge theater into small 50-75-seat theaters. One of those theaters could be the future home of UC Berkeley’s Pacific Film Archives, Kennedy said. But PFA spokesperson Shelley Diekman said she hadn’t heard anything about that.  

There could be theater performing space in the venture, as well. “People talk about the lack of performing space,” Kennedy said. 

A barrier to reuse would not only be the cost to remodel the structure, but paying half the $600,000 retrofit cost for the brick building. The building is owned by Quality Bay Construction, Inc. No one from QBC has returned the Daily Planet’s numerous calls. 

When the Landmarks Theaters controlled the UC Theater, its lease with QBC required payment of half the retrofit costs. Many speculate that these costs, plus dwindling numbers of patrons at the theater, caused the theater’s eventual demise. 

Costs of reuse “might require a huge subside from the city,” Kennedy said.