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Thanks to the Hollywood Theatre’s recent campaign to preserve film projection (which saw over 1,500 donors collectively contribute $89,661 to its Film Forever campaign), the theater will host three 70 mm screenings this Memorial Day weekend: Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, Tobe Hooper’s Lifeforce and Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights.
“Thanks to our community’s generosity, we successfully acquired legacy projection equipment that will safeguard our ability to screen 35 mm and 70 mm films for years to come,” Joe Bolenbaugh, the Hollywood’s marketing manager, stated in a press release.
He added: “Today, the Hollywood is one of less than 350 theaters across the country that still has the ability to project analog film formats. We’re also the only theater in Oregon with the ability to project in 70 mm, the most premium movie-viewing experience available.”
The Film Forever campaign allowed the Hollywood to buy two rare Norelco AAII projectors from the collection of Frank Sinatra’s former personal projectionist. Keeping them in good condition will be a challenge, according to Bolenbaugh: The projectors are no longer made and replacement parts are almost “impossible to find,” though he added that “we can rest easy knowing that our ability to show 35 mm and 70 mm will never be compromised.”
The 70 mm print of Boogie Nights was recently struck from the original 1997 camera negative. The 1997 film (which screens May 26-28 and 30) is set in the 1970s “Golden Age of Porn,” with Mark Wahlberg in the lead role of Dirk Diggler (a character from a mockumentary Anderson previously directed).
Meanwhile, Lifeforce (a 1985 sci-fi horror film starring Patrick Stewart) will screen May 27-28, and 2001 (one of the Hollywood’s private prints) will screen May 27 and 29. Tickets are on sale now for members (tickets for the general public go on sale April 12).