Mourning Studio 28

It was announced this past weekend that one of the original mega movie theaters, Studio 28, in Grand Rapids, will show it's last movies this coming weekend. It makes me a little sad, I suppose, although it's not surprising. Attendance there has declined significantly as of late - Lisa and I were there recently to see the new Indiana Jones, and it was startlingly empty. I don't know that this was my first movie theater ever, but it's certainly been the most visited one of my life. Among other things, I've seen a lot of Star Wars movies there: Empire Strikes Back there when I was little, the entire Star Wars Trilogy in a charity re-release during high school, the Special Editions during college, and even Episode III on opening night just a few years ago. I won't necessarily miss the location, as all the newer Celebration Cinemas are quite accessible, and we mostly go to the cheap theater if anything. However, Studio 28 has one thing that none of the other theaters have: Theater 1. It's fully THX-certified, and just plain huge (over 800 seats!) - so large, in fact, that when they converted the other 19 theaters at Studio 28 to stadium seating, they didn't do Theater 1, since it's simply too big for it! Theater 1 is where I saw most of those Star Wars movies, Waterworld, one of the Lord of the Rings movies with my brothers and their wives-at-the-time, Titanic, and Independence Day - for the last one I really recall entering the theater in the midst of a huge crush of people, and no one tore my ticket. There are probably many movies I saw at Studio 28 that I don't remember, either. I'm nearly sure that I saw Jurassic Park there, too, but I don't have a specific memory of it. Well, there'd be something cool about visiting one last time, but there isn't anything in particular that I want to see right now, and Theater 1 is showing Madagascar 2. I don't need that to be my final Studio 28 experience. Anyway, here's the official announcement too. Bye, Studio 28 - you were cool.