After years of anticipation, amid controversial renovation plans that went $20 million over budget, San Francisco’s legendary movie palace, the Castro Theatre, finally has a reopening date on the books.
A Friday press release from Another Planet Entertainment, the Berkeley concert promoter that runs the century-old theater, revealed its plans to resume operations in February 2026, also announcing new job listings for its management team.
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“We’ve been hard at work giving the venue a glow up,” reads a statement from APE, which also organizes Outside Lands.
Changes to the Castro include restorations to its iconic neon sign, leatherette ceiling and chandelier, as well as a new heating and cooling system, more bathrooms and improved ADA accessibility. But perhaps the most hotly contested differences will be the absence of permanent seating on the orchestra level of the theater, the leveling of the raked auditorium floor, as well as the venue’s plans to focus on a wider array of programming beyond the daily double features it was once known for, incorporating more live music and comedy.
The Castro has yet to reveal what its first slate of shows will be, encouraging people to subscribe to its newsletter and follow its Instagram account for updates. David Perry, a spokesperson for APE, told SFGATE on Sunday that “the first act” will be announced this week, and longtime festivals that called the Castro home like SFFILM and Frameline will also be returning next year, as is nonprofit Oasis Arts after its physical space closes at the end of the year.
“All of the things people have come to expect – the singalongs and music events made possible by flexible seating” will be part of the new era for the Castro, Perry said over the phone. “The first film we show will have [organist David Hegarty] rising out of the pit… I’m hoping after all of the understandable community concern, people will understand this project has been done as a labor of love.”
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The movie palace was originally scheduled to open earlier this summer, but several projects requiring more power for the building contributed to the delays, including the new HVAC system, film screen, projector and what Perry described as “the biggest theatrical organ in the world,” which is slated to be installed later in November.
“Our current issue is PG&E,” APE project manager Margaret Casey said during a Castro Merchants Association’s meeting in February, the Bay Area Reporter previously reported. “We have a couple different options for where we draw power from — one is simple and easy, one is complicated — and we have no control over any of that, so we have been very much in a holding pattern.”
Costs for the renovation ballooned to $41 million as APE also introduced new lounge and bar spaces intended to attract broader audiences. New job postings for the venue include a bar manager as well as an operations and house manager.
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APE also recently announced that it plans to expand its box office after the landlords of the theater, the Nasser family, did not renew the leases of the family-run businesses that currently flank the theater. Palestinian immigrant brothers Ken and Riyad Khoury, who own Castro Coffee Company and Castro Nails, said they were abruptly asked to vacate the storefronts they had been operating out of for decades.
“We live out of this. My brother lives out of this,” Riyad Khoury told SFGATE in June, adding that several of his employees are “scared to death of the unknown.”
Both businesses remain open after a 60-day deadline set by San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie for good faith negotiations came and went, but the future appears murky. SFGATE was unable to reach the Khourys and the Nassers by time of publication.
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“My understanding is that the tenants in question are in active negotiations with their landlords, the Nassers, and we are hopeful and expecting an equitable and positive solution to that issue,” Perry told SFGATE.
The former 1,407-seat theater was designed by famed architect Timothy Pflueger and opened in June 1922. Its last screening was the Julie Andrews-starring 1982 musical comedy “Victor/Victoria!” before closing its doors for renovations in February 2024.
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“Upgrading a 102-year-old building has been a delicate process,” Perry said. “To use the cliche, we’re asking people to stay tuned in the next couple of days.”