Poor Bottom Line Drops Curtain on Port Theatre

The Port Theatre, a Corona del Mar landmark and one of Orange County’s oldest art houses, will close in two weeks, manager Mike Peterson said Thursday.

Employees got word Wednesday of the impending closure, he said. “The mood is just somber. Everybody is sort of reminiscing.

“We showed a huge variety of films, and I loved working there,” Peterson said. “The customers were always extra friendly, and a lot of people said it was their favorite theater.”

Landmark Theatre Corp., which has operated the single-screen, 930-seat cinema since 1989, has decided not to renew the building lease, which expires Aug. 27.

“Unfortunately, the theater hasn’t performed as well as we would have liked it to,” Landmark spokesman Cary Jones said.

Last August, Landmark revamped the Port’s programming with a “calendar” policy that brought in a wider variety of films for no more than one week each. Previously, films had been shown with open-ended engagements.

“We were excited by the opportunity that enabled us to bring a lot of unusual and alternative films into the Orange County marketplace,” Jones said. “But the level of support to continue with that was inconsistent.”

Scott Burnham, owner of the 49-year-old building on East Coast Highway, said he concurred with the theater company’s decision to close.

“The bottom line is that, obviously, the area has evolved dramatically in the last 50 years,” he said. “It has really grown from the sleepy beach community that it was back in the ‘40s, when the theater was constructed, to the very densely populated affluent area that it is today. While our objective, ideally, would be to maintain the building as a theater, we have to explore other options.”

Despite the recent decline in attendance, the theater has continued to draw a cadre of loyal patrons who came to see such art films as “Cinema Paradiso,” “Howards End,” “Emma” and “Jesus of Montreal.”

One of the regulars was Mike Son, 45, of Laguna Beach, who would drive up for movies by his favorite filmmaker, Federico Fellini.

“The Port Theatre is the only place that shows them,” he said. “I’m shocked. I was looking forward to seeing more films this summer.”

Matt Freiberg, 33, is a longtime patron of the Port and works there now selling refreshments. “They showed films other than the latest blockbusters,” he said. “It was old and dilapidated and the roof leaked--but it was quaint.”

On Thursday night, the theater, which has at least three screenings seven nights a week, concluded its showing of Fellini’s “Nights of Cabiria.” This weekend, two surf films--”Big Wednesday” and “The Endless Summer II”--will begin a weeklong run. And starting Aug. 14, the Port will be showing a foreign movie called “Western,” which won an award at the recent Cannes Film Festival.

“That will be our last film,” Peterson said. “But it’s not a western.”

Times staff writer Gregory Mena contributed to this report.