Tampa Film Fan

sunrise cinemas, part one

A couple of weeks ago, the Weekly Planet’s Lance Goldenberg wrote about Sunrise Cinemas and the recent news that the owner of Old Hyde Park Village wants to build condos in the theater’s current location. He made it sound like Sunrise is closing up shop. Yes, the property owner’s desire for condos is hovering over Sunrise like the sword of Damocles, but we don’t know if it’s a done deal. (Do we?) We don’t know what kind of lease Sunrise has for that space. We don’t know what kind of opposition to these condos there might be in the community, or if that opposition could have an effect on the property owner. And if Sunrise Cinemas has to vacate that space, we don’t know if they will leave Tampa altogether or open a new location. After all, Sunrise Cinemas has eight other theaters in Florida and hopefully would want to maintain their presence in the Tampa Bay area. Hopefully. My fingers are crossed.

Rick Gershman at the St. Pete Times weighed in last week with an article about the history of that theater (first AMC, then Madstone, now Sunrise Cinemas) and what losing Sunrise Cinemas in Hyde Park would mean to local residents and film lovers.

What’s a depressed film fan to do?