Fullerton : Fox Theatre to Reopen After Major Renovation

The curtain is scheduled to rise again at Fullerton’s historic Fox Theatre.

After a million-dollar renovation, the 1925-vintage theater will reopen as a three-screen cinema showing classics and foreign films, as well as first-run movies, the new operator told the City Council.

The Fox, on Harbor Boulevard near Chapman Avenue, closed two years ago in a state of disrepair. The council has urged owner Edward Lewis to renovate the theater, considered one of Fullerton’s landmarks.

Lewis said he signed a 20-year operating agreement with Los Angeles-based Landmark Theatre Corp. under which the company will restore the theater and he will restore the rest of the building.

Lewis said the renovations will preserve the cultural history of the building.

Landmark operates two other theaters in Orange County, the Balboa Cinema in Newport Beach and the Port Theatre in Corona del Mar, as well as about 40 others in nine states.

The Fox is “an ideal site for our Orange County flagship,” said Landmark President Steve Gilula.

The theater should be able to attract 137,000 moviegoers during its first year, he said. The company hopes to reopen the theater in early 1991.

The city of Fullerton has tentatively agreed to help the theater by building an adjacent, 200-space parking structure. Buying the land and building the structure will cost about $4 million, according to Hugh Berry, director of community development.