Countywide : Downtown Oxnard Movie House Closes

In the latest blow to a downtown struggling to revive itself, Oxnard’s cornerstone movie house has closed.

Poor attendance and a recent drop in the production of Mexican films caused the demise of the Teatro Boulevard, the only Spanish-language theater in Ventura County, owners said.

“It’s a tired old theater and there’s not much product anymore,” said general manager Jose Romo. “People just stopped coming.”

In its heyday, the 65-year-old brick and stucco theater on Oxnard Boulevard drew large crowds of recent immigrants and migrant workers, Romo said.

“We had romance, comedy, mariachi-oriented pictures,” said Romo, who managed the theater for 25 years. “For many people, it was the main source of entertainment.”

Daniel Masias, 42, remembers going to the theater as a child. “Me and my friends would ride our bikes from El Rio every Saturday,” he said. “We loved seeing the cowboy movies in Spanish.”

Although Masias said he is sad to see the theater close, he said he prefers watching movies on his videocassette recorder at home. “It’s cheaper and more convenient,” he said. “I don’t come downtown that much anymore.”

A few blocks away, Bernardo Castellanos, owner of Fifth Street Video, said his business is up 20% since the theater closed a week ago.

“Almost all of my business is Spanish,” he said. “Since the theater closed, everyone is coming here.”

Metropolitan Theaters Corp., which operated the 750-seat Teatro, runs about 15 Spanish-language theaters throughout the Southland, Romo said. The Oxnard theater shutdown is the most recent in a string of half a dozen closings over the last several years, Romo said.

The company is seeking a tenant to sublease the property until its lease expires in January, 1995.

Oxnard Councilman Andres Herrera, who remembers dancing the polka in a performance onstage at the theater as a child, said the closing hurts the ailing downtown area.

“Things are difficult everywhere, but the closing is especially unfortunate for that area,” said Herrera, who runs a business near the theater.

“It’s another space we need to fill as we work to bring business back downtown.”

Although the theater falls within the bounds of a 50-block area of Oxnard targeted for urban renewal, the city has “no immediate plans for that building,” said Dennis Matthews, administrator of the city’s Redevelopment Agency.

Meanwhile American Family Theatres plans to reopen a three-screen movie house at the Esplanade Shopping Center in May. The theater will show second-run movies at a reduced price, said company president Tom Brand.