Port Theater to Host an Audience Once Again--for Only One Night

The Port Theater in Corona del Mar, closed for more than a year, will reopen Saturday, but only for the premiere of a new surf movie.

Irvine-based O’Neill Sportswear said it has persuaded the theater’s owner to show “The Experience” at the film house.

The 8 p.m. event will harken back to an earlier era for the 48-year-old Port, which has had only the word “Rosebud” on its marquee since it closed after the Landmark Theatre Corp. declined to renew its lease.

“That theater used to premiere surf movies all the time back in the ‘70s,” O’Neill spokesman Joey Santley said. “We’re going to have a red carpet out there and lights and the whole deal.” More recently, the Port showed a wide range of art and classic films.

“The Experience” is the first surf movie that the wetsuit and surfwear maker has produced in five years. It stars O’Neill’s top surfing pros--Cory Lopez, Shane Beschen, Rochelle Ballard and Bill Bryan--and features music from Laguna Beach-based bands Common Sense and Sapadellics. (If these names don’t ring any bells, maybe you’re just not hanging around the beach enough.)

Port owner Scott Burnham could not be reached for comment on whether he expects to allow other companies to make use of the movie house. But Santley said O’Neill hopes to hold more premieres at the Port. He declined to say how much O’Neill paid to use the theater.

The premiere is open to the public for a $5 general admission fee.

Santley expects a sell-out crowd for the one-hour movie. “I think a lot of locals are going to go, just because the Port Theater’s been closed for so long,” he said.