Port’s Owner Hopes for Returns at Box Office

The red plastic letters on the marquee of the Port Theatre in Corona del Mar still spell out “Changes,” the name of the Christian surf movie that screened there in February.

Since the last frame of that film clicked through the projector, though, nothing much has changed at the Port.

Even as the glitz and drama of the Newport Beach Film Festival swirled around nearby Fashion Island last week, the Port sat empty and unused. Dust drifts through the nearly 1,000-seat auditorium, settling on the wooden armrests of its chairs and on the spiraling orange patterns of its carpet.

In the middle of what is otherwise a bustling business district, the Port looks like the theater that time forgot.

But Scott Burnham, who owns the theater under the entity of Newport Theatre Associates, said the lonely looks belie a movie house that has the potential to be reborn.

Burnham has plans for the theater that involve reopening it to show movies, just as it did before Landmark Theatres, the old tenant, pulled out of the space in August 1998.

“If somehow, some way I can eventually get the support from the city or from an alternative source to cover the remodeling costs, I would be committed to reopen the theater,” Burnham said. He estimated it would cost $1 million to get the building back in shape.

Don Glasgow, chair of the Corona del Mar Business Improvement District and a volunteer with one of Newport Beach’s Chambers of Commerce, said the city’s desires for the Port are “very well lined up” with those of Burnham.

“It’s incredibly important for [the Port] to stay there, because it’s such a huge part of the culture of this community,” he said.

On the subject of finance, though, Glasgow’s tone is guarded.

“We don’t have money to hand out,” he said. “He has to explore sources. There are agencies around the state that are sympathetic to these kinds of needs.”

Burnham said his desire to see the old screen shining again has kept him from accepting proposals to convert the building into offices.

“I get countless offers to use the property for alternative purposes,” Burnham said. Internet companies and architecture firms, in particular, are attracted to the space “because of its unique character,” he said.

But first a lot of handyman work would be in order. The theater has a leaky roof, antiquated audiovisual equipment and shabby mustard-yellow drapes.

These cosmetic and technical problems kept the Newport Beach Film Festival from bringing films to the theater, said festival spokesman Todd Quartararo.

“In order for us to get it up to par for screenings, we would have to fix it up,” he said.

For St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach, which helped coordinate the screening of “Changes,” the funkiness of the Port was part of the appeal.

“I loved the feel,” said Dave Rockness, the church’s junior high youth director. “It’s that old theater feel. There’s kind of a buzz in there.”

For the average moviegoer, though, single-screen theaters are not always an attractive option, said Gregory Stoffel of the Irvine consulting firm Gregory Stoffel & Associates.

The firm has conducted studies on the behavior of movie consumers, and even if renovated, the Port would face obstacles, Stoffel said. Modern theaters have parking lots; the Port is on a busy street near a residential area that already suffers parking shortages. Competition from nearby multiplexes that offer a choice of first-run films would make it hard for the Port to survive.

For the average moviegoer, “It’s going to be difficult for the one- and two-screen theaters to survive,” Stoffel said.

Earlier this month, Edwards Theatres announced its intention to begin closing 25 older, smaller theaters in Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

But some of the older theaters have risen again to new life. Todd Blood, owner of the renovated Captain Blood’s Village Theatres, a two-screen venue in Orange, said his business is better than ever.

“You really have to know your community,” Blood said. “You need to micromanage your mar ket.”

Burnham said he hopes the Port will be one of the fortunate few that can put all the ingredients together. He said he plans to bring another film to the theater for a short engagement in the next two months.

And he disputes the notion that the Port can’t stay financially afloat. Corona del Mar, he thinks, is a community that has enough money to keep the theater open.

“It’s a very affluent demographic area,” he said, “it’s heavily populated, and it’s continuing to grow.”