Third Street Cinemas in Santa Rosa closed for good

The Third Street Cinemas in downtown Santa Rosa is closed permanently after offering second-run movies at discount prices since May 25, 2001.

“We never reopened after we closed down for the pandemic in March 2020, except for six days in July. But that theater was always marginal,” said Dan Tocchini, CEO of Santa Rosa Entertainment Group, which also owns Airport Stadium 12, Roxy Stadium 14 and Summerfield Cinemas in Santa Rosa.

Movie theaters across the country have struggled mightily in the last two years, as the COVID-19 pandemic forced shelter-in-place orders and social distancing requirements. Many theaters have reopened, but the delta variant of the virus also has complicated those openings.

Movie tickets at Third Street Cinemas cost just $3.50 per person, but patrons who wanted inexpensive entertainment balked at paying for parking downtown, Tocchini explained.

“It was the only discount movie theater in Sonoma County, as far as I know,” he added.

Tocchini said the Third Street property is owned by a Marin County developer, who was not immediately available for comment on the future of the site.

“Our lease would’ve been up next year, so we decided now not to renew it,” Tocchini said.

Santa Rosa Entertainment Group operates 90 screens throughout California. The company also gave up its lease on the Raven Film Center in Healdsburg last year. Tocchini said he’s contemplating the closure of a four-plex cinema his company operates in Monterey.

Before the Third Street Cinemas opened, the site was the home of UA Cinemas.

You can reach Staff Writer Dan Taylor at dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5243. On Twitter @danarts.