Say goodbye to the well-loved rows of blue chairs.
(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) Seats at Broadway Centre Cinemas in Salt Lake City are shown on Oct. 19, 2021.
Broadway Centre Cinemas is upgrading its theaters with roomier, gliding chairs, and improved accessibility for patrons with disabilities, as part of a $2 million capital renovation project.
After the renovation is complete, the independent movie theater in downtown Salt Lake City, operated by the Salt Lake Film Society, will include two types of cinemas: “Boho-luxe” and “Modern classic.”
The Boho-luxe experience will feature “wide-base gliding seats, natural fabrics, and custom ‘date-night’ loveseat seating” with side tables for snacks. The modern classic cinemas will provide “roomier seating” that exchanges the current blue seats with “warm earth tones.”
The seats won’t fully recline, said Tori A. Baker, the film society’s president and CEO, but they will be adjustable.
The renovations should be complete in April, with the first phase of three auditoriums done in March, Baker said. At least three of its six auditoriums will remain open during the renovation.
The new seats will replace the current rows of blue chairs, which were installed in 2011, repurposed from their original home at the Megaplex Theatres in Thanksgiving Point in Lehi.
Those chairs, Baker said, served Broadway “well for more than a decade — far beyond their original intended lifespan” and through “countless premieres, late-night screenings, festivals, and shared cinematic moments.”
“It’s always bittersweet to say goodbye to something that held so many memories — but we’re excited for the next chapter of comfort and community at the Broadway,” she said.
(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) Broadway Centre Cinemas staff in Salt Lake City, clean seats at the theater on Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2021.
Additionally, auditoriums will be upgraded with improved access for guests with mobility challenges, including new viewing platforms for better sight lines.
With these renovations, Baker said the theater’s overall capacity will drop about 9%, to 937 seats venue-wide. The largest theater will seat 235, while the smallest auditorium, in the “Boho-luxe” style, will seat 94.
The renovation will also bring new entry doors, lighting sound panels, and — in a boon for front-row guests — foot rests.
The upgrades are being funded through a grant from the Arts Humanities Environment/Cultural Initiative Trust. Many of the changes include environmentally conscious touches, like natural and recycled materials.
This helps explain why the new seats won’t include the button-press luxury recliners common at other cinemas. Those chairs require “energy-intensive mechanisms” that must be replaced every five years. Broadway’s renovations, however, should last 30 years.
The decision against luxury recliners “was also mission-driven,” Baker said.
“While recliners offer individual comfort, they can physically separate patrons and subtly shift the experience toward isolation,” she said. “We believe part of movie magic comes from sharing space — laughing, gasping, or sitting in collective silence with strangers who are experiencing the same story at the same time.”
