Renovations at Hacienda movie house nearly complete

By Cassie Tomlin

Thursday, March 19, 2009 | 10:45 a.m.

The movie house at the Hacienda, which has been undergoing renovations since January, is scheduled to emerge April 3 as the Hacienda Cinemas and Event Center with a “soft” opening in the smaller of its two theaters.

Owner Rod Fox of Milestone Entertainment said a formal grand opening is planned for sometime around Memorial Day at the end of May.

Fox took over the business in December from his father-in-law and has been revamping the theater’s 24-year-old interiors, which were inherited from the former theater at the Gold Coast.

“It was a tired theater,” Fox said. “It needed to be cleaned up.”

The small theater seats 88, and the larger one seats 176.

Fox said he has worked in movie theaters for 28 years and hopes to give the community what it wants with cheap movies, just $3, and a space to rent for live performances and meetings.

He plans to show mid-run movies — films that opened as first-runs two to six weeks earlier. Fox said he hopes to screen four different movies every day and have a new movie every week. He plans to show family films in the afternoon and action or drama movies in the evening.

Showtimes are planned for 1 p.m., 3 p.m., 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. He said the concession stand will have $1 hot dogs and $2 popcorn, soda and candy.