Theaters

When Gilbert Cates tries to explain the hard times facing the Geffen Playhouse, he turns to an analogy from his long experience as a film director and producer of television shows, including the annual Academy Awards telecast. Whenever studio heads talk about cutting the budget for one of his movie projects, Cates compares it to trimming an airplane. Sure, you can take a little off the wheel, a little off the engine, a little off the wing, he tells them.

A banner year at the box office driven by films including "Fast & Furious," "Star Trek" and "Hannah Montana" is turning out to be a powerful recession vaccine for the nation's biggest movie theater chains. Only a few months ago, investors feared consumers' reluctance to spend money would keep them at home and from going to the movies, depressing business at the country's 5,800 local theaters.

The double feature advertised on the Reseda Theater marquee made Pat Towers' father laugh out loud when they drove by some 50 years ago: "Friendly Persuasion" and "At Gunpoint."

It costs more than $50 to fill the gas tank, home values are plummeting, good jobs are hard to come by, and the dollar's so weak that even a Canadian vacation seems beyond reach. All together, it has the makings for a wonderful summer in Hollywood. It's not that the film business wishes ill on anyone (besides restaurant hosts assigning bad tables, at least), but the economy's loss may very much be the studios' gain.

London theaters, boosted by a string of hit musicals, enjoyed a record year in 2006 with ticket sales breaking the $780-million mark for the first time, according to figures released Monday. After suffering a difficult start to the year with the industry hit by the aftereffects of the July 2005 London suicide bombings, the theater industry made a striking recovery to finish with box-office sales at a new high.

The Orange County Performing Arts Center has received its share of audience gripes about sight lines, climate control and such at its new Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, but things could be much worse. Consider the plight of Miami's Carnival Center, a three-venue performance mecca that also opened last fall, designed by the same team -- architect Cesar Pelli and acoustician Russell Johnson -- that brought us Segerstrom Concert Hall.

A rent increase is forcing the closure of the tiny Santa Monica Puppetry Center, a museum, theater and workshop that set up shop nearly 10 years ago. The center, on 2nd Street in Santa Monica, has hosted such performers as master puppeteer Phillip Huber and the late ventriloquist Paul Winchell. Founder Steve Meltzer said that the decision to close was made after he was notified that the property owner was raising the center's monthly rent and maintenance costs to $4,922 from just under $3,500.

The indie music act the Polyphonic Spree isn't entertainment for the masses. Neither is the cartoon heroine Holly Hobbie, nor the anime fantasy "Fullmetal Alchemist." That's fine with Jonathan Dern and Greg Rutkowski, co-presidents of digital movie distributor Bigger Picture in Woodland Hills. They figure theaters don't make money when seats are empty during off hours such as mornings or, say, early Monday afternoons.

Tina Tsoutsas blew a kiss as she said goodbye to the Rialto theater, a longtime South Pasadena fixture that has showcased cinema from silent movies to this summer's hit, "The Simpsons Movie." The beloved jazz-age institution, one of Southern California's remaining single-screen theaters, closed Sunday evening after 81 years. "Ask anybody who knows South Pasadena and they'll know about the Rialto," said Tsoutsas, 46.

An explosive device was detonated outside a theater studio owned by "The Sopranos" star Michael Imperioli in New York early Tuesday, damaging a van but causing no serious injuries, police said. Police said they did not know if the explosion was connected to Imperioli's Studio Dante. Several residents in apartments above the studio were evacuated after the device went off about 1 a.m., police said.