Pocono News Section

Scranton Movie Theater Completely Re-Opens After Fire

Scranton Movie Theater Completely Re-Opens After Fire - Friday, May 14, 2010 at 04:07AM EST

Reported by: Eric Deabill
Friday May 14 2010
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SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA COUNTY - Nine months after a huge fire in Scranton, a downtown movie theater is completely back open.

Marquee Cinemas partially re-opened in January. The two theaters which suffered the most damage in a fire next door did not reopen until Friday though.

Theaters Four and Five sustained the most damage when the Community Bake Shop went up in flames in August. For the first time Friday, Eyewitness News cameras were allowed inside to see the renovations.

For the last nine months, the theaters have been off-limits to both the public and the media.

"This is the first time I'm here," Dennis DeAngelo of Taylor said. "We usually go up to Montage but we decided to come down to Scranton today and see what's going on here. We heard that it opened back up and we figured, why not give it a try?"

The view inside the theaters Friday is much different than back in August. Because of the huge blaze at the Community Bake Shop, part of the theater's wall collapsed. The seats had to be taken out. The theaters had to be completely re-built.

"The new management that is here has really stepped things up, so if you haven't been to Marquee in a while, now is the time to come back," Art Levandoski said. Levandoski is the director of marketing for the Mall at Steamtown.

Zeffeire Colter was one of the first people to see a movie in the renovated theater five Friday.

"I think that's great because sometimes when I can't go to Cinema 20, I can come here but when it was closed, it made everybody go there," Colter said.

Managers say they're even offering special promotions to get people back in the door.

"I didn't think it was gonna come back actually but I'm glad its back," Gary Barrett of Scranton said.

Starting at 6:00 PM Friday night, the first 100 customers to buy tickets will be given free lottery tickets.