Regal closing Salem’s Cinebarre, but owners plan to reopen after renovation
Salem’s downtown Cinebarre will close this month as Regal departs from the location, but movies won’t be gone from downtown Salem for long.
Local owners plan to renovate the seven-screen, 38,000 square foot theater at 501 Marion St. N.E., which is part of the Salem Center Mall.
“We don’t want to miss the summer season so we’re going to do everything in our power to get it open as fast as possible,” said Kelly McDonald, a Salem investor who’s part of the mall’s ownership group.
News of the Cinebarre closure spread across social media over the weekend as employees posted seeking leads on new jobs. A sign outside Cinebarre says its last day will be May 11.
McDonald bought the mall property last spring with other Salem investors. He said Regal has been unwilling to invest in the location by installing modern projectors or recliner seats that have become standard in movie theaters.
When their lease is up at the end of the month, McDonald said the owners will get to work on an overhaul of the facility. Quotes are still coming in, and some costs will depend on what Regal leaves behind, but he expects to invest “seven figures” in renovations.
“We’re working feverishly,” he said.
The theater opened in May 1989 as Salem Centre Movieland, advertising an opening Star Trek Festival screening all four feature films from the sci-fi franchise. It became a Cinebarre in 2009 after a remodel and brief closure. It has 866 seats.
The remodel is part of a larger effort by the same owners to revive the mall and Macy’s, which closed in March.
McDonald said the theater has good potential because of its kitchen, something most other theaters in Salem lack.
“It just needs to look better and more refreshed,” he said.
Once reopened, the theater will be run by an independent regional operator, McDonald said. He declined to name the operator, saying details are still being finalized.
McDonald said the operator plans to reach out to existing Cinebarre employees to maintain continuity of operations.
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Rachel Alexander is Salem Reporter’s managing editor. She joined Salem Reporter when it was founded in 2018 and covers education, economic development and a little bit of everything else. She’s been a journalist in Oregon and Washington for a decade and is a past president of Oregon's Society of Professional Journalists chapter. Outside of work, you can often find her gardening or with her nose buried in a book.
