> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Delayed Aero Theatre opening ‘coming soon’
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/delayed-aero-theatre-opening-coming-soon/
- Published: 2004-01-12T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T03:30:32.000Z
- Author: Carolyn Sackariason
- Tags: Entertainment, Montana, #archive-import

*Aero Theatre will remain a single-movie house*

Behind schedule by a few months, the new operators of the historic Aero Theatre hope to re-open the 65-year-old movie house this spring.

American Cinematheque, a nonprofit arts organization, took over the Aero last April and planned to open it by the fall of 2003\. But a series of delays and unanticipated renovation work postponed the opening, said Barbara Smith, the director of American Cinematheque, who was at the Montana Avenue theater on Friday assessing the progress.

She said the work is expected to take 10 weeks, and much of the new equipment and theater chairs have been purchased.

Workers realized that the aging theater needed some serious attention once they got in there, particularly with the electrical wiring.

“I can’t figure out how they showed movies there, it was a rat’s nest of extension cords,” Smith said. “And you need to have a lot of electricity for a good sound system.”

The Aero Theatre, under the operation of Chris Allen for 11 years, ran 35 millimeter films. American Cinematheque, which is pumping several hundred thousand dollars into the renovation, will show 70 millimeter movies.

There will be new seats, a larger movie screen, state-of-the-art sound and projection systems, and many new features, Smith said. The symbolic marquee that stands above the theater located at Euclid and Montana Avenues will remain intact, as well as the theater’s art-deco interior.

“I think people will be very surprised,” she said, adding Santa Monica residents have been calling her for months wondering when the project will be completed. “The neighborhood is getting ancy.”

Smith also said the delays actually helped the renovation because planners were able to take their time and put more thought into what was needed.

Cinematheque presents at the Egyptian Theatre a diverse, year-round film series featuring rare, unusual films and videos from all over the world, Smith said.

By expanding its operation in Santa Monica, American Cinematheque hopes to broaden its audience by offering one-of-a-kind films.

The Aero’s history is filled with twists and turns. In May 2000, a representative of Robert Redford announced to the Santa Monica City Council that the actor/director had plans to buy the theater and restore it as part of a planned chain of independent movie houses. Redford frequented the cinema when he was a young boy.

Theater fans were relieved the Aero, located on a street that is fast becoming the Rodeo Drive of Santa Monica, had been saved from conversion to a clothing store, as so many other small theaters have become. But Redford’s plan later unraveled due to financial problems.

Rosenfeld then began his search once again to find the right operator for his theater. He approached American Cinematheque in 1998 after visiting the Egyptian. But it wasn’t until the end of 2001 that discussions between the two parties became serious.

Allen, the theater’s former operator, had fallen behind on the $10,000-a-month rent. The community rallied behind the Aero at several fundraisers that Allen held to keep the theater going.

At the time, the theater ran second-run blockbusters fans might have missed at big-name multiplexes, or independent films they might have missed elsewhere. But with only five or six people arriving for most showings, the theater’s future was constantly at risk.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/011204-02_01.jpg)

should re-open by this spring. (Photo: File Photo The Aero Theatre)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 12, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/011204.pdf?ref=smdp.com)