Update: 7.27.2008:
I see that most of the traffic to this page is from people searching for the actual Tower Theatres website (for box office information probably) so here is the link to the Tower Theatres website in Marana. For those of you who would like a little history, feel free to keep reading! 
Marana residents rejoice! For those of you tired of driving to the [tag]Foothills Mall[/tag] to catch a flick good news is on the horizon.
[tag]Linda Vista Cinemas[/tag] [tag]Tower Theatres[/tag], a 12-16 screen digital image projection theater (the first in Southern Arizona) is slated to open this fall. It will have stadium seating and 40-foot wide screens, and will be located on [tag]Arizona Pavilions[/tag] Drive off of the [tag]Cortaro Road[/tag] exit, just west of Kohl’s.
I snapped these photos the other day, two from the front of the theater and one from the backside. I actually got a screw stuck in my tire from the construction site while I was driving around. Grrrr.
Features will include THX surround sound, a gourmet coffee bar and a video arcade. It was originally planned to have 18 screens but budgetary constraints forced developers to scale the project back a bit. I spoke with Andy Seleznov from Larson Baker LLC (the developing company) and he informed me the theater should be completed and open for business by October Winter 2007.
Michael Krotchie
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Glad to see Marana is getting entertainment. The infrastructure there is gowing and supporting the homes in the area. Great news.
Doug – Now we just need some more restaurants! The new Chili’s was nice but hopefully they will move a bit faster on providing food services out near Gladden Farms.
Is there any word on when they will be hiring and for what positions?
Robin, the company in charge of the day-to-day operations will be Linda Vista Cinemas, LLC, but right now I can’t find any info on their hiring plans. I’ll check it out and follow up with you!
Is there any way to contact the owners? I was wondering since it’s locally owned if they will consider open captioning [OC] for movies shown at the theater. There is only one theater in Tucson that offers [OC] and that is Century 16 on Grant. There are several theaters in Phoenix, Mesa, Scottsdale, and Peoria that offer [OC] times for their movies. It would be nice to have another theater in Tucson that will provide [OC] movies.
Finally it’s here! Man did we nedded this, I was getting tired of driving to tucson all the way from gladden farms just to catch a flick. I’m a movie fanatic,my props go to all those local developers that had this brilliant idea! way to go people.
Michael - The manager for the company overseeing day-to-day operations (Linda Vista Cinemas LLC) is Kent Edwards, who also is a managing partner for Grand Cinemas, a discount movie theater chain with three Tucson locations. I was unable to find any immediate contact info but shoot me an email if you would like the registered address for the LLC.
Pete - As a fellow resident of Gladden Farms I understand exactly what you are talking about. The sooner the better!
It is nice having Tower Theaters so close to home. However, its still been frustrating to get access for those who want [OC] open captioning. There is no theater that offers [OC] in Tucson anymore. Century 16 seems to no longer offer any captioning for movies since last summer. Meanwhile, the Phoenix area theaters have [OC] for certain movies daily. Tower Theaters said they would look into it . . . but it’s been 7 months we’re losing hope.
Hi Michael, that is unfortunate to hear. Have you tried calling up the owners and asking them if they have any [OC] plans?
I have recently (November 08) been in touch by email with Tower Theatre management to ask if there was any way to know whether their sound system was any different then the new theatre in Oro Valley. Managment advised me that they couldn’t really make any comparison with some other theatre but that they had done many things to assure good quality sound for the hearing impaired. However, management did not mention any plans for closed captioning. I have been to their theatre 3 times and have felt very good about their sound system. (I have hearing aids). My contact was prompted because I had been to the Oro Valley marketplace theatre and did not feel that their sound was quite as good as the Tower Theatre. However it could have just been the movie I watched (Changeling) or the fact that the Oro Valley theatre I was in was larger in size then the theatres I had been in at Tower Theatre. I have tried the captioning done at Foothills Theatre and have never been happy using it.
Hi Bill,
Thanks for the great info. It is unfortunate that there aren’t any plans for closed captioning, even having certain showings that are captioned would be a good idea perhaps.
Michael: Thanks for your comments re closed captioning. I belong to a local group called ALOHA (Adult Loss of Hearing Assn) whose members would sure love closed captioning availability in Tucson. There are a few theatres in Phoenix offering it.
The only semblence of it here in Tucson is the Foothills theatre which uses what I call a “psuedo” captioning process. It’s rear screen projection which reflects on a gadget that you place in a drink socket on your arm rest and watch through a narrow screen that juts out from
the socket. I think they are showing one film every day on it in their theatre #1. However, it is so difficult to keep the little screen you look through steady and the words that appear on the screen through that screen are pourous (that is they don’t have a white or black background behind them like you get on tv closed caption).
Therefore the words themselves which I believe are light orange color, can kind of blend in with whatever background is showing on the screen. I’ve tried it 4 times and it is such a nuisance that I just gave up on that. Although I do know some people who are satisfied with it and use it.
I’ve let the Tower theatre people know that 15% to
25% percent of all Americans today have some hearing impairment and that will grow as todays generations keep using all the gadgets to put loud sounds into their ears. And most all of the HOH (hard of hearing) people that come to our ALOHA Tuesday (1PM) meetings have already
abandoned movie theatres and if they want to see a movie they wait till it comes out on DVD with closed captionng. The ALOHA center is on Ft Lowell a few blocks west of Swan. They are in the phone book. The Tuesday meetings are open to the public and a lot of good information on hearing problems and hearing aids are dispensed. Anyone who is shopping for hearing aids finds a lot of great information at these informatl 1 hour meetings. (no meeting charge.)
Bill Carroll
My experience with Tower Theatres has been frustrating. I have tried for over a year to get something established with captioning (in any form.) Open Captioning is of course preferred with most people deaf/hard of hearing. The management is not reliable returning emails about this subject. I feel like they avoided me on purpose. I even had Insight Cinema get involved with contacting the management and even providing assistance/suggestions. They are a great organization that can help theaters obtain information and encourage them to provide open captioning. This was almost a year ago and the management said, “not interested.”
Since then I showed up in person to ask about captioning in the future at their theater. I have received several different excuses for not having captioning at Tower Theatres. “No, we don’t have that capability” (I don’t believe that at all) “It’s too expensive to accommodate a few people” (Excuse me? A few people?) The most common answer is “I don’t know” or “The manager is not here to answer right now.”
So, I guess that means we’re still driving to Phoenix for Open Captioned movies. Bill, I have experience with rear window captioning as you described. It is difficult to keep the window up so you can actually see the words. Sometimes your focus is on the window you don’t realize what is happening on the screen. I have heard of ALOHA before I think from another student at the Univ of Arizona. This was a few years ago.
For now, I guess there isn’t much we can do. I was hoping Tower Theatres would be open to suggestions for open captioning. I originally contacted them because I work with K-12 students on campus at ASDB. We have several that live on campus 6-7 weeks at a time. The students love the movies we have in the past watch Open Captioned films at Century 16 on Grant or drive to Phoenix. Century 16 no longer has Open Captioned films listed and when they did it was Tuesday or Wednesday night not the best time for us to watch a movie. When we did watch movies at Century 16 it was close to being full. I guess theaters don’t realize the benefits of having captioning. I agree, I think most will wait until the movie is available on DVD to watch with captions/subtitles.
If you’re interested in learning about Insight Cinema the web site is http://www.insightcinema.org
As of April 2008, they are no longer providing their resources. I think it’s due to lack of funding and people to maintain the site. It’s unfortunate….
They only have two digital screens, the rest of good ol blurry 35mm projection. too bad. ill be driving the extra 20 minutes to Harkins Spectrum 18.
You are correct Jay. I find myself driving down South on occasion also.