San Diego Reader

There was a crowd so large outside the Village Theatre in Coronado on the afternoon of September 29, you would have thought there was a movie playing. And, after about ten years, there will be.

Coronado's only movie theater — which opened in 1947 and went dark in 2000 — is undergoing a facelift by Five Star Theatres, Inc. The L.A.-based company will renovate it, reopen it, and operate it.

The excitement was evident at the day's festivities when mayor Casey Tanaka officially announced the groundbreaking and Five Star Theatre's Lance Alspaugh confirmed the new theater would show first-run movies. A little girl on a bike exclaimed, "I can't wait!"

The crowd, which included residents and council members, mingled, drank free sodas, and munched on popcorn.

The theater is scheduled to reopen in March of 2011.