By Carla Meyer
cmeyer@sacbee.com
Sacramento's Crest Theatre has stopped operating as a seven-day-a-week movie house.
The Crest on Friday ceased daily movie showings in its two downstairs auditoriums. The Crest will continue to show films in its main auditorium, but not every day. That auditorium also holds concerts and other events.
"It will be a calendar schedule, so people should expect usually one- to three-day runs" of films, Crest general manager Sid Garcia-Heberger said.
Garcia-Heberger announced in November that the Crest would likely close its two downstairs auditoriums, citing changes in the way people watch independent films. Many arthouse and foreign films now debut on cable On Demand and streaming services before hitting theaters.
The decline in movie attendance, and the renaissance of the 1000 block of K Street on which the Crest sits, inspired Garcia-Heberger and her business partners to consider other options - such as a restaurant or a music venue - for the theater's below-ground space.
"There is something in the works, but we are not ready to talk about it yet," Garcia-Heberger said Friday about plans for the downstairs space.
The Crest remains home to most of Sacramento's film festivals, including this weekend's Sacramento Jewish Film Festival.
On Sunday night, the Crest will show the film "Girl Rising," a collection of animated vignettes about girls overcoming tough obstacles, in its main theater. On March 14, it will open one of its downstairs theaters for a showing of "Citizen Hearst," a documentary look at publisher William Randolph Hearst.
The end of daily operation of the Crest's downstairs screens leaves the Tower Theatre as the only Sacramento arthouse theater showing films seven days a week.
Call The Bee's Carla Meyer, (916) 321-1118. Follow her on Twitter: @CarlaMeyerSB.
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