20,000 / San Francisco, California
In San Francisco, during the period after the 1906 earthquake and until the 1950’s, there were dozens of amazing theaters, most of them in central Market Street area (Strand, Unique, Embassy, Rialto, Granada, Regal, Imperia, Pantages, Tivoli, Hub, State, Egyptian, and others) 20,000 is an estimation of the cumulative capacity of the now empty or lost theater seats that once populated Market Street. The loss of those remarkable single screen theaters is not unique to San Francisco. Those 20,000 missing seats on Market Street and all those in theaters like them worldwide are gone forever… yet they are still alive in our collective memories. Let’s go see a movie at one of San Francisco’s remaining single screen theaters such as the Vogue, Bridge, Clay, Balboa, Castro, Roxie, Empire, and 4Star.
