SEATTLE — The corn is popped. The beers are cold. And The Beacon is setting out to change the way you watch movies.
"Sort of a lifelong dream," says co-owner Casey Moore.
Moore and his business partner, Tommy Swenson, longed for the same kind of cinema experience they shared as kids.
Swenson says, "We both grew up in the University District at a time when there were a whole bunch of movie theaters there."
Both men have worked in film programming and marketing, in Texas and New York, but they couldn't wait to apply what they'd learned here in their home town.
So they built a 48-seat theater for themselves here in this Columbia City space that once housed a yoga studio.
"We have the opportunity to make a really exciting, diverse, robust film programming calendar, where we can show three movies in a day and just be really adventurous," Swenson says. "Anything from silent film to stuff off of YouTube."
Swenson and Moore plan to lure film lovers away from their TVs and into the theater.
"Going to the movies can be a surprise and an adventure and just a way into a whole different world," Swenson says.
Moore adds, "I think you've got to make it special for people."
If they succeed, Swenson says movie buffs will set down their remotes and sit down at The Beacon.
"Every time there's a full house and people are having a good time watching a movie, that's all we're in it for."
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