Pewaukee, WI: Capitol Cinemas Closing Feb. 25

[Mark Strube]

Wow, this is really unexpected and sad! This was one of the better theaters in the area, especially for their large "Maxiscreen" which is the only screen in the whole region that had 8-channel SDDS sound (Sony Dynamic Digital Sound), and with better picture clarity than any UltraScreen could ever muster. (While smaller, it had an even higher room-to-screen size ratio.)

Now the only theater offering this sound system in all of WI is another Wildwood establishment in Janesville.

I think I'll be seeing "Ghost Rider" on their Maxiscreen before they close on Sunday, for old times sake.

http://www.bigscreen.com/journal.php?id=494

The Wildwood Capitol Cinemas in Pewaukee, Wisconsin will be showing its last movies on Sunday, February 25, 2007.

The theater has been sold to a developer in Brookfield, which plans to renovate the 32,896 sq. ft. theater into two retail spaces and construct two additional multi-tenant retail and restaurant buildings.

Capitol Cinemas opened on June 23, 1995 with 12 screens, which were later reduced to 11.

Click the Read link for a short news story on the closure and the developer's plans for the location.

[Thanks to reader John D. for giving us the heads-up!]

[kjnorman]

I only went to that cinema once.  Unfortunately the screen we saw was dirty with lines and splotches all over it.  It was very distracting and I never went back to it.

[Mark Strube]

That's too bad... was it one of the smaller screens? I don't recall having any serious picture quality issues on their big screen.

I remember seeing "The Legend Of Zorro" on one of their standard screens, and it had a small spot of gunk on it that was kind of distracting in bright scenes.

Beyond that, I never had any serious issues there besides the Maxiscreen sometimes not being in digital sound.

My current theater of choice is Showtime Cinema in Franklin... consistently great presentation there. Only once or twice there the sound wasn't in digital, they were having some issues with their Dolby Digital readers... but I emailed the manager and he sent me passes for the problems. (I see movies there a lot - so a few times isn't much at all.) Actually, beyond that, when I see a movie there in Dolby Digital (which isn't too often, 8 of their auditoriums are DTS while only 4 are Dolby Digital), it's the most error-free clean-sounding presentation of Dolby Digital I've heard at a theater. Most can't seem to keep their film or audio readers clean resulting in errors, the movies clicking in & out of digital audio.

The only downside to this theater is that I don't believe they have subwoofers. But they do have very nice sounding full-range speakers, so it's a small price to pay for a great presentation.