Music Box Theatre: Modern films meet old Hollywood
Massive modern multiplexes may be big on surround sound and stadium seating, but when it comes to charm and character, a landmark cinema in Southport has them beat. The Music Box Theatre offers up foreign, independent and classic films in the grand, beautiful setting they deserve, velvet curtain and all.
When it opened in the 1929 with 800 seats, the Music Box dwarfed other Chicago movie palaces boasting 3,000 person capacities. Today, it has the largest theater space operated full time in Chicago.
The Music Box has an almost European flare thanks to architectural inspirations from Italy and Spain. Plaster walls with round towers, faux-marble loggia and organ chambers resemble a palazzo, all under a dark blue ceiling with twinkling lights.
Currently, the theater presents an average of 300 foreign and independent films annually. In addition to regularly scheduled afternoon and evening shows, there are classic film matinees offered weekly, with showings of such greats as The Adventures of Robin Hood and It Happened One Night. Frequent midnight screenings of more modern classics like Brazil and The Rocky Horror Picture Show attract many night owl film aficionados.
While the $9.25 ticket price feels a little steep, it’s in keeping with the modern competition in the neighborhood. And though those big box theaters may offer discounts, they certainly can’t offer the atmosphere that the Music Box has in spades.
When it comes to watching movies off the big-budget bonanza path, what better place is there than a theater designed to show them in all the grandeur they were originally intended? So buy a ticket, grab a snack, and relax under the twinkling lights of the palazzo as a foreign or classic film takes you to faraway lands, all without leaving the city.
- by D.J. Siegel, Chicago Reporter for HelloMetro
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