Have you paid attention to this theater? It was a lack luster theater, probably not making much money, when the Rialto people took it over and transformed it into a wonderful art/foreign movie venue. They cleaned it up, remodeled, brought in great theater snacks, hired friendly people, and began showing foreign, independent, and other not quite mainstream movies. It was a big hit and no doubt was making more money than it had as the slightly shabby Lakeside. The man who had owned the lease and ran the Lakeside some how got the lease away from the Rialto people and changed the name to Summerfield. He still shows a line up of good, non-mainstream movies. Saturday I went with a friend to see ETERNITY'S GATE, the movie about Vincent van Gogh which isn't available at the Sebastopol Rialto. Walking in right away you can see that the lobby is beginning to look a little thread bare. But the worst was that the theater showing this movie was smelly, it stank! Exiting the theater I told a man who looked like a manager that the particular theater smelled bad. He said, "I'll spray it." I replied, "You need to clean it."
Even though the Summerfield people are charging as much as the Rialto theater charges for movies, they are not doing the work to keep the theaters clean, the snacks are uninspired, and it's back to the sloppiness of the old Lakeside. At least the guy is consistent.