From the sight of a glowing canopy marquee, the smell of popcorn with real butter and the sound of an organ playing before the lights go down, one thing is immediately clear: going to the Music Box Theatre is always more than just going to see a movie.
The Music Box opened at 3733 N. Southport Ave. in 1929, but it wasn’t until 1983 that it was rebranded as an art house and repertory theater. Over four decades later, it’s more popular than ever, and for cinephiles like DePaul film professor Eric Marsh, it’s the beating heart of Chicago’s film culture.
“I think just the variety that it provides is so essential to a rich film culture in any city,” Marsh said. “The fact that they show old stuff and new stuff and weird stuff and everything. … It’s just a classic spot that everyone loves.”
The Music Box has a wide range of programming, from recent independent and foreign releases to presentations of older classics on rare film prints. But what truly sets the theater apart is the communal experience that the historic building provides for younger generations of moviegoers like former DePaul film student Zack Zontelli.
“It’s like this time capsule where movies still matter,” Zontelli said. “It’s become this sort of third space where young people can go and see movies and have this sort of shared culture that doesn’t exist anymore.”
Even more important is the effort that Music Box staff, like general manager Ryan Oestreich, put into maintaining the building without removing or changing any of its original details.
“It needs a ton of time and care,” Oestreich said. “People really care about the history of the building and maintaining it, because it’s kinda like almost a living museum… We’ve modernized where we had to, but still only minimally because we want it to look and feel like you’re seeing a movie in 1929.”
The Music Box has seen plenty of upgrades over the years, like the addition of a smaller second theater in the early 90s, a bar and lounge in the 2010s and the installation of 3D projection capabilities in April of this year. The latest renovation work, a project titled “Revive at 95,” is the biggest and most expensive undertaking overseen by Oestreich in his almost 10 years as the head of the theater.
“Revive at 95” is the culmination of a laundry list of proposed renovations for the theater’s main auditorium that had been forming since 2017. Each of the 740 seats in the theater were replaced with comfier, more supportive models, and newly outfitted with cupholders. Improved aisle lights at the ends of each row were also installed.
The concrete floor was sanded down and given a new epoxy coat. For those with Bluetooth-compatible headsets and hearing aids, an ADA-accessible T-coil hearing loop was installed. The plaster and tile on the proscenium arch was cleaned, repaired and repainted.
Zontelli, who recently attended 70mm screenings of Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Master” and Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” in the reopened theater, was enthusiastic about the renovations.
“They’re very small things, things you wouldn’t notice unless you’ve been there a million times, but they don’t change the vibe or anything,” Zontelli said. “When they were like ‘We’re changing out the seats,’ I got a little panicked and (was) like ‘Oh no, it’s gonna ruin everything!’ But it’s just totally fine, you just have a little more space sitting there and there’s cupholders.”
Some of these renovations have been long overdue, but completing them all at once was a risk taken by the Music Box team. Previous construction efforts at the Music Box would see parts of the building closed for, at most, a week. “Revive at 95” closed the main theater for close to four weeks, leaving only the smaller second theater and garden as possible screening venues.
To help offset the $750,000-800,000 cost of the renovations – more than three times the regular annual budget of $250,000 for building maintenance – the “Revive at 95” project was also supported by a public crowdfunding campaign.
The Music Box has promoted an offer to donate and sponsor one of the theater’s new seats to get a custom plate engraved with a name or short message installed. Additionally, they have partnered with Rebuilding Exchange, a Chicagoland nonprofit specialized in reselling old building materials, to find new homes for the original seats.
The Music Box reopened its main theater on Saturday, Sept. 7 to an excited crowd. But for how momentous “Revive at 95” has been, Oestreich’s vision has remained the same during his time as general manager: to push forward with the latest technological and industrial capabilities while ensuring that future audiences will still get to enjoy the unique experience the Music Box has always offered.
“I hope any (general manager) realizes that the mark you’ll make is just keeping it,” Oestreich said. “It’s not about you did something, you put your name on some f**king brick, no! It’s about ‘I’ve had these 15, 20 years, and it kept going.’ And there’s another 15, 20, 30, 50, 100 years after me. I just kept it going.”
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