Uptown Theatre Celebrating 100th Anniversary With Classic Movie Week

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – The iconic Uptown Theatre in Minneapolis is kicking off its 100th anniversary celebration this weekend with screenings of classic films like "Seven Samurai," "King Kong" and "Citizen Kane."

The single-screen Hennepin Avenue staple opened as the Lagoon Theatre on June 3, 1916. It's name later changed to the Uptown Theatre in 1929.

Starting Friday, the theater is celebrating its history in the Twin Cities with a week of classic cinema.

The first film showing in the series will be "The Women," starring Joan Crawford. The George Cukor movie was the first to play in the theater following its 1939 fire renovation, which gave the venue its iconic streamline moderne design.

At midnight on Friday, the classic 1933 version of "King Kong" will play.

On Saturday during the day, there'll be screenings of both "The Wizard of Oz" and "Citizen Kane." At midnight, the silent horror classic "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" will play.

The weekend screenings close out Sunday with Akira Kurosawa's epic "Seven Samurai."

And the classic cinema continues throughout the workweek, with screenings of "Rebel Without a Cause," "Once Upon a Time in the West," and "The Godfather." (For a full list of the anniversary screenings, click here. )

The Uptown Theatre is owned by Landmark Theatres, which also runs the nearby Lagoon Cinema.

The Uptown most recently underwent renovations in 2012, when the theater got upgrades to sell beer and wine, better bathrooms and more comfortable seats.