Tara Theatre target reopening: Early May

The new owners need to install new projectors and furniture.
Christopher Escobar rescued Tara Theatre after Regal shut it down in November 2022. This photo was taken March 14, 2023. RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com

Credit: RODNEY HO

Credit: RODNEY HO

Christopher Escobar rescued Tara Theatre after Regal shut it down in November 2022. This photo was taken March 14, 2023. RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com

The Tara Theatre, the 55-year-old Atlanta cinema shuttered by Regal Cinema in November, is set to be reopened by new owners in early May.

Christopher Escobar, owner of the Plaza Theatre who with a team of investors signed a new lease last month with Tara’s landlord, said in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Tuesday that he had originally hoped to have the theater ready for the public by mid-April for the Atlanta Film Festival, which he also runs. But he discovered Regal had not only stripped the space of all the wall hangings but it had thrown out the fire evacuation floor plans in the dumpster.

Without those in hand, Escobar has had to hire a company to re-do a floor plan map, delaying his ability to file for a food permit by two weeks. He can’t open without selling popcorn and soda. (A liquor license, he said, will come later.)

On Tuesday, Escobar brought in Coca-Cola representatives to look over the vintage Coca-Cola soda dispensers, which Regal actually used to dispense Pepsi products. He noted that Regal not only took all the lobby furniture and projection equipment, but also removed all the artwork.

Signs in the entrance of the Tara Theatre soon after Christopher Escobar and a group of investors took over the historic cinema off Cheshire Bridge Road. RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com

Credit: RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com

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Credit: RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com

In the coming weeks, he plans to re-populate the lobby with mid-century modern-style furniture and install new carpet and film equipment. (The chairs and screens in the four screening rooms remained in place.) He wants to hang antique projectors and cameras on the walls as well as vintage poster art. “We’ll have a museum aesthetic,” Escobar said.

In November, Regal closed down Tara, which is on the corner of Cheshire Bridge and Lavista roads next to a Wells Fargo branch, without a clear explanation, but Regal’s parent company filed for bankruptcy protection last fall and has been closing underperforming theaters nationwide.

Loew’s opened the single 1,000-seat theater in 1968, naming it Tara after the fictional plantation from the 1939 classic film “Gone With the Wind,” which was also the first film shown there. Under George LeFont in the 1980s, it became an arthouse theater and has remained in that vein under multiple owners.

It now has four screens totaling 1,209 seats.

Escobar hopes to replicate his success at the Plaza Theatre four miles away on Ponce de Leon Avenue by holding more community-oriented special events and screenings and teaming up with local organizations like the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival.

>>RELATED: Christopher Escobar hopes to keep the historic Plaza Theatre viable for decades to come

Tara Cinema on March 14, 2023, four months after Regal shut it down and cleared the walls of all the artwork and removed the popcorn machine. RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com

Credit: RODNEH

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Credit: RODNEH

On the Tara marquee, Regal had placed the word “closed.” Escobar wanted to announce the pending reopening for drivers to see but realized that the theater chain had dumped all the other letters. So while Escobar awaits a new set of custom-made letters to arrive in the mail, he rearranged the “closed” letters to write “cool” on one side and “see” on the other.

He is hoping to raise $50,000 for the reopening, encouraging fans to buy gift cards. So far, they are 75% to the goal. Contributions can be made at the new website taraatlanta.com.

The Tara Theatre marquee on March 14, 2023. RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com

Credit: RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com

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Credit: RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com

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