News
Viz Invests in Californian Theater Opening Next Winter
posted on by Egan Loo
Viz Pictures has announced that the theater it co-owns in San Francisco, California will tentatively open in the winter of 2008/2009. The theater is expected to be the main attraction within The J-Pop Center, a new building in San Francisco's Japantown neighborhood that will also include a bookstore, a café, fashion boutiques, and the offices for the Hokubei Mainichi newspaper and Radio Mainichi. The latter two occupants are Japanese-American media outlets that have historically been housed at that location.
The 150-seat theater will feature a THX sound system and will specialize in Japanese entertainment, including live-action films and anime. Viz Pictures is an affiliate of Viz Media, and many of its films such as Death Note and NANA are based on manga released by Viz Media. Viz Pictures held a Japanese Shinto purifying ceremony for the building on November 16. San Francisco's Japantown also features Hotel Tomo, a new hotel with anime and manga themes that was profiled by CNN.com.
ImaginAsian Entertainment, a distributor of Asian entertainment such as Hong Kong films and anime, operates two theaters in New York City and Los Angeles. ADV Films reserves the Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas' West Oaks theater restaurant in Houston, Texas almost every Tuesday night to screen its new material.
