3/9/17

Airport Hopes A Continuous Stream of G-Rated Short Films Will Soothe Your Existential Dread

Sometimes you don’t have the energy or the funds to saddle up to an airport bar during your layover or flight delay. If you’re traveling through Oregon’s Portland International Airport you now have another option: hitting the mini-movie theater.

The airport recently opened the Hollywood Theatre at PDX in Concourse C, a 17-seat mini-movie theater for people waiting for their fights or employees enjoying their breaks.

The theater, which is a branch of the city’s Hollywood Theatre movie palace, replaces an unused post-security service center and was three years in the making. Described as a microcinema, the theater features a $200,000 projection and sound system that will continuously run an hour-long reel of G-rated short films created by Oregon filmmakers.

“I’d say we have a blockbuster here,” said Vince Granato, chief operating officer of the Port of Portland, tells USA Today. “We want to make sure a passenger’s entire journey — from the roadway to the runway — is great.”

Eventually, the airport hopes to bring in special programming and events for the microcinema.

Portland Airport’s movie theater isn’t the first of its kind, USA Today reports. Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport opened a screening room for short films and documentaries in 2014.

That theater, which also highlights local filmmakers, was a bit larger, seating 150 and offering eight different screen displays.

Airports in Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Lithuania also offer a variety of movie theater options for passengers and employees.

USA Today notes that other airports don’t actually have to dedicate real estate to realize their cinema dreams.

Denver International Airport showed free movies on its outdoor plaza in 2016, while Toronto Pearson International Airport offered passengers the chance to screen movie trailers featured at the Toronto Film Festival on a pop-up screen in 2010.

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