Coogler has held special screenings for every one of his films here, starting with his 2013 debut feature, \u201cFruitvale Station,\u201d about the life and death of Oscar Grant, who was killed by a BART police officer in Oakland in 2009.<\/p>\n
\u201cI first met Ryan before \u2018Fruitvale Station\u2019 came out,\u201d Allen Michaan, who has run Grand Lake Theater since 1979, told the Oaklandside. \u201cMainstream theaters didn\u2019t want to screen the film because of how political it was. We did, and we had packed houses. Years later, we screened \u2018Black Panther.\u2019 The first week, we showed the film on screens one, two, and three, and we were selling out every show.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/large-Grand_Lake_Theater_Reopening-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/large-Grand_Lake_Theater_Reopening-2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/large-Natera_Oaklandside_GrandLakeTheater_260224_020-1.jpg\")
Top to bottom: Grand Lake Theater\u2019s ornate main screening room; vintage furniture upholstered in velvet in the lobby; a detail from the embroidered curtain, salvaged from San Francisco\u2019s Fox Theatre. Credits: Amir Aziz\/The Oaklandside, Ximena Natura for The Oaklandside<\/p>\n
For years, landing a screening at Grand Lake Theater has been a rite of passage for Oakland filmmakers.<\/p>\n
In a single year, 2018, Grand Lake Theater hosted hometown screenings of three films: Coogler\u2019s \u201cBlack Panther,\u201d Boots Riley\u2019s \u201cSorry to Bother You,\u201d and Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal\u2019s \u201cBlindspotting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Diggs and Casal returned to the theater in 2023 after \u201cBlindspotting\u201d was picked up for a second season on STARZ, to screen a teaser<\/a>. That year, SFFILM also screened the documentary \u201cStephen Curry: Underrated,<\/a>\u201d a documentary by filmmaker Peter Nicks about the beloved Golden State Warriors point guard.<\/p>\n The theater has become so central to Oakland filmmakers that it played a pivotal role in last year\u2019s film \u201cFreaky Tales\u201d<\/a> by Oakland-raised filmmaker Ryan Fleck and his co-writer Anna Boden. The filmmaking duo committed to filming entirely on location in Oakland. In one scene, repeated from different perspectives throughout the film, moviegoers are confronted by neo-Nazi skinheads as they exit under the distinct lights of the theater\u2019s awning.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re making a movie in Oakland, that is a love letter to Oakland, to the places I remember going to as a kid,\u201d Fleck told the Oaklandside ahead of the movie\u2019s release in April 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n For years, landing a screening at Grand Lake Theater has been a rite of passage for Oakland filmmakers.<\/p>\n In a single year, 2018, Grand Lake Theater hosted hometown screenings of three films: Coogler\u2019s \u201cBlack Panther,\u201d Boots Riley\u2019s \u201cSorry to Bother You,\u201d and Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal\u2019s \u201cBlindspotting.\u201d<\/p>\n Diggs and Casal returned to the theater in 2023 after \u201cBlindspotting\u201d was picked up for a second season on STARZ, to screen a teaser<\/a>. That year, SFFILM also screened the documentary \u201cStephen Curry: Underrated,<\/a>\u201d a documentary by filmmaker Peter Nicks \u2014 and produced by Coogler \u2014 about the beloved Golden State Warriors point guard.<\/p>\n The theater has become so central to Oakland filmmakers that it played a narrative role in last year\u2019s film \u201cFreaky Tales\u201d<\/a> by Oakland-raised filmmaker Ryan Fleck and his co-writer Anna Boden. The filmmaking duo committed to filming entirely on location in Oakland. In one scene, shown from different perspectives throughout the film, moviegoers are confronted by neo-Nazi skinheads as they exit under the distinct light of the theater\u2019s awning.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re making a movie in Oakland, that is a love letter to Oakland, to the places I remember going to as a kid,\u201d Fleck told the Oaklandside ahead of the movie\u2019s release in April 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0\u201cAnd so if we\u2019re going to shoot there, we better shoot in those places that I remember, and hopefully, other people remember them too.\u201d<\/p>\n When \u201cSinners\u201d opened that same spring, Coogler explained why Grand Lake Theater was one of only five theaters<\/a> selected to screen the 70-millimeter version of the film.In a profile in the New Yorker<\/a>, Coogler talked about watching \u201cBoyz \u2018 N the Hood\u201d at Grand Lake in the summer of 1991 when he was just five years old. Jelani Cobb writes that Coogler watched the entire film from his father\u2019s lap.<\/p>\n In February, Curry hosted a screening here for the animated film \u201cGoat,\u201d which he co-produced, and in which he voices Lenny the Giraffe. \u201cThis is our home, and this is a place that when I got started, I was starting my true underdog journey,\u201d Curry said<\/a> on the red carpet. \u201cSeventeen years later, we\u2019ve moved across the bridge, but we still want to plant our flag here and have Oakland represented on the national stage.\u201d<\/p>\n In late April, SFFILM plans to host the hometown premiere<\/a> of Riley\u2019s latest film, \u201cI Love Boosters\u201d at Grand Lake Theater.<\/p>\n A place where political views are loud<\/p>\n I head upstairs, to find Michaan sitting at his office desk, tucked away behind a wooden door across from Theater 2. He is typing on a laptop and chatting on a flip phone as he arranges the details for the theater\u2019s centennial celebration with Anne Mavromatis, the theater\u2019s projectionist.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat was the first film that was ever screened here?\u201d Mavromatis asked.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s listed on the original program,\u201d Michaan said, flipping through a souvenir program from the theater\u2019s grand opening. \u201cFilms from 1926 are public domain now. Can we find a way to load them?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll look into it,\u201d Mavromatis said.<\/p>\n Michaan has an ideal vantage point of Grand Avenue from his office window, and just as Mavromatis heads out, we hear the lound honking of cars supporting the anti-Trump protesters on the sidewalk below.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s their duty as citizens to do what they\u2019re doing,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I wish every American were doing the same thing. Because we see what\u2019s happening, and if we don\u2019t rise up as a people to stop it, it\u2019s going to be something we can\u2019t stop.\u201d<\/p>\n Michaan has never hesitated to be vocal about his political views<\/a>. In fact, he\u2019s been using the theater\u2019s marquee to denounce government wrongdoing and celebrate local political wins for over two decades<\/a>. He said one of his favorite messages is the one he put up after the U.S. declared war in Iraq on March 19, 2003.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cShortly after it became so apparent that the war was completely unjustified,\u201d Michaan said, \u201cand it was just a theft of money \u2014 all wars are \u2014 I put up a message that said \u2018Congratulations to Dick Cheney and Halliburton on your glorious financial victory in Iraq.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n From \u2018one of the most costly theaters in America\u2019 to disrepair<\/p>\n Michaan has always loved films. He moved from the East Coast in 1970 to attend UC Berkeley. In order to support himself, he would show classic films in rented auditoriums around Berkeley. He created a midnight film series at the Palace Theater in San Francisco\u2019s North Beach. And, just a year after moving to the Bay Area, he built the Rialto Theater in Berkeley at an old warehouse on Gilman Street.\u00a0<\/p>\n Before the close of the 1970s, Michaan owned over 20 theaters across the Bay Area, including the Rialto and Shattuck cinemas in Berkeley under his new company, Renaissance Rialto Theaters.<\/p>\n \u201cSometime in the late \u201870s, I had a friend who was an usher at Grand Lake who told me that I ought to go watch a movie here,\u201d Michaan said. \u201cSo one night after I closed down at the Rialto, I drove over here, and he gave me a tour of the theater. We ended up on the roof, looking at the sign, which he had turned on \u2014 and was forbidden because the sign on the roof was in bad shape.\u201d<\/p>\n Michaan said that he had always admired the Grand Lake Theater, but in 1979 he pulled the plug and signed a lease.<\/p>\n According to newspaper archives from 1926, the Grand Lake Theater was built by West Coast Theaters, a Southern California movie chain, in collaboration with two prominent Oakland businessmen, A.C. Karski and Louis Kaliski, and was designed by the Reid Brothers, a San Francisco architectural firm. The construction had a price tag of $1 million (roughly $18 million in today\u2019s dollars) and the building could seat 2,800. A story published in the Oakland Tribune<\/a> on opening day called it \u201cone of the finest and most costly neighborhood theaters in America.\u201d<\/p>\n At the time of its opening, Grand Lake was mostly a venue for live theater, attracting crowds with plays and vaudeville productions. Michaan said he has preserved what were once dressing rooms for these live productions, now used as storage space for items like the red letters used on the marquee and the bulb caps that illuminate the iconic sign on the roof.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a full stage, we have fly lofts,\u201d Michaan said. \u201cThis building can host major Broadway productions. It\u2019s that much of a theatrical building.\u201d<\/p>\n But soon Grand Lake Theater also became home to a new form of entertainment: motion pictures. By the 1940s, Oakland\u2019s movie theaters reached their peak<\/a>, with dozens across the city.<\/p>\n \u201cA theater like this with 2,000-plus seats could sell out several times a day,\u201d Michaan said.\u00a0<\/p>\n By the early 1950s, the rise in popularity of TV disrupted theater attendance. In Oakland, many theaters were razed or repurposed as offices, apartments, or churches.<\/p>\n The unveiling of BART in 1972<\/a> further disrupted Oakland theaters, as residents could more easily travel to other cities for entertainment, a transition boosted by rising crime rates<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a big deal to acquire the Grand Lake,\u201d Michaan said of taking over the theater\u2019s lease in 1979. \u201cIn those days, in the \u201870s, the Grand Lake was a dingy, rundown place.\u201d Years later, he went on to purchase the building from descendants of its original owners.<\/p>\n Restoring the theater to its glory days<\/p>\n The theater\u2019s grand structure covers some 22,000 square feet, with ornamental plasterwork interiors, tall painted ceilings, and a Mighty Wurlitzer pipe organ that is played every Friday and Saturday evening. Inside the main theater, a gold curtain drapes over the screen before each screening\u00a0 \u2014 a curtain, Michaan said, that once hung in the Fox Theatre Auditorium in San Francisco<\/a>, which was demolished in 1963.<\/p>\n After Michaan took over the theater\u2019s lease, he shut it down for several days of extensive repairs.<\/p>\n \u201cDuring the week we closed, we worked furiously,\u201d he said. \u201cWe replaced 9,000 light bulbs on the interior of the theater that had burned out and had never been replaced over all those years. We put in new projector lenses and a Dolby stereo system. We reopened the theater on a Thursday with a big party for the press and for all the people who worked for the film companies in San Francisco.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite all his hard work, exclusive deals meant the theater struggled to secure screenings of new movies. When Grand Lake Theater reopened on Jan. 8, 1980, it did so with screenings of old movies for weekend family matinees.\u00a0<\/p>\n Michaan\u2019s investment in the building never stopped. Within the first year of reopening, he added a 70-millimeter projector. In 1981, he walled off the balcony of the original auditorium to create a second screen with 450 seats. That same year, the building was designated as an Oakland landmark.<\/p>\n \u201cAllen is in it for the love of films,\u201d Mavromatis said. \u201cI appreciate that so much about Allen. He loves the theater experience.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n That investment in the 70-millimeter projector paid off when Steven Spielberg made \u201cE.T.\u201d in 1982.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI met Steven Spielberg at a theater convention event in Las Vegas, and I was telling him about the theater,\u201d Michaan said. \u201cSo he says, \u2018I will request a 70-millimeter print for you.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n He ended up getting an exclusive 36-week run of the film, one of the longest runs<\/a> in the country. According to Michaan, Oakland screenings outpaced those in San Francisco.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe \u2018E.T.\u2019 run established the Grand Lake,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd after that, we were able to pretty much get anything we wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n Mavromatis, who has been a projectionist at the theater since 2002, said that the Grand Lake Theater takes pride in caring for the film prints it receives.<\/p>\n \u201cWe always return what we get in as good condition as we get it,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n For Mavromatis, there\u2019s no better way to watch a movie than when it comes on film.<\/p>\n \u201cWe ran \u2018Tenet\u2019 from Christopher Nolan,\u201d she said. \u201cWe had it just for a week after we reopened after the pandemic. It looked so beautiful. It was sharp, shot on film, and it looked incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n Facing down multiplexes \u2014 and a pandemic<\/p>\n By the late 1980s, Grand Lake Theater faced a new threat: the rapid expansion of chain multiplexes. In 1989, United Emery Bay (which closed in 2014<\/a> and redeveloped into housing) opened in Emeryville. Six years later, Jack London Cinemas 9 (now Regal Cinemas) opened in Jack London Square. AMC Bay Street 16 in Emeryville would eventually open in 2002.<\/p>\n Before they opened, Grand Lake Theater and Piedmont Theater had exclusive rights for first-run movies. Then that changed.<\/p>\n \u201cFor over two years, we couldn\u2019t get any first-run films because Regal would say that we were too close,\u201d Michaan said. \u201cEven though they played equidistant to Emeryville.\u201d<\/p>\n According to reports in the Oakland Tribune, Michaan, fed up with being boxed out of screening blockbusters, sued Jack London Cinemas 9. His 1998 lawsuit claimed that the multiplex had pressured Hollywood studios to deny major films to Grand Lake Theater, what Michaan called \u201cunfair competition.\u201d Michaan sought to recoup what he estimated as $2 million in lost revenue.\u00a0<\/p>\n His victory in that case, he said, changed the way films are distributed, ending exclusive runs. Now any movie theater can screen whatever new film it wants.<\/p>\n When Covid lockdowns arrived, it was just another obstacle to overcome. Grand Lake closed in March 2020 for 14 months.<\/p>\n Michaan, true to form, used the closure to engage in overdue repairs and renovations, including new carpet in the entrance lobby, a fresh coat of paint for the ticket lobby, and even some much-needed plumbing repairs.\u00a0<\/p>\n He also had solar panels installed on the roof, which now allows the theater to generate most of the electricity it consumes.<\/p>\n Not long after the theater reopened<\/a> in May 2021, Michaan took on yet another restoration project: replacing the 3,000 incandescent light bulbs that illuminated the sign on the roof <\/a>with energy-efficient LED bulbs.<\/p>\n A movie-going resurgence<\/p>\n The pandemic, Michaan said, changed the way people enjoy movies \u2014 and the way studios distribute them.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEven some of the studios that actually had films ready to go into release decided they weren\u2019t going to wait for the reopening, and they put the films on streaming,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a betrayal.\u201d<\/p>\n Slowly, Michaan said, he\u2019s been seeing signs of a rebound.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the summer of 2023, when the blockbusters \u201cBarbie\u201d and \u201cOpenheimer\u201d opened on the same weekend in a phenomenon dubbed \u201cBarbenheimer,\u201d Michaan saw a record number of people coming back to Grand Lake Theater<\/a>. He said that opening weekend was the best for the theater since \u201cBlack Panther\u201d was released in 2018.<\/p>\n \u201cRyan always comes back,\u201d Michaan said. \u201cWe\u2019re happy to work with him and do events for him.\u201d Michaan said he\u2019s always on the look out for the next rising star, too \u2014 \u201call kinds of independent filmmakers and new filmmakers.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_AB7D9B61CB4F-1-1600x1200.jpeg\")
The Oakland premiere of \u201cFreaky Tales\u201d in April 2025 brought out the star-studded cast to the red carpet including Too $hort, Pedro Pascal and Jay Ellis. Credit: Jose Fermoso\/The Oaklandside<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/large-Natera_Oaklandside_GrandLakeTheater-coogler_260224_001.jpeg\")
A post-screening discussion of the movie \u201cSinners\u201d in February 2026 with, from left, Ryan Coogler, actor Delroy Lindo, sound editor Benny Burtt, sound director Steve Boeddeker, Oakland musician Raphael Saadiq and SFFILM programming director Jessie Fairbanks. Credit: Ximena Natera for The Oaklandside<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_1928-1265x1600.jpeg\")
The theater just after its epic run of \u201cE.T.\u201d in 1982, with a 70-millimeter print that put the theater on the map. Credit: Courtesy of Allen Michaan<\/p>\n![\"Natera_Oaklandside_GrandLakeTheater_260224_002\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Natera_Oaklandside_GrandLakeTheater_260224_002.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Natera_Oaklandside_GrandLakeTheater_260224_001\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Natera_Oaklandside_GrandLakeTheater_260224_001.jpg\")
Allen Michaan, the owner of the Grand Lake Theater, in his office inside the theater, surrounded by his archives. Credit: Ximena Natera for The Oaklandside<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AllenMichaanTrumpFired-1024x768.jpeg\")
One of Michaan\u2019s many political messages, added to the marquee after Donald Trump lost the presidential election to Joe Biden, Nov. 20, 2020. Credit: Darwin BondGraham\/The Oaklandside Credit: Darwin BondGraham<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/large-Natera_Oaklandside_GrandLakeTheater_260224_009.jpg\")
Michaan inside the main theater on Feb. 24, 2026. Credit: Ximena Natera for The Oaklandside<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/large-Natera_Oaklandside_GrandLakeTheater_260224_016-1.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Natera_Oaklandside_GrandLakeTheater_260224_014\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Natera_Oaklandside_GrandLakeTheater_260224_014.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Natera_Oaklandside_GrandLakeTheater_260224_010\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Natera_Oaklandside_GrandLakeTheater_260224_010.jpg\")
Top to bottom: the projection room; a former dressing room from the days when the theater staged live shows, now used for storage; a functional board previously used for live theater productions. Credit: Ximena Natera for The Oaklandside<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_1932-1600x1191.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_1927-1600x941.jpeg\")
The theater\u2019s exterior and interior, not long after its doors opened in 1926. Credit: Courtesy of Allen Michaan<\/p>\n![\"Natera_Oaklandside_GrandLakeTheater_260224_017\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Natera_Oaklandside_GrandLakeTheater_260224_017.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Natera_Oaklandside_GrandLakeTheater_260224_019\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Natera_Oaklandside_GrandLakeTheater_260224_019.jpg\")
A 70-millimenter copy of \u201cSinners\u201d cued up to play in the main theater\u2019s projection room, top; Anne Mavromatis, the theater\u2019s projectionist since 2002, bottom. Credit: Ximena Natera for The Oaklandside<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/large-Grand_Lake_Theater_Reopening-3.jpg\")
The theater reopens on May 27, 2021 after a 14-month closure during the pandemic. Credit: Amir Aziz\/The Oaklandside<\/p>\n![\"Natera_Oaklandside_GrandLakeTheater_260224_028\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Natera_Oaklandside_GrandLakeTheater_260224_028.jpg\")
The theater is offering tours in celebration of its centennial anniversary. Credit: Ximena Natera for The Oaklandside<\/p>\n