End of an era nears as San Francisco movie theater owners seek buyers for historic venues

San Francisco Chronicle​

12 hours ago

Frank Lee got his start in the movie business in the late 1960s as an usher at his father's Chinatown theater. Nearly six decades later, he is approaching the final reel of his career.
Lee and his wife Lida are searching for a buyer to take over their two remaining theaters, the Marina and Presidio on Chestnut Street. When that happens, it will mark the end credits on a landmark run in San Francisco's independent film exhibition scene.
'It's been in my mind many years, but I think it's about time,' the 70-year-old Lee told the Chronicle. 'I'm not getting younger, right?'
The Lees run Lee Neighborhood Theatres, which included the 4 Star Theater, which they operated from 1992-2021, and the Chestnut Street theaters. They took over the Presidio in 2004 and the Marina in 2008, showing mainly first-run movies.
But their lasting legacy in San Francisco is rooted in their championing of Asian cinema, particularly Hong Kong, Mainland Chinese and Taiwanese genre films. In the 1990s and early 2000s, the 4 Star often opened new Hong Kong movies the same week they debuted in Asia, introducing local film fans to the exploits of Jackie Chan, Michelle Yeoh and Jet Li before they went to Hollywood.
The 4 Star's Asian film festivals curated current and classic films from not only the Chinese-speaking territories, but also Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and many more.
'Frank and Lida have entertained multiple generations of San Franciscans at the movies, and they have left a legacy of happy customers,' said CinemaSF co-owner Adam Bergeron, who took over programming at the 4 Star when the Lees sold the theater in 2021. 'Here's hoping their next phase is happy and restful.'
Frank Lee took after his father, Frank Lee Sr., a World War II veteran and civil engineer who operated movie theaters in Chinatowns across North America. The elder Lee was deeply connected in the industry and even knew martial arts film star Bruce Lee, a native of San Francisco.
The junior Lee began working in his father's Bella Union theater on Kearny Street when he was just 13. Lee and his father closed the Bella Union in the 1980s and briefly operated a series of since-demolished theaters — the Parkside on Taraval Street, the Kokusai in Japantown and the Cannery Cinema near Fisherman's Wharf.
Lee's father, who died in 2002 at 79, chose to retire, while the younger Lee took over the 4 Star, a Richmond District gem that first opened in 1912. With a passion for cinema and stocked with some 600 film prints of classic Asian films his father had collected over the years, Lee was determined to make his own mark on the San Francisco film scene.
'It was our baby,' Lee said.
The 4 Star almost ceased operations in the mid-2000s when the property was acquired by a local church, which sought to evict the Lees. After a contentious legal battle that spanned nearly three years and involved the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the church backed off and sold the property to the Lees.
The success of the 4 Star encouraged the Lees to acquire the Presidio and Marina theaters. But soon the rise of streaming and home video made running an independent movie theater challenging. The pandemic magnified those problems. Compounding matters, these days, new movies from Asian markets now screen at AMC and Century theaters across the Bay Area.
While the Lees sold the 4 Star the year after its forced closure during the pandemic shutdown — a period in which Lee catalogued and donated classic film prints to archives in Hong Kong and Taiwan — they believe the Presidio and Marina theaters are viable businesses. Both are located in a vibrant neighborhood full of restaurants and retail shops. With their two sons, both doctors, uninterested in taking them over, the couple is looking for outside buyers with a vision.
Lee believes the key to independent movie theater survival is to make them multi-use venues, so he's already gotten city approval to convert the ground floor of the Marina to a restaurant and cafe. Meanwhile, he's been booking special events at both theaters including live music and comedy shows, birthday parties and corporate and school events. For the past two years, the theaters even served as a venue for the San Francisco International Film Festival.
So his advice for future owners: 'Be creative.'