22-04-2025
Richmond's Byrd Theatre named one of the world's coolest theaters
The Byrd Theatre was named one of the coolest movie theaters in the world this month by Variety.
Why it matters: It's one of only eight U.S. movie theaters mentioned in a list of 21 spots.
The big picture: The magazine's roundup puts Richmond's nearly 100-year-old film house in Carytown alongside places in India, Iceland, Mexico, South Korea and France.
And the writer doesn't hold back on giving it its flowers.
The Byrd Theatre, she writes, is "one of the country's most elaborate movie palaces, and one of the most intact examples of lavish cinema architecture."
"The effect is of being in a French Empire opera house."
Coincidentally, over a decade ago, the international Cannes Film Festival's main theater in France offered to give the Byrd its cushy seats for free.
But the Byrd turned it down because it'd cost up to $100,000 to actually put them in and store the old ones.
Zoom in: Variety also hit us with a fun fact of their own that we didn't know: Grammy award-winning local Lucy Dacus shot her " Hot and Heavy" music video there.
