The New Mission Theater

After talking with an OG Mission District dude over the weekend about the gentrification of the Mission District, the topic of the New Mission Theater came up. As a kid, I remember seeing doubleheaders of Kickboxer 15 and miscellaneous Kung-Fu flicks. The theater was past its prime in my era. Shout it out to my cousin Jennifer who seen a stabbing while Breakin was on. However, Senor Beto was telling me of a time when Cantinflas movies would play all the time and the audience always being 100% Latino. I found a brief history on the New Mission Theater and I wanted to share it with ya'll.


The New Mission Theater was built by Kahn & Greenfield, at a cost of $250,000. Previously, on the same the site, a much smaller Mission Theatre had operated for about ten years. (For the record, the earlier "Mission" opened around 1907, was renamed the Premium around 1911, one of no less than four "Premium" Theatres in SF at that time, and last operated as the Idle Hour from mid-1913 until it closed in order to be transformed into the entranceway to the new and larger New Mission.)

So successful was the New Mission from the very beginning,that it an additional upper balcony was soon added, and it re-opened on November 15, 1917 with "1000 additional seats"; although this figure may be a bit of a stretch, its total capacity did end up as an officially given 2050. When you consider that all these seats may well have been filled, or at least near filled, not only evenings, but weekend matinees as well, you can get a vague idea of just how many people did once go to the movies, and how often. Add to New Mission, El Capitan, the smaller Cine Latino, Tower, and Grand, and you have about 7500 seats on Mission Street alone. All within about six blocks of each other.


The New Mission finally closed its doors on May 4, 1993.