Silicon Valley residents know well the domed theaters of the Century Cinema chain and old-timers will remember clapping along to the Syufy jingle before the main feature. The Syufy brothers recently sold the 78 theaters in the Century chain to Cinemark, the third-largest theater chain in the U.S. They’re joining the Cinemark board and so far there have been no theater name changes. The Century Theatres Wikipedia entry claims that the flagship Century 21, 22, and 23 were not sold and remain with Syufy Enterprises and as these theaters do not appear in the Cinemark site listings I’ll take that as a fact. Those are the nostalgic jewels in their crown and it’s no surprise they want to keep them in the family.

Showing movies is a tough business and local S.F. cinema competition is vicious. Witness the shuffling that occured after the opening of the new Century San Francisco Centre 9. Designed to show a mix of big studio films and artsy independent films, the new Century had, as the Chronicle put it, “the impact of a 7.8 earthquake on the long-standing habits of those who book movies in the city’s theaters.” Suddenly art films are playing at nearby big name theaters who never used to touch the stuff while blockbusters are opening at a typically artsy theater across town from the Century to avoid competition. And next year the Sundance Cinemas is re-opening the Kabuki theater purchased from AMC, further stirring up the movie mix. Century is certainly coming out the winner so far, though one could say that local moviegoers are benefiting from a larger selection of films. But that will only last if smaller venues can hang on.