Rogers Cinema 6 — Attraction in Wisconsin Rapids

Growing up in Wisconsin Rapids, I remember all 3 of the downtown theaters: 1. Rapids Cinema (now apparently Rogers); 2. on the same road and same side of the street but on the W. side of the river, the Wisconsin Theater; 3. walk a little farther west to the stoplight, turn left, and immediately on your left was the 3rd movie theater (the Park? the Palace?).

Even though the only TV screen at home was a 17" Westinghouse, the Rapids Theater's screen struck me as small, far too shrunken to justify its self-proclaimed "Cinemascope with Stereophonic Sound" identifier. The screen at the Wisconsin Theater was twice the size, yet somehow the little "overachieving" Rapids Theater managed to debut DeMille's "The 10 Commandments" and show the revival of "Gone With the Wind." The theater earned most of my business because of content and low prices. Admission was a quarter and popcorn came in 2 sizes: nickel and dime. Melted butter was 5 cents extra for either size. The movies ran the gamut--every Bowery Boys film ever made (I was a Huntz Hall groupie) as well as block-buster hits and Class B double-features (the reason I fell in love with Jane Powell).

The Wisconsin Theater seemed like an eternal monument to the cinema with its spacious lobby and upscaled entrance. I recall seeing lifelong favorites there, like Josh Logan's "Picnic" (Kim Novak's swivel-hipped descent into the arms of William Holden to the music of "Moonglow" remains unrivaled). Other films seemed to go on--and on (eg. "Martin Luther" and "A Man for All Seasons"). Others, like Cukor's "A Star Is Born," were long then, but short now (tho I've come to rank James Mason's performance above Judy's).

I didn't see many movies at the 3rd theater (The Palace?), but I recall two Danny Kaye films (still a favorite) and a strangely eventful moment. The film was Otto Preminger's "The Moon Is Blue," during which the lead actress uttered a word that produced audible gasps behind me. The word was "virgin." I didn't know the meaning of the word let alone the historic relevance of its utterance. Recently, I learned that it was one of the words that the Motion Picture Association (and Catholic Legion of Decency) had prominently listed as "forbidden"). Otto was the Trump of...

We weren't sure what we were getting into when we first arrived. It looked like it would be an old, musky, run down place as we first walked into the main entrance. To our surprise, the theaters are very well updated. At least one of the larger theaters have terrible seats with absolutely no head support for even short people. This makes a long movie less enjoyable or comfortable. They should have used highbacks. Aside from that one detail, the rest of the place is really amazing. The popcorn tastes decent, the movie selection has been really good, the bathroom has been pretty clean every time, the theaters have been clean, and every staff member has been awesome. We've ended up going to a movie every other week since moving here in October because of those reasons. If it wasn't for the chairs I'd definitely give them five stars. The employees do get five stars by far, as does the audio/video equipment and soundproofing between theaters. Another novelty perk is that if you park in the parking lot, there's a cool building down the street that looks like Gringotts Bank from...

Watched the movie #Snatched tonight and it was good 😊 ...but unfortunately some of the service at this theater wasn't the best. Due to my daily medication and the time of night it was plus fasting, I could only have water. They do not offer water out of the soft drink/ice machine so I bought a bottle of water, which was understandable. But they would not allow me to have a little cup for ice unless I paid FULL PRICE for a soft drink! A small was $4 and some change! And so I asked if I could just pay for ice, and they would not. So in order to have a cup of ice water at this movie theater you need to purchase both a bottled water AND a cup of ice at full price. I guess nowadays we have to pay double in order to have a nice cup of water... smh 😣 And this is really disappointing to me considering I haven't been out in a long time And this is where I chose. The manager was rude and asking why I needed ice water then saying she didn't understand why I needed ice. Even though this is something so simple and petty, it made a...