In honor of the Oscars, we've staked out local movie theaters that host private events. Here's a look at three of them.
1. Downtown, the Gene Siskel Film Center is the official film center for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Companies such as ABC have hosted screenings at the venue, which features two auditoriums that seat 197 and 61 guests. The center's gallery and café, which overlook State Street, can seat about 95 or hold 150 for receptions, and guests of private events are treated to complimentary popcorn.
2. The 18 auditoriums at Muvico—Rosemont 18 offer 121 to 345 seats. Equipped with digital projectors, each theater can showcase corporate videos or PowerPoint presentations on the big screen. Upstairs, the venue's premier level houses five balconies filled with love-seat-style seating; another area, known as the Digital Den, features Wii and PlayStation games and holds 100. In-house restaurant Bogart's Bar and Grill caters events with American fare such as burgers and flat-bread pizzas.
3. Woodridge's Hollywood Blvd. Cinema is near the corporate headquarters of Sara Lee, McDonald's, and Abbott Labs. The theater's nine auditoriums—which seat 100 to 220 guests—each feature a distinctive theme. In the Red auditorium, hand-painted Taiwanese dragons and six-foot-tall temple dogs evoke China, while an executive-style theater features oversize Oscar statues and an adjacent mini lobby filled with photos of Marilyn Monroe. The venue's in-house kitchen prepares thematically named dishes such as the spinach-artichoke Grinch Dip and the Chuck Norris Chicken sandwich, and staff can deliver meals to guests' seats.
